Truth behind Premier League trophy being delivered by helicopter to champions' stadium on final day
It's the final day of the 2023/24 Premier League season and it's still undecided as to who will lift the trophy.
As it stands, there's only two teams left in the running and just two points between them in the table.
Manchester City sit at the top of the table with 88 points, and a win today (19 May) would guarantee they lift the Premier League trophy for the fourth time in a row and will have won it six out of the past seven seasons.
It'd be another feather in the cap that sits atop the sparsely follicled head of manager Pep Guardiola, and another trophy for the club's detractors to look upon with suspicion given that the competition they might be about to win yet again has brought 115 charges against the club.
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For the past few years the Premier League has been dominated by a club which the competition alleges has committed 54 counts of failing to provide accurate financial information, 35 counts of failing to co-operate with Premier League investigations, 14 counts of failing to provide accurate details for player and management payments, seven counts of breaching the Premier League's PSR rules, and five counts of failing to comply with UEFA's rules including Financial Fair Play.
City deny the charges against them.
The only thing that can stop them now is City failing to defeat West Ham today and Guardiola's former assistant Mikel Arteta getting a win over Everton with his Arsenal side.
Arsenal are on 86 points in the league, and have a slightly better goal difference than City.
They will need to win their game and hope that Manchester City fail to win in order to get their first Premier League title since 2004 when Arsene Wenger's famous 'Invincibles' held the crown.
Funnily enough, if he wins the Premier League today, Arteta will have beaten the club that brought him to the competition as a player and clinched the title ahead of the one he used to be assistant manager of.
That's all the drama that's meant to be going down this afternoon, though let's be honest, at this point most people are expecting City to win it, but we'll see which team is lifting the trophy at full-time.
Speaking of which, both City and Arsenal are playing at home today, so depending on how the fixtures go the champions will be celebrating either in Manchester or London.
So who gets to lift the actual Premier League trophy?
You might have heard the idea that the trophy is sitting in a helicopter so it can be flown to the stadium of the champions, essentially having to turn back and forth between whichever club was top of the league.
We're sorry to break it to you, but there is no helicopter that brings the Premier League trophy to the winners.
A trophy will be waiting at both stadiums named after Middle Eastern airlines, because there are actually two identical Premier League trophies.
According to Sporting News, one trophy stays with the league champions for the year they hold it (or several years on the trot as is the case with City at the moment), while the Premier League gets to have the other for promotional purposes.
Since City already have a Premier League trophy in their possession, it'll be that one which is at the Etihad today, while the competition's own trophy will be waiting at the Emirates.
Both stadiums are primed for a champions celebration complete with podiums and fireworks, though only one of them will be needed today.
Topics: Football, Sport, Manchester City, Arsenal, Premier League
Joe Harker