In lieu of a true last-day nail-biter for the ages, the kind that briefly seemed possible but quickly flickered out, Manchester City gave us a narratively satisfying end to the Premier League season.
It took just 79 seconds for the Citizens to all but eradicate the threat of a West Ham upset, and with it the neutrals' and Arsenal fans' hopes of a title-deciding slip. Phil Foden, recently named the league's player of the season, stood inside that little zone just outside and to the right of the penalty box's crown, the very site of origin for so much of the damage he has wrought in this consecrating season of his, awaiting a Bernardo Silva pass. As the ball zipped toward him from the right wing, Foden, in a single motion, feathered the ball toward the center of the pitch with one touch of his left foot, turned his body nearly 180 degrees to follow it, and escaped one challenge from a West Ham player who'd been baffled by the fluidity of the turn. Coming off of his instep, the ball rolled as gently and precisely as if an unhurried pair of hands had spun it there, and not a harried foot that simultaneously wheeled an entire body around inside the most valuable sector of a pitch upon which the championship of the best soccer league on the planet was being decided. After turning, Foden sped up to the ball and applied his second touch, which sent it on a spin-less flight into the far reaches of the West Ham goal. It was almost identical to the beauty he scored against Real Madrid last month, and the replication of such a sumptuous touch, turn, and finish only made it more impressive: the extraordinary made routine.
