Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City has won a treble following their 6-0 win over Watford in the FA Cup finals on Saturday. Manchester City showed no mercy as goals came in from David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, while Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus both netted two goals each. Their latest success comes on the heels of their Premier League title just over a week ago.  Here’s a recap of how City managed to lift each trophy in their history-making domestic campaign: 

FA CupCity found their way into the FA Cup finals by beating Brighton 1-0; while Watford secured their spot by defeating Wolves 3-2. Manchester City made history with their FA Cup win in many ways. Firstly, this is tied with Bury FC for greatest FA Cup win in history in terms of goals scored. There were only two separate times in history that a team scored more than four times in the FA Cup – Blackburn (1980) and Burt (1903). The two goals that tied the record came from Raheem Sterling in the last couple minutes of the match. Manchester City also secured their place in history after the FA Cup win by being the first English men’s team to acquire all the major English silverware in a single season. The six goals scored in the FA Cup brought Manchester City’s overall goals in all competition to 169, which is the highest number of any top flight English team.  

Carabo CupThe Carabo Cup win was the Manchester club’s first taste of silverware this season. Manchester City lifted the trophy following a 4-3 win on penalties over Chelsea back in February. Chelsea managed to hold City for the full 90 mins, plus extra time, but Manchester City ended up winning on penalties after Sterling’s kick. Even though it’s just a league club, the match was hotly contested and full of theatrics. Who could forget the drama Kepa Arrizabalaga caused when Maurizio Sarri tried to substitute him because he thought he was injured?He made a whole scene, refused to leave the field, and then ended up letting in all of Manchester City’s penalty kicks except Leroy Sané’s. Sarri was rightfully upset and had to be restrained by a Chelsea player to prevent him from confronting Kepa.  

Premier League Retaining their Premier League campaign was easily Manchester City’s most impressive win this season. Manchester City retained the trophy for the second consecutive year with a 4-1 win over Brighton. Brighton had scored first, thanks to Glen Murray giving hope to Liverpool, who was the only real title contender at that point. However, the celebrations were short-lived as Sergio Aguero scored just a minute later.  Aymeric Laporte, Riyad Mahrez and İlkay Gündoğan all found the back of the net, giving the Manchester City supporters the sigh of relief they were waiting for, and the jubilation that comes with winning a Premier League title. Manchester City were favourites to win the league title from the beginning, even though Liverpool were always right behind them (both in quality and eventually points). They looked strong, ready and hungry. They went through their first 15 games unbeaten until December 15 when Chelsea clipped them 2-0 at Stamford Bridge. By December 29, Manchester City were in third place, and Liverpool were ten points ahead of them. Liverpool fans were naturally excited at the thought that their team would win the league title for the first time since the 1989/1990 season. However, Manchester wasn’t going down without a fight. City played Liverpool, their main competition, on January 3 this year, and came out victorious with a 2-1 scoreline. This match was riddled with controversy as Liverpool fans believed they were robbed of a goal and a point.  The controversy surrounded John Stones clearing Mo Salah’s effort off the line which was confirmed by goal line technology. However the match went downhill from there, and Manchester City walked away with all three points. To make matters even worse, that was Liverpool’s only defeat this season.  Manchester City, however, did not go back on top of the table until February 6, when Laporte and Gabriel Jesus found the back of the Everton’s net to seal the three points for their team. Liverpool at that point had a series of draws which one could say eventually costed them the title.  Manchester City were not out of the woods after the Everton game, though, because they were still even on points with Liverpool; it was the goal difference that separated them. But Manchester City didn’t drop a single point after that, and went on to have 14 straight wins from defeating Arsenal in February to their last match against Brighton. Manchester City had a couple scares like against Burnley. It had to take a beautiful unexpected goal from their captain, Vincent Kompany, to snatch the three points.  However, the end result after 38 matches was Manchester City in first place with 98 points and Liverpool second with 97 points. 

But, Champions League…Pep wasn’t so lucky with Champions League this season. Manchester City dropped out of the Champions League in the quarter finals this year following a surprising comeback from Tottenham Hotspurs. This saw the London club going through 4-4 on aggregate because of away goals. You can read more about that match 

here. Even though Manchester City won a domestic treble, Pep is still haunted by the fact that they haven’t had any European glory this season. Pep implied that not winning the Champions League overshadows his success in the English Premier League. Finishing in the top four will give Pep and City the opportunity to try again at the heavily sought after Champions League trophy.  Liverpool will be given some semblance of revenge when they face Manchester City in the Community Shield right before the start of the 2019/2020 Premier League season. This is the first time Liverpool will be playing in the Community Shield since 2006. The Community Shield is usually contested between the League winner and the FA Cup winner, however, since Manchester City copped both trophies, the runner up of the Premier League, Liverpool, will face off with them. City were the winners last year as they beat Chelsea 2-0. Will they retain the Community Shield?  

–Trevann Hamilton