The 2017-18 Premier League season will go down in history as the campaign in which Manchester City significantly raised the bar for English club football.
Pep Guardiola's men won the title at a canter, smashing a series of league records in the process. They barely broke a sweat as they claimed a third league title in seven seasons and the Spaniard's first Premier League crown since arriving in England two years ago.
Sunday's last-gasp 1-0 win away at Southampton saw City become the first team in Premier League history to reach 100 points, beating the record Chelsea had set in 2004-05 when they amassed 95 points during Jose Mourinho's first season at Stamford Bridge.
By beating Southampton, City chalked up their 32nd win of the season, two more than the record Chelsea set last season as they romped to the title under Antonio Conte. The victory marked the 16th time City have won away from home in the Premier League this season, one more than Chelsea achieved under Mourinho in 2004-05.
On Wednesday, City overtook the record for most goals scored in a single Premier League when they beat Brighton 3-1, wiping Chelsea's tally of 103 goals they set in the 2009-10 season from the history books.
City also finished with a +79 goal difference, beating Chelsea's +71 from eight seasons ago.
Gabriel Jesus' winner on Sunday was City's 106th goal of the campaign, meaning they have scored an astonishing 2.79 goals per game. City have failed to score just twice throughout their Premier League season, away at Crystal Palace on 31 December and at home to Huddersfield last week.
City blew the chance to win the title at home against Manchester United in April but finished a whopping 19 points ahead of their local rivals. With United as runners-up, City's winning margin was the largest in Premier League history, one point ahead of the 18-point United held over Arsenal at the end of the 1999-2000 season.
The newly crowned champions of England also matched the record for the earliest title success in history, securing the Premier League with five games left to play, as United did in the 2000-01 campaign.
City took their first record as early as December, when a 2-1 win in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford saw them equal the record of 13 consecutive wins achieved by Arsenal in 2001-02 and by Chelsea last season.
The Premier League champions went on to win 18 consecutive games before being held to a 0-0 draw by Crystal Palace on New Year's Eve.
City, however, still have a few records to break. For a start, no team has retained the Premier League trophy since United won three titles in a row between 2007 and 2009–the 20-time champions of England, incidentally, are the only team to have won the league three times in a row, having done so twice.
Guardiola's men won 16 games at home this season, two fewer than they did in the 2011-12 campaign, a record held jointly with Chelsea 2005-06 and Manchester United 2010-11.
Meanwhile, the 27 City conceded this season is some way off the 15 goals Chelsea let in when they won their first league title under Mourinho.
Whether City can improve next season remains to be seen, given they have only dropped 14 points from a possible 114.
"Next season, in November and December, people will say 'Manchester City have less points than last season'," Guardiola was quoted as saying by The Independent.
"That is going to happen. We are going to lose all, all, all days to compare with this season, all of them. That will not be important."
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About the writer
Dan Cancian is currently a reporter for Newsweek based in London, England. Prior to joining Newsweek in January 2018, he ... Read more
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