Without an English championship since 1967/68 (when, would you believe, they pipped Manchester United on the final day), Manchester City headed into the final match of the season only needing to match United's result at Sunderland to seal the 2012 Premier League trophy. They had beaten Sir Alex Ferguson's side twice that season, including a seismic 6-1 win at Old Trafford, come back from eight points behind with six games to play and had relegation-haunted QPR to face the Etihad Stadium, where Roberto Mancini's team had won 17 of their 18 league games.
Easy, right? It looked that way when cult hero Pablo Zabaleta made it 1-0. Then, Djibril Cisse equalised, QPR had former City youngster and current internet troll Joey Barton sent off, then scored again through Jamie Mackie. United were winning at Sunderland, City remained 2-1 down heading into stoppage time, when Edin Dzeko equalised. Surely too little, too late?
The United players celebrated at fulltime as Nigel de Jong strode forward with the ball over in Manchester. He found Sergio Aguero, an ice-cold assassin amid the maelstrom. Mario Balotelli made a return pass to Aguero despite tumbling to the floor, Aguero rounded Taye Taiwo despite being hit by the QPR defender's tackle and then "hit the ball as hard as I could and hoped for the best". It was a strategy to prompt unbridled bedlam.
"I swear you'll never see anything like this ever again," howled commentator Martin Tyler. He's not wrong.
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