Easy in the end for Manchester City same again next season?
The Independent Arsenal spent 248 days at the top of the Premier League this season, yet there was never really a time when it felt like Manchester City were not the favourites to lift the trophy.
Pep Guardiolas side claimed the crown for a third year in a row and the fifth in the last six years, once again putting together one of those relentless winning runs that gives an air of inevitability to their eventual success.
City have been in plenty of tight title races over the years. Twice they have pipped Liverpool by a single point, one of those occasions coming last year when Ilkay Gundogans late goals to come from behind against Aston Villa brought back memories of Sergio Aguero, QPR, and all that in 2012.
There was nothing like that feeling of drama this time. City have finished the season with an five-point cushion over Arsenal, having won the title without kicking a ball with three games to spare when the Gunners lost 1-0 to relegation-battling Nottingham Forest.
Even when City were eight points behind at the end of March, most observers outside of north London foresaw Pep Guardiolas men grinding down their rivals mentally and physically, and so it proved.
