Man City odds-on for title hat-trick
Manchester City retained their title following a 4-1 win over Brighton on the final day of the 2018-19 Premier League season, justifying 8-11 ante-post favouritism and narrowly denying Liverpool their first title of the Premier League era.
The Citizens' thrilling duel with Jurgen Klopp's Reds has been the story of the season and they went into the final round of fixtures as 1-8 title favourites while Liverpool were 13-2 to pip them to the post.
The Reds, who had already played their part in a week of incredible drama in the Champions League on Tuesday, dared to dream of another remarkable day as a Sadio Mane double saw them beat Wolves 2-0 at Anfield.
Premier League standing and statistics
Liverpool hit 7-2 for the title when Mane opened the scoring after 17 minutes - Hills had offered 6-4 that Klopp's boys topped the table at any stage in the afternoon - and they moved even closer to glory when Brighton took the lead in the 27th minute at the Amex.
News of Glenn Murray's opener was greeted with jubilation on Merseyside but, while bookmakers scrambled to update their outright markets, the Citizens' ever-reliable striker Sergio Aguero levelled the scores just 83 seconds later.
Spanish centre-half Aymeric Laporte put the Citizens 2-1 up and back on top of the table and second-half goals from Riyad Mahrez, who missed a penalty in the 0-0 draw with Liverpool at Anfield in October, and Ilkay Gundogan confirmed the Manchester club as champions again.
Bet365 and Sky Bet make City 8-11 to match Manchester United in winning a third straight Premier League crown next season while Liverpool, who picked up a remarkable 97 points to finish second, are a top-priced 3-1 to go one better next term.
Guardiola's men are as short as 1-2 with RedZone, who are the biggest price about Tottenham and Manchester United at 16-1 and 20-1. Chelsea are 25-1 with Betway while Unai Emery's Arsenal are 30-1 with Betfair and Paddy Power.
Spurs confirmed themselves in fourth place thanks to a 2-2 draw with Everton while Liverpool pair Mane and Mohamed Salah and Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang shared the Golden Boot with 22 goals each.
Salah went into the final day with a two-goal lead in the scoring charts but Mane drew level with his double while Aubameyang also netted a brace as Arsenal saw off Burnley at Turf Moor.
Salah, who was also top goalscorer last season, was 5-1 second favourite behind unplaced England captain Harry Kane with Aubameyang third in the betting at 15-2 while Mane was available at a huge 80-1.
Liverpool's victory over Wolves confirmed them as Premier League handicap winners - they had been afforded a start of between four and seven points behind favourites City and they lost the league title by just one point.
