In the early morning of May 15, Beijing time, in the 34th round of the English Premier League, Manchester City relied on Haaland's brace to defeat Tottenham 2-0, winning 8 consecutive league wins, and accumulating 88 points to overtake Arsenal to the top of the table. In the final round, Manchester City only needs a win to secure the title and achieve four consecutive titles, and will be the first team in the history of the English top flight to do so.
With Manchester City's victory over Tottenham, there are also 3 incredible and 3 indisputable facts.
Three incredible
1. Manchester City ended the Premier League's 4-game losing streak against Tottenham
Comparing the past honours of the two teams, Manchester City beat Tottenham, but in the past four seasons, Manchester City have lost all of their Premier League games away from Tottenham, and have completed a total of 78 shots without scoring a goal.
Now, City have scored two goals from their last four shots and ended a four-game losing streak with a win over Tottenham, the first time City have won at Tottenham's new home turf.
2. Haaland is no longer reduced to a "soft-footed shrimp" at critical moments
Prior to the Tottenham game, Haaland had scored just one goal against a top-five team this season and was criticised as a "soft-footed shrimp". Now, Haaland finally broke out, scoring a brace in the second half to help Manchester City walk away from home.
According to statistics, Haaland has scored 63 goals in 65 appearances in his Premier League career, rising to the fourth highest scorer in the Premier League in team history, and also becoming the player with the most goals in the first two seasons in Premier League history.
3. Unai Emery leads Villa back to the Champions League
Tottenham's defeat allowed Unai Emery's Villa to secure a top-four finish in the table one round earlier, meaning qualification for the Champions League for the new season. Statistically, Villa's last appearance was back in the 1982/83 season, when they were the defending champions, and since then they have been absent for a long time, ending a 41-year wait.
Unai Emery was close to the relegation zone when he took over at Villa last season, finishing seventh at the end of the season and moving up to fourth this season, also showing the magic of Unai Emery's team.
Three indisputable facts
1. Manchester City's back-to-back impact on the championship is too stable
City have won eight league games in a row and are unbeaten in 34 games in all competitions (excluding penalty shoot-outs), also a club record unbeaten in regular time, with the last defeat coming in December when they lost 1-0 to Villa in the Premier League.
In recent seasons, Manchester City has made great efforts in the final stage, winning consecutive wins to win the title, and Arsenal is likely to be runners-up for two consecutive seasons.
2. Tottenham Hotspur lost 5 of the last 6 rounds and is not worthy of Champions League qualification
In the first ten rounds of the season, Tottenham Hotspur was still the leading team, and now with one round left, it has missed the top four ahead of schedule and announced that it is not eligible for next season's Champions League.
In the last 6 rounds of the league, Tottenham Hotspur lost to Newcastle, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, only defeated Burnley, and lost all the top six teams in the standings. Such a performance is indeed not worthy of representing the Premier League team in next season's Champions League.
3. Sun Xingmin was sluggish in the second half
As Tottenham's first captain this season, Son Heung-min played well in the first half, but since February, he has only scored four Premier League goals, and only one goal has been scored during Tottenham's recent repeated defeats, that is, to break Liverpool's goal, and his sluggish performance has also directly affected Tottenham's record.