Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has shared when he felt the club would win the Premier League title in 2023/24.
Manchester City made history last month by becoming the first club ever to win four Premier League titles in a row.
City were pushed all the way by Arsenal and needed to beat West Ham United on the final day of the season to ensure the trophy would remain at the Etihad Stadium. There was also a good challenge from Liverpool, who fell away a few weeks from the end.
It was a huge effort from the players to go again after the ultimate high of winning the Treble.
It wasn’t easy at times and City were certainly not as good as they were last season.
But they got the job done in the end.
And now, Khladoon Al Mubarak has given his annual end-of-season interview, and in it, he revealed when he first realised City would win the league…
Khaldoon says Arsenal away game was when he realised Man City would win the Premier League in 2023/24
City made a great start to their Premier League campaign in 2023/24.
The team won their first six games, but then they lost to Wolves at Molineux, followed by a defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates.
And it was actually that defeat to Arsenal when Khaldoon felt that City would go on to win the title.
He said (via Man City official YouTube): “I’m going to surprise you with that one. Arsenal away. We didn’t play particularly well. We didn’t play particularly bad. I think it was an off game by our standards. But I don’t think we deserved to lose. If you remember, we lost with that deflected goal in the last minutes.
“I said, this is why we’re going to win the league. Today, I know how this team is going to react going forward and I know we’re going to win the league.”
City lost 1-0 to the Gunners at the Emirates back in October. It was certainly one of City’s most disappointing displays, with Pep’s side managing just one shot on target that day.
The team also managed just 51% possession, which is a lot lower than they manage against most other teams.
Khaldoon was right, City responded
It is interesting to hear from Khaldoon that a defeat all the way back in October was the moment he realised that City would go on to win the title.
But he was pretty spot on with his hunch, because City responded well to that setback. They won the next three league games, including a 3-0 win over Manchester United.
City did then draw three in a row and lose to Aston Villa. But that would be their final defeat in the league, with the players then really turning it on in the second half of the season, as they so often do.
Those who wrote City off around Christmas time were simply naive.
The collective mentality that runs through that squad is probably the strongest in the world. They are relentless and have an insatiable appetite for winning.