I couldn’t get anywhere near a ticket so watched the match in Edinburgh. My son was duty manager of a bar/restaurant and was working that day. I was alone in the house amid tension building up to the match as I sat waiting for the match to start.
All seemed to be going well with Zabaleta scoring. I wasn’t too concerned when QPR equalised but was when they scored again I was a little concerned. Then as City seemed to huff and puff without making a great deal of progress I was getting frantic.
I had to leave the conservatory and walked into to kitchen to try and calm down. I was feeling physically sick before I cooled down a bit. I went back in to watch the progress of the match. Then as the match was entering an extended period of added time after Barton’s histrionics, City won a corner and Dzeko scored.
That took my mind back 44 years to a match at Newcastle where City also needed to win to take the title. There were remarkable similarities in that in both cases City and United were level on points going into the final match with City ahead on goal average/goal difference. United were also playing Sunderland back then albeit at Old Trafford.
That match swung although City were never behind going 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, and 2-2. Then City went 3-2 ahead and later 4-2. Newcastle came back to 4-3 with City hanging on in the end. Most of us, at St James’s Park, were not aware of the United-Sunderland score. As it happened, Sunderland won so City’s score did not matter. We only found that out after the match.
Of course it was different in 2012 with United having already won at Sunderland and their fans were on screen looking smug even when City equalised.
Meantime my son found an excuse to go into the office of the bar ‘to sort out the accounts’ and got a steam on his laptop.
QPR seemed to have thrown in the towel by this time or were completed spent. They ceded possession instantly from the restart. The ball was put into the area and Balotelli managed to pass to Aguero as he fell and the rest is history.
The subsequent title wins were less dramatic. City only needed a draw in the final match in 2014 and never really looked like conceding. In 2018. United losing to West Brom settled things way before the end of the season. In 2019, despite going a goal down City beat Brighton very easily.