By Jonathan Smith
Many seasons have an iconic moment that comes to define the ending of a title race. Sergio Aguero's goal against Queens Park Rangers is the most obvious example. Vincent Kompany's screamer against Leicester, a late winner from Gabriel Jesus to bring up 100 points and Ilkay Gundogan's double against Aston Villa fit the bill too. From last season’s Premier League success, it was perhaps Erling Haaland's hair-down goal as we delivered a significant blow to Arsenal's hopes.
Now 10 years on, ask a football fan for their first thought about our title-winning campaign from 2013/14 and it probably won’t be about Manchester City at all. Of course, Blues will remember some of those key moments extremely well. Edin Dzeko's early goal at Crystal Palace and Yaya Toure’s individual run to wrap up the three points. The Bosnian striker having a long lie-down at Everton as we hung on for a 3-2 win. Toure's unstoppable run against Villa and a relatively relaxed final day against West Ham compared to the nerve-shredder of QPR two years earlier.
However, for the wider fan or mythical neutral, the images conjured up will be around Liverpool and how they threw it away. Steven Gerrard's slip in a home defeat to Chelsea and Luis Suarez hiding his tears underneath his shirt after losing a three-goal lead at Palace. Incidents that are still sung about and remembered through the prism of schadenfreude today.
While the Reds' surprise title challenge and ultimate failure may have been that season’s narrative, it does distract from City's achievement and a forgotten reputation as great entertainers. A then-English record of 151 goals in all competition from style and sophisticated football at the right time, with the guts and determination to get over the line - the hallmarks of great champions and a decade ago, City delivered.
Under the understated but effective leadership of Manuel Pellegrini, we delivered breathtaking football with the Chilean maximising the quality of players such as David Silva, Toure and Samir Nasri in an elegant midfield. Strikers Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Alvaro Negredo all hit 20+ goals along with Toure. At the back Kompany, Joe Hart and Pablo Zabaleta were arguably at their best as we conceded the fewest goals other than Jose Mourinho's Chelsea who finished four points back in third.
For Yaya in particular, it was a remarkable campaign. Under Roberto Mancini, he was highly effective but was occasionally constrained by playing in a holding midfield role where he had built his reputation at Barcelona. Pellegrini gave him more freedom and the result was brutal, brilliant, and utterly destructive.
"I’d played all over previously, including at centre-back for Barcelona when we won the Champions League final in 2009," he said. "But at City, playing as a box-to-box midfielder or as a number 10, I found the positions where I was best.
"[Pellegrini] saw his central midfielders as the most important players on the pitch, and he told me to go wherever I wanted to influence the game, because Fernandinho would be there to cover for me.
"He pushed me, gave me more responsibility. He said he didn’t want to see too many passes – he wanted us to run with the ball and attack the goal."
"Vincent missed a few games through injury, so I captained the team quite a bit. I scored 20 goals in the league alone and we won both the Premier League and the League Cup. I really enjoyed that extra responsibility."
Toure became just the third midfielder to score 20 Premier League goals in a season after Chelsea’s Frank Lampard and Tottenham's Gareth Bale, but it was the sheer quality of many of them that was so spectacular. Most notable were the perfect free-kicks against Newcastle, Hull, Norwich and Fulham and outrageous goals against Cardiff, Palace and the Cottagers as well as a serene ease at the penalty spot. Add in his Champions League long-range curler at Viktoria Plzen and the League Cup final goal against Sunderland and you have one of the greatest showreels for a single season ever.
To many it was a surprise that he didn't win any individual honours, although Suarez was fantastic for Liverpool scoring 31 goals, including three hat-tricks on his way to collecting the Premier League Player of the Year, PFA Players' Player of the Year and Football Writers Association Footballer of the Year.
Pellegrini also missed out on being named Premier League Manager of the Season with that prize going to Tony Pulis after guiding Crystal Palace to 11th after a bad start from the Eagles. Our boss's calm and unflustered manner kept him away from any controversial back-page headlines and would later see him given the nickname "This charming man" with a flag at the Etihad bearing the monicker. And his side played in his image.
While he took over a squad brimming with quality, he had brought fresh ideas to make the most of our talented players, as well as bringing in a number of new faces. City had finished the previous season without silverware following a painful 1-0 defeat to Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup final and we had found the Champions League tough, failing to get out of the group stage in our two previous attempts.
Pellegrini was a new name to the Premier League but had enjoyed success in Spain with Villarreal and Malaga, either side of a difficult year during the 'Galactico' era at Real Madrid. He had guided the unfashionable Andalusian side to the quarter-finals of the Champions League where they were eliminated by Borussia Dortmund after a controversial late winner.
At his unveiling, Pellegrini promised attacking football.
"My first message is to tell all the supporters that they will enjoy the way our team will play," he said. "We will play an attractive, offensive game."
The Chilean raided La Liga to strengthen the squad, bringing in Jesus Navas, Alvaro Negredo and Martin Demichelis as well as Fernandinho from Shakhtar Donetsk and Stevan Jovetic from Fiorentina.
Demichelis had moved to Atletico Madrid in the summer but not made an appearance and Pellegrini believed he would add experience to the defence after success at River Plate and Bayern Munich. He could also help implement the tactics of City’s new boss on the pitch, with Pellegrini having a reputation for exciting, risk-taking football.
"I decide to go to Atletico, who had qualified for the Champions League again after many years," Demichelis said. "It had a very competitive team, and [Diego Simeone] invited me to be part of the squad.
"It was clear that I was behind Diego Godin and Miranda, but for me, it was a great honour that a coach like 'Cholo' called me to play in La Liga and the Champions League.
"Meanwhile, Manuel Pellegrini became the coach of City, and I became an option for him. That's where Manchester City came in to sign me.
"There were very few days left for the transfer market to close, and it seemed like a good option because it was Pellegrini's request."
Demichelis would become a cult hero although he made a rocky start as did City, particularly away from home. An opening day 4-0 win over Newcastle was followed by a shock 3-2 defeat at Cardiff City. Next, a 2-0 home victory over Hull was followed by a goalless draw at Stoke. A 4-1 derby demolition of Manchester United at the Etihad came before a 3-2 loss at Aston Villa.
It wasn't until the winter that City hit consistent form with 11 wins in 12 Premier League games between November and January which began with a 6-0 win over Tottenham and a 5-1 victory away to the same opponents.
Pellegrini had also guided us to the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time - although we frustratingly missed out on top spot, on goal difference despite a 3-2 win at Bayern Munich – while we also secured a place in the League Cup final, then known as the Capital One Cup final.
Our manager had delivered the attacking football he had pledged with 84 goals in all competitions before the turn of the year. Other big scorelines in 2013 included 7-0 against Norwich, 5-0 v Wigan, 5-2 against CSKA Moscow and a remarkable 6-3 win over Arsenal.
Aguero and Dzeko had already shown their finishing ability in the previous two seasons at the Club, and Negredo added further firepower. The striker looked a natural in the Premier League and hit 23 goals from his first 33 appearances including hat-tricks against CSKA and West Ham in the League Cup semi-final in January. He modestly credits his team-mates for his impressive ratio.
"For me, it was very easy," he said. "It was very easy to play with them because, as it happens now with Erling Haaland, behind us, we had players who constantly provided good passes.
"Whenever they got the ball, they looked forward. With space, we were a devastating team. David Silva's final pass was brutal. On the wings, there was James Milner and Jesus Navas. We had everything - Fernandinho, Kun, Dzeko - it was a great team."
In Spain, Negredo was known as 'El Tiburon' or 'The Shark' in English. But he quickly earned the nickname of 'Beast' at the Etihad with fans booming it in a deep voice after his goals, much to his confusion.
"At first, when I scored, I didn't speak English well," he recalled. "I heard a background noise that sounded like booing. For me, it was as if they were booing me. I thought: 'If I scored, why are they booing me?"
"I talked to Pablo Zabaleta and he told me I wasn't understanding, that it was their pronunciation of Beast in English. Since they said it very fast, I thought they were booing me. They even made shirts with my face resembling a beast. I still have some at home, and I remember it fondly. It was a beautiful time for me."
Most of Pellegrini's signings were working well with Fernandinho settling into a rhythm that would make him a key figure for the next nine years and the speed of Navas was a devastating threat. Jovetic, however, was hampered by injured and Negredo would suffer a similar devastating blow.
After thrashing West Ham 6-0 in the League Cup semi-final first leg, Pellegrini wanted to maintain our impressive streak and picked a strong side for the return in London, despite the overwhelming advantage. Negredo scored twice in a 3-0 win but suffered a shoulder injury that interrupted his form and they were to be his last goals for the Club.
"Everything was going very well until I had a shoulder injury," he recalled. "It was a very successful season for me.
"In the end, I didn't have as much prominence, but we won titles, which was important."
Spring saw a mixed bag of results with defeat at home to title rivals Chelsea followed by a rare goalless draw at Norwich. Our Champions League run was ended by Pep Guardiola's brilliant Barcelona who won home and away despite breathtaking performances from Hart. Wigan's FA Cup jinx struck again with a shock 2-1 win at the Etihad masterminded by City legend Uwe Rosler.
But Pellegrini secured his first silverware when sublime goals from Toure and Nasri, followed by a late third from Navas secured a 3-1 win over Sunderland at Wembley.
The title remained a target and ahead of our trip to notorious bogey ground Anfield, we were four points behind Liverpool and two behind Chelsea with two games in hand. Defeat would put a severe dent in our title hopes but Liverpool were made to attack the Kop in the first half, and raced into a two-goal lead with Raheem Sterling and Martin Skrtel on target while Toure limped off. City regrouped at half-time with Silva running the game, scoring the first and forcing Skrtel into an own goal. But Philippe Coutinho pounced on Kompany’s miscued clearance to snatch the win.
Amid wild scenes, it felt like a pivotal day as Liverpool took control of the title race and they appeared to have a stranglehold a week later with bottom-of-the-table Sunderland drawing at the Etihad in midweek and beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge three days later.
Pellegrini wasn’t prepared to give up: "My duties now are to talk with the players and try and win these five games and at the end of the season we will see which team has most points.
"Remember this team two years ago were six points behind the leaders and they won the title at the end.
"Maybe in this moment Liverpool and Chelsea have better chances than our team because we are in third position, but we still continue fighting until the last game."
After beating West Brom, the following weekend threw the title race wide open. With one eye on a Champions League semi-final second leg against Atletico Madrid, Mourinho rested key players for Chelsea's away clash with Liverpool but somehow a rearguard performance scrambled a 2-0 win at Anfield. Shortly after full-time, City kicked off at Crystal Palace and won 2-0. We were now three points behind, with a game in hand and a better goal difference.
"We did what we had to do," Kompany said. "It is difficult to predict the outcome of this league. You would be crazy to think it is over, but obviously we did our job. We are the team in the league that can't ever give up – especially after the year we won it."
Our final away game of the season was at Everton, with many Liverpool fans fearing the Toffees would not take it seriously as a positive result would put their bitter rivals in pole position. But Roberto Martinez's side were still challenging for a Champions League spot and took the lead with a spectacular Ross Barkley strike. Aguero quickly equalised before Dzeko goals either side of half-time secured a crucial three points. Romelu Lukaku made it 3-2 and a nervy finish but City got over the line with Dzeko and referee Lee Probert having a four-minute stand-off over getting treatment for a shoulder injury.
In his postmatch interview for City, Dzeko looks to be holding in a grin when asked about the injury. "I’m feeling okay," he answered earnestly. But the main message was that the job was not done. "I remember when we won the league two years ago, everyone expected us to beat QPR easily and it was tough to the last minute. I think we learned something from that."
With a better goal difference of nine goals, everyone saw two wins as enough to win the title – except Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers. On a Monday night, he sent his side out to score double figures and overturn City's advantage. With 11 minutes remaining, they led 3-0 but capitulated as the Eagles rescued an incredible 3-3 scoreline.
City could now afford a draw in midweek at home to Aston Villa and after an hour in torrential rain, the game remained 0-0. Dzeko finally broke the deadlock in the 64th minute and added a second eight minutes later. Jovetic added a late third before Toure's barnstormer made it 100 goals for the season in the Premier League and to within a point of the title.
After the QPR drama two years earlier, there was no way we were going to take West Ham lightly on the final day. There were understandable nerves, settled by Nasri's strike just before half-time before Kompany's second four minutes after the break.
A frantic title race saw a remarkably relaxed final half an hour by City's standards as we enjoyed the last minutes of the season. For Pellegrini, it was reward for his attacking style and his squad tossed him at the air at full-time and the affection was reciprocated.
"It was a very special season for us, we didn't start very well but I think the most important thing we did this year is when we finished playing our sixth game away, we had one point from 18 and I told the players we had to make a change," he said.
"They believed in me and I think from then until [the end of the season we were] the team with the most points away. They always believed what I told them about how I wanted to play and how I think football should be."
It would be his only league title with City although he would take us to the Champions League semi-finals two years later and won another League Cup and was welcomed warmly when he came back with West Ham in 2019.
"Three beautiful years, especially when we won the Premier League we had a very successful season," Pellegrini said. "Only good memories," added this charming man.
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