Manchester: Where Trebles Are Made London has a lot of great things, and if you’re from the north of England, or elsewhere in the UK, one might even say it has too many. The capital certainly gets more than its fair share of funding for local transport and the arts, for example, but let’s try and keep this civil! London is home to the national stadium, Wembley, as well as great football teams like Arsenal and Chelsea (sorry Spurs fans). Liverpool has incredible nightlife, a unique identity, and, of course, produced The Beatles. It also has two of the country’s most successful football teams, with Everton and Liverpool boasting numerous domestic and European trophies between them including an impressive collection of league titles and FA Cups. Liverpool are the second-most successful side in English football in terms of league titles, and the most successful when it comes to the League Cup and the Champions League. Arsenal have won the FA Cup more than any other team and produced the Invincibles of 2003/04 who went the whole season unbeaten, and Chelsea managed some astonishing feats under Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and others. But only two sides in English football have ever achieved the treble. Others have won three pieces of silverware in a season but there are just two who have won the three biggest competitions it is possible to win: the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League. Those two clubs are Manchester United and Manchester City: hence our assertion that trebles are made in Manchester. United Make History in 1998/99 Man City are very much the dominant force in the Premier League right now and have been for some time. They have won eight of the last 13 titles, including the last four in a row. However, before Erling Haaland, Pep Guardiola and the Abu Dhabi billions, there was only really one team in Manchester – even if they are actually located in Salford – and they wore red, not sky blue. United, brilliantly managed by Sir Alex Ferguson, had an iron grip on the Premier League for almost all of the first 20 years of its existence. They won it eight times in the first 11 seasons after the rebrand for the start of the 1992/93 campaign. They were almost unstoppable, winning several doubles (league and FA Cup) and had just two results gone differently, they would have won the Premier League nine seasons in succession. But even among such sustained trophy gathering, 1998/99 was something special. A year earlier, Arsenal had the temerity to pip the Red Devils to the title by a single point but 12 months on, with a point to prove, United returned the favour. From Boxing Day onwards they did not lose a game in the league and a 2-1 win on the final day saw them finish a point above the Gunners. FA Cup Gives Indication of Drama Ahead sportsphotographer.eu, Bigstockphoto United were so adept at scoring late goals that the term “Fergie time” was coined to refer to the extra added time that referees played and where United would, inevitably, score. They did not need stoppage time in the FA Cup but we certainly saw some incredible, scarcely believable late drama. In the third round, they were drawing 1-1 with Boro with eight minutes left but won 3-1. In the next round they were losing 1-0 against great rivals Liverpool with just a couple of minutes left but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – remember that name! – scored in the 88th and 90th minutes. They beat Fulham and then, in a replay, Chelsea, before an incredible semi against Arsenal. A replay was needed, and then in the dying moments, Arsenal had a penalty and a very good chance to win the game. It was saved and then Ryan Giggs scored one of the greatest FA Cup goals ever to win it in extra time. United went on to Newcastle 2-0 in a rather routine final – by their standards. Champions League Brings Even Crazier Drama United had won the Cup Winners’ Cup under Fergie in 1991 and after making the semis of the Champions League in 1996/97, then quarters a season later, they had gained valuable experience. They had to play in the qualifying round but breezed through that before they finished second in a very tough group with Bayern and Barca. They were unbeaten, but drew all four games with the two European giants. They saw off Inter in the last eight but then needed more late heroics in the semi against Juve. In the first leg, at home, Giggs salvaged a draw with a stoppage-time strike. In Italy they fell two down after 11 minutes but fought back to win 3-2, the winner coming in the 83rd minute. Unbelievably the drama of the final made all that had preceded it seem like a slow episode of Emmerdale. United trailed group foes Bayern from the sixth minute until the 91st. And yet stoppage-time goals from Teddy Sheringham and a certain Solskjaer earned them the win, and an incredible treble. City Match Rivals In 2022/23, in Erling Haaland’s first season at the Etihad, City managed something that Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, nor any other English side bar one, had done, and landed the treble. They had toiled for many seasons in the CL, often falling in the last eight or even last 16 when among the favourites, if not indeed the outright market principle. However, in 2023 it would be their year, as they beat Inter Milan in the final 1-0 in Istanbul. They took 14 points from 18 in the group phase, going unbeaten. They then thrashed RB Leipzig 8-1 on aggregate before seeing off much tougher German opposition almost as easily in the quarters. They beat Bayern Munich 4-1 over two legs to set up a semi with Real Madrid. They had met several times, most recently when City suffered an agonising defeat in the semis in 2021/22. However, this time Pep’s troops blew the Spaniards away, winning 4-0 in the return on home soil after a 1-1 draw in Spain. When they beat Inter thanks to a Rodri goal, they brought home Manchester’s second treble – much to the huge annoyance of the red half of the city. Domestic Double Maxisports, Bigstockphoto The Red pain was even more keenly felt as they had lost the FA Cup final to City a week earlier. The would-be-treble winners won 2-1, having beaten Chelsea and then Arsenal in the earlier rounds, as well as Bristol City, Burnley and Sheffield United. Their success in the Premier League looks easy in the final analysis – they won by five points with an impressive 89-point haul. However, the Gunners had led the way for much of the campaign, before an incredible run by City where they took 44 points from a possible 48. Arsenal stumbled, whilst Haaland’s 36 league goals, and 52 in all competitions, powered City to three-front glory. Football