From the dressing room to the dancefloor: Inside Man City celebrations

By Luke Power

09:45 20 May 2024, updated 11:07 20 May 2024

• Man City’s players partied long into the night after sealing the Premier League
• Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland were among the most boisterous last night 
• Marcus Rashford has to leave Man United… and a Premier League club could offer him a fresh start – Listen to the It’s All Kicking Off! podcast 

Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland led the revelry as Manchester City‘s stars celebrated a historic fourth consecutive league title on Sunday night. 

The merriment bounced from the dressing room into bars and on until 5am at Greek restaurant Fenix, as players brought along their wives and girlfriends for a boozy night. 

Pep Guardiola was in the mix after steering his team to a sixth Premier League title in seven seasons with a 3-1 win against West Ham, much to the chagrin of Arsenal. 

Grealish and Haaland struck a pose early in the night as they showed off their watches, with a Premier League medal dripping from the latter’s neck. 

The party started in the dressing room, where players danced and sung: ‘Campeones, campeones, ole, ole, ole!’

Grealish spared no expense on the style front, sporting a £2,000 outfit and posting a video of him singing Natasha Bedingfield’s ‘Unwritten’ with pals.

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He also celebrated with his little sister Hollie, 20, who smiled as he hugged and kissed her. 

It was clear that Grealish intended on spending the night not just with team-mates but with as many friends as possible. 

He wore a striking Gucci suit – a brand for which he is an ambassador – to a meal and later posted a clip on his Instagram story of him singing the lyric ‘the rest is still unwritten’, while holding a drink and showing off his winner’s medal.

But there was no escaping the buzz of the dressing room to kick off the night, where the likes of Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez, and others bounced around, singing: ‘Campeones, campeones, ole, ole, ole!’

Kyle Walker posed with the Premier League trophy alongside kit assistant Adam Smith and others. 

Matheus Nunes, meanwhile, enjoyed sipping a drink with friends.  

It built on the wild scenes that had descended at the Etihad following the final whistle. 

City’s heroes only stumbled out of Fenix at 5am, with the likes of Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne looking worse for wear. 

Along with the players, many supportive partners attended the event, smiling at the success. Phil Foden’s girlfriend Rebecca Cooke was there, while Rico Lewis was also seen holding hands with his partner, and Pep Guardiola’s wife Cristina was pictured. Erling Haaland’s girlfriend, Isabel Haugsend, was also seen throwing herself into the dancing. 

There was jubilation at the final whistle at 6pm on Sunday as joyous fans stormed the pitch at the Etihad Stadium and flares were let off outside pubs in the city. 

A 23-game unbeaten run extinguished Arsenal’s hopes of their first Premier League title since the Gunners’ Invincible season in 2003/04 as Mikel Arteta’s side missed out by two points. Third place went to Liverpool in Jurgen Klopp’s final game. 

At Manchester City, Foden struck twice early on as the team secured the Premier League title with a convincing 3-1 win over West Ham. 

There were few signs of last-day nerves from Guardiola’s dominant side, although a spectacular effort from Mohammed Kudus just before half-time at the Etihad Stadium did give rivals Arsenal brief hope.

Yet that was soon extinguished as Rodri drove home City’s third.

The victory ensured they could not be caught by the second-placed Gunners regardless of their result against Everton, which ended 2-1 to the Gunners.

Arsenal had needed a favour from West Ham, who were already confirmed in ninth place and were playing out the final match of David Moyes’ second spell as manager.

With City having shown little sign throughout the run-in of pressure affecting them, only optimistic Arsenal supporters were expecting them to slip up.

It took less than two minutes to dash even their hopes as City powered out of the traps to put the matter beyond all reasonable doubt.

With the sun blazing down and their player of the season Foden at his magical best, they did it in style.

Foden took a Bernardo Silva pass on the right and cut inside, skipping past a challenge from James Ward-Prowse and drilling a left-foot shot into the top corner from the edge of the box.

The atmosphere had already been buoyant but it was at this point the party really seemed to begin and City revelled in the occasion.

West Ham, without Jarrod Bowen due to tonsillitis, could do little to repel the hosts and it seemed only a matter of time before they doubled their lead as Jeremy Doku twice tested Alphonse Areola.

Rodri also lashed an effort wide but the second goal duly arrived on 18 minutes as Doku pulled the ball across the box and Foden swept home with a first-time shot.

Erling Haaland looked set to add another but Konstantinos Mavropanos did just enough to put him off as he shaped to shoot before Areola also denied the Norwegian.

The Hammers stirred before the break as Kudus forced a save from Stefan Ortega and then pulled one back with a stunning overhead strike.

It came following a corner as the ball struck Tomas Soucek and was flicked up into the air, with Kudus reacting instinctively to connect with a powerful bicycle kick.

With news filtering through soon after that Arsenal had equalised against Everton, to some the seeds for second-half drama may have been planted, but in reality there was little chance.

Haaland fired narrowly over and Kevin De Bruyne shot just wide soon after the break.

City tightened their grip and West Ham had seen little of the ball when Rodri powerfully guided home City’s third from the edge of the box just before the hour.

There seemed little motivation from West Ham to respond and City calmly stroked the ball around.

Haaland went close to adding another when the ball glanced off his shoulder and flew inches wide.

Some hearts may have been in mouths when Soucek put the ball into the net two minutes from time but it clearly struck his arm and was disallowed by VAR.

City saw out five minutes of stoppage time without alarm and the celebrations began in earnest with thousands of fans ignoring requests to keep off the pitch.

But after the game, Guardiola cast doubt over his long-term Manchester City future after admitting he is running out of things to achieve.

‘In terms of numbers, nobody has been better than us – the records, the goals, the points and four in a row,’ said Guardiola, who praised Arsenal counterpart Arteta and departing Liverpool boss Klopp.

‘If I land here tomorrow and you say I will win six Premier Leagues in seven years, I would say ‘Are you crazy?’. It’s impossible. We have done something unbelievable.

‘Six Premier Leagues in seven years, in this country with the modern football and the teams and everything. The teams and the organisation surprises me, it’s an incredible club.’

This is Guardiola’s 12th league title in 15 top-flight seasons as a manager and he is looking to add another FA Cup to his CV in next weekend’s Wembley final against rivals Manchester United.

The double would come hot on the heels of last season’s treble, leaving the City boss – whose deal runs out in 2025 – running out of things to motivate him.

‘The reality is I’m closer to leaving than to staying,’ Guardiola told Sky Sports. ‘It’s eight years, will be nine.

‘Right now my feeling is I want to stay next season. We talked with the club, we have time to talk next season because I have to see the players as well, (to see) if they follow me, they follow us, for many reasons. I will stay and during the season we will talk when calm.’

Asked in the press conference if he feels like he has completed English football and what he felt was left to achieve, Guardiola shrugged his shoulders and said: ‘I had that feeling last season.

‘When we won in Istanbul (in the Champions League final) I said, ‘It’s over, what am I doing here? It’s over, there’s nothing left’.

‘But I have a contract, I’m here and still enjoying. Some of the moments I’m a bit tired but some of the moments I love, and after I said ‘OK, we are here’.

‘(We) start winning games, looking good, different players, new players and I start to think about, ‘No-one has done four in a row, why don’t we try?’ And now I feel ‘It’s done, so what next?’ I don’t know right now.

‘I know next is the FA Cup. Gary Lineker said to me, I didn’t know, that no team has done back-to-back Premier Leagues and FA Cups.

‘It is our rivals and now what I want is for my players is to enjoy this two, three days, then we have two days to prepare the final.’