London: Manchester City secured a second Premier League title in three seasons by comfortably defeating West Ham United 2-0 at a jubilant Etihad Stadium on Sunday. City effectively needed only a point to claim the championship ahead of Liverpool, but goals in each half from Samir Nasri and Vincent Kompany meant that they completed their mission with room to spare.
Victory took City’s goals tally to 102 — one short of Chelsea’s Premier League record from 2009-10 — and made Chilean Manuel Pellegrini the first non-European manager to win an English top-flight title.
David Silva, Sergio Aguero and Aleksandar Kolarov all threatened for City before Nasri put them ahead. Liverpool, who led the table with three games to play, finished two points below City in second place after coming from behind to win 2-1 at home to Newcastle United, who had Shola Ameobi and Paul Dummett sent off.
Man United miss out on Europe:
Tottenham Hotspur secured the last available Europa League berth by crushing Aston Villa 3-0 through a Paulinho strike, a Nathan Baker own goal and an Emmanuel Adebayor penalty, all of which arrived before half-time.
Spurs’ victory means that Manchester United will not play in Europe next season for the first time since 1989-90. United drew 1-1 at Southampton in Ryan Giggs’s final game as interim manager, which saw last season’s champions finish 22 points below cross-town rivals City in seventh place after a miserable campaign.
