One down, two to go for City

MANCHESTER, May 21

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Manchester City’s captain for the day, Kyle Walker, said his teammates will enjoy a couple of glasses of champagne to celebrate a third successive Premier League title but thoughts would very quickly turn to securing the treble.

Today’s 1-0 victory over Chelsea was played out in a party atmosphere after Arsenal’s defeat 24 hours earlier at Nottingham Forest handed City the title.

City manager Pep Guardiola left the likes of Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Ilkay Gundogan, Rodri and Kevin de Bruyne on the bench but it made no difference as City clamed 12 league wins in a row. Five league titles in six seasons represents almost total domination, but City’s players now have their eyes on sporting immortality by beating Manchester United in the FA Cup final and Inter Milan in the Champions League showpiece.

Should they do that they would match United’s unique Premier League/FA Cup/Champions League treble of the 1998-99 campaign.

“We still have a big couple of weeks before we can take our foot off the gas,” Walker said as thousands of City fans celebrated on the Etihad Stadium pitch.

Clamour for Messi grows

With the La Liga title in hand, Barcelona’s fans quickly moved on to what they want next: The return of their all-time favourite player.

“Messi! Messi! Messi!” resounded at Camp Nou — in minute 10 for Lionel Messi’s old No. 10 shirt — during Saturday’s game against Real Sociedad that ended with a rare 2-1 loss to the Basque visitors. The loss did little to dampen the festive atmosphere after the final whistle when Sergio Busquets as team captain received the trophy from federation president Luis Rubiales and presented it to the crowd with his teammates.

It was Busquets’ 32nd and last title before the midfielder leaves Barcelona this summer. Last week, Barcelona clinched their first major title since Messi had to leave due to the club’s wretched financial situation two years ago and join Paris Saint-Germain.

But with Messi set to leave Paris this summer, Barcelona’s fans are hoping – perhaps naively considering the likely blockbuster offer he could be dangled from Saudi Arabia – that the superstar will want to come back to the club he joined when he was 13. Messi has a commercial contract with Saudi Arabia to promote tourism. He made a recent trip to the energy-rich kingdom where his former Liga rival Cristiano Ronaldo is playing on a lucrative contract that media reports put at a world-record $200 million a year. — AP