Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League standings with only one game to go after beating Tottenham 2-0. However, they came close to dropping points but were spared by poor finishing from Tottenham's Heung Min Son.
Pep Guardiola's side now need only one win to clinch the Premier League title, thanks in part to Son’s miss, leading fans to remember a similar scenario from a few seasons ago, when Kelechi Iheanacho’s miss influenced the title race.
Kelechi Iheanacho's big miss in Leicester vs Manchester City
The 2018/19 Premier League campaign produced one of the greatest title races of all time, if not the greatest. Manchester City and Liverpool went neck-and-neck until the final day of the season and were separated by a mere point at the end.
The vanquished, Liverpool, amassed a mammoth 97 points, a total enough to win the Premier League in all but three campaigns: the 2017/18 season in which City reached an unprecedented 100 points mark; the 18/19 campaign when Pep Guardiola’s side had one more than Liverpool's 97, 98; and the 2019/20 season when Jurgen Klopp's side fell one short of the century, winning the league with 99 points.
In a race as close as the 2018/19 campaign, neither team could afford a slip-up, and in the penultimate game of the season, when Manchester City faced the test of Brendan Rodger’s Leicester City, an Iheanacho intervention could have changed the course of history.
After Vincent Kompany’s iconic goal around the 70th-minute mark, to send the Mancunians ahead against the stubborn Foxes, Brendan Rodgers shuffled the deck by bringing on Iheanacho in the 80th-minute in place of James Maddison.
Seven minutes after his introduction, the Super Eagles star was played through on goal by the conspicuously hairstyled Hamza Choudhury, but the Nigeria international missed badly, dragging his effort wide.
impossível não ver esse lance do son sem se lembrar do iheanacho pipocando na pl 18/19
— Mahrez Deprê (@MahrezDepre_) May 14, 2024
posso dizer que sobrevivi nesses dois lances pic.twitter.com/Lpgw8Kw7ln
Son’s miss reminds social media of the “Iheanacho moment”
In the final game of the season, Manchester City went ahead to drub Brighton 4-1 to win that campaign, pipping Liverpool to the title.
The deck is shuffled similarly this season, as Tottenham were a potential banana skin in the penultimate game, as Leicester were five seasons ago.
Manchester City carried an insecure lone goal lead into the dying embers of the game in both matches and had their blushes spared by poor finishes in either.
This miss from SON will forever hunt arsenal fans pic.twitter.com/ruRC9fmZYd
— MBAH (@Mbahdeyforyou) May 14, 2024
Son was the culprit in today's game, as he failed to capitalise on a howler from Manuel Akanji, firing against Stefan Ortega, despite being one-on-one with the German shot-stopper.
Manchester City went ahead to get a safety goal later in the game to win 2-0, unlike the clash against Leicester, however, like that match, they head into the final match day with their destinies in their hands.
Fans on social media could not help but draw the obvious similarities between Iheanacho's miss and Son’s in the context of the title race:
Arsenal just got their Iheanacho miss moment. We’re no longer alone pic.twitter.com/auQy8bfBpi
— Sean (@SeanDOlfc) May 14, 2024
Son and Iheanacho when they need to hand City the title pic.twitter.com/q4A0nU95hf
— Sumeet (@flameosumeet) May 14, 2024
Akanji got my hopes up with that error for the Son chance, I wouldn’t be this shattered if they didn’t get a clean 1v1 like that. I just know he scores that if it was played in like March. Those Kulu chances didn’t hurt that much but Son…this was worse than Iheanacho I’m sorry
— 🍉 (@Flaminiesta) May 14, 2024
We feel your pain Arsenal fans. We remember Iheanacho missing an absolute sitter last minute in 2019 which affectively cost us the title. Fortunately we beat Barcelona 4-0 the next day to soften the blow.
— Paul Ellis (@liverblokelfc) May 14, 2024
Kelechi Iheanacho, come outside https://t.co/13waMC25V3
— Mo Stewart (@The_Mighty_Mojo) May 14, 2024
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