A fitting end to memorable Premier League season

After 75 minutes, Manchester City were on the verge of one of the biggest decision day collapses in the history of the Premier League, trailing Aston Villa 2-0 at home, and with Liverpool pressing hard seeking to beat Wolverhampton to snatch the title away from their hands.

Although City was at the top of the table all throughout the match - being down two goals with little more than 15 minutes left, the anxiety was palpable. It felt that it would be a matter of time for Liverpool to score and win their game, a win by the reds combined with a loss or draw by Manchester City would have been enough for them to steal the title on the final day of the season.

The storyline was slowly being ingrained in the minds of football fans - an epic title chase comeback was in the making. Liverpool’s hopes for the quadruple were well alive. Club legend Steven Gerrard who was never able to win the league for the Reds was now in a position to help his lifelong team clinch a second title in three years if his Aston Villa could come through as the ‘Villains’ and get a result at Etihad Stadium.

Aston Villa’s slim 1-0 lead at the half gave Liverpool fans hope, but knew CIty was more than capable of coming back. In the 69th minute another former Liverpool player made an appearance at a crucial moment - Phillippe Coutinho gave Aston Villa a 2-0 lead that made it seem that all Liverpool needed was a single goal to take the lead against Wolves to take the title.

Just moments after Coutinho scored, he was taken off the field, sending a clear message - the focus was now to defend the lead at all costs. At this point Manchester City had failed to get a single shot on goal and were now in a position in which they needed to score 3 goals with about 20 minutes to go.

Three substitutes gave the team new life, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling helped city become more dangerous down the flanks and opened space down the middle for players like Rodri and Gundogan to make dangerous runs.

Through their 18 previous home games City had scored 55 goals, an average of more than 3 per game and were at risk of being shut out by Villa, and that’s when the magic happened - three goals in under six minutes to mount an epic comeback to secure a title that for quite a while felt that it would slip away from their grasp.

In the 76th minute - Sterling got to the end of the line and placed a great cross to the far post for Gundogan to head home - it gave the team the boost and confidence they needed to go for it all.

Just two and a half minutes later - Aston Villa’s defensive approach came back to haunt them, Zinchenko beat his man on the left flank, the defensive line from Villa was sitting so deep that Zinchenko found Rodri all alone on the edge of the penalty box to place his shot in the bottom corner past Robin Olsen. There were 7 Aston Villa players inside their own 18-yard box and Rodri had plenty of space to find the back of the net.

Three minutes later the comeback was completed as Kevin De Bruyne found space behind the back line to pick Gundogan in the far post for him to simply tap the ball into the goal.

It took City five minutes and 36 seconds to mount the comeback and by then Aston Villa had no way of putting any pressure on City.

What for a brief moment appeared that would turn into some type of divine intervention in favor of Liverpool, ended with a blue tsunami washing away any hopes of winning the title.

Once Gundogan scored the third goal for city - it was impossible not to draw a parallel with the biggest come from behind win in Manchester City’s history.

10 seasons ago, City came to the final game needing a win to clinch their first league title in more than half a century, but early in the second half found themselves down 2-1 to Queens Park Rangers who were fighting to avoid relegation.

When the game entered aggregate time, City still had to score two goals and in one of the most dramatic rallies in the history of the Premier League, the Citizens scored twice in aggregate time to win and take the title away from Manchester United in the dying seconds of the match.

While this comeback was not as dramatic as the rally from a decade ago, this particular come from behind win might be even more impressive, especially when you consider the fact that City was at the receiving end of a similar epic comeback against Real Madrid in the Champions League semifinals a couple of weeks earlier.

A season full of great games and moments could only end in an equally entertaining fashion.

A few minutes later, in the other game, after the comeback was completed - Mohamed Salah scored to give Liverpool the lead in the other game and had to be told by fans in the stands that City had taken the lead and that a win by Liverpool wouldn't be enough.

The fight for the final champions league spot was anticlimactic with Tottenham getting a commanding 5-0 over Norwich City to finish ahead of Arsenal.

The other drama took place in the relegation battle, with Burnley and Leeds United entering with same number of points but a better goal differential by Burnley meaning Leeds had to get a better result to stay up, Newcastle took the lead in the first half and never relinquished the lead - meanwhile Leeds took the lead, then lost it against Brentford, the draw would have been enough for Leeds but in the dying moments of the game Jack Harrison secured the win and the team’s place in the Premier League for next season.

Fulham and Bournemouth have secured their return to the Premier League for next season, while Huddersfield Town and Nottingham Forest will play for the final spot on May 29.

It was a great season that sadly has come to an end, we can only hope the rest of the year will be as good.