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Manchester United's 1999 Treble Winners Remain English Soccer's Greatest Team

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After brushing aside Watford 6-0 in the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday evening, Manchester City became the first ever club to win the treble of the league title, the FA Cup and the League Cup.

Since 1971 when it became compulsory for all teams to enter the League Cup, none had previously managed to win all three of the domestic trophies on offer in the same season. 

It is, however, a testament to Pep Guardiola’s all consuming drive he is likely to spend his summer not basking in the glory of this achievement, but thinking about the one that got away: the Champions League.

It will greatly frustrate the Spaniard that he will be on holiday when Liverpool and Tottenham contest the final in Madrid at the end of next week. 

If City had not been beaten by Tottenham at the quarter-final stage and managed to go on and win the Champions League they would have also claimed the title of English football’s greatest ever team.

But for now that title continues to reside across town at Manchester United, and with the team that won the treble of the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup 20 years ago in the 1998-99 season.  

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Manchester United becoming champions of England and Europe, while also adding the FA Cup, still  trumps City’s own haul of trophies this season.

To win both the Premier League and the Champions League in the same season is remarkable, and has been achieved by United twice, in 1999 and 2008.

Over the last two seasons as Manchester City have triumphed in commanding style at home, they have continued to fall short in Europe. 

To be hailed as a truly great side, City need to win the Champions League, and preferably in the same season as the league title, a feat only previously achieved by United, and Liverpool in 1977 and 1984.

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It would be difficult to argue against this City side being the best ever team to win the Premier League.  

Last season they became the first side to win it with 100 points, and this season successfully defended their title by winning 98 points, the second highest total in the 27-year history of the Premier League.  

Whereas in the 2017-18 season, City comfortably won the title by 19 points from United in second place, this season they have managed to keep in front of a rampant Liverpool side, who lost just one league game all season (against City) and won 97 points to finish a point behind them.  

City are a joy to watch in the clinical manner they sweep down the pitch, with the sumptuous talents of Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne effortlessly overwhelming opponents.

In contrast the Manchester United side of 1999 won a mere 79 points (19 less than City in 2019) and 22 games (10 less than City), but it was enough to finish on top of the table and ahead of a very fine Arsenal side managed by Arsene Wenger, who were then the reigning champions.

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Both City’s class of 2019 and United’s 1999 vintage won the double of the Premier League and FA Cup.

But while City would add the League Cup in 2019 by defeating Oxford United, Fulham, Leicester City, Burton, and Chelsea in the final; Manchester United in 1999 would win the Champions League by overcoming Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Juventus, and Bayern Munich in the final.

So far City under Guardiola have failed to progress further than the quarter-finals of the Champions League, losing to Monaco in the first knock-out phase in 2017, and then both Liverpool and Tottenham in the last eight in the last two seasons. 

To be considered a truly great side, and supplant the 1999 United side, City still have to go all the way and win the Champions League.

And Pep Guardiola certainly agrees, for in the aftermath of their FA Cup and domestic treble win at the weekend he admitted, “I know we will be judged at the end on whether we win the Champions League...I know unless we do that it will not be enough."