As an excitable Pep Guardiola congratulated his players one by one in the center of the field, a chant of "Champions" rang out from the Manchester City fans in one corner of an otherwise-deserted Old Trafford.
Three more victories and City will indeed be a Premier League winner once again.
A 2-0 win at Manchester United on Wednesday night took City within three wins of retaining the title - a feat no team has achieved in a decade.
Beat Burnley away, Leicester at home and Brighton away, and City are English champions for the sixth time.
The Sky Blues are a point ahead of Liverpool in an oscillating title race in which neither are backing down.
The Reds last dropped points with a goalless at Everton on March 3 while City are on an 11-match winning streak in the league.
"Liverpool I don't think are going to drop too many points, but it's in our hands," Guardiola said.
"Three games, we won the last 11. It's incredible what these players have done so far, but still we have a job to do."
City's class of 2018-19 has reached new levels of scoring, too.
Second-half strikes by Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane against United increased City's total to 157 goals in all competitions for the season - beating the English record for a single top-flight campaign that the team held from the pre-Guardiola era in 2013-14.
While City is arguably getting better, United are seemingly regressing under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after a seventh loss in their past nine games - five of them in the six matches since the Norwegian was given the full-time job at Old Trafford.
"In times like this, it's not time to point fingers or blame anyone," Solskjaer said.
"We have to stick together."
The Red Devils are in sixth place - two points behind Arsenal and three behind fourth-placed Chelsea who they face on Sunday.
Arsenal gave United some hope by losing 3-1 at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Chelsea, Liverpool, United and now the Gunners have all been beaten at Molineux this season.
It has been some return to the EPL for Wolves, who recorded their first win over Arsenal in 40 years and are on target to finish the so-called "best of the rest" in seventh place.
Wolves led 3-0 at the break before Sokratis Papastathopoulos headed in a late consolation goal for the visitors.
Arsenal can still qualify for the Champions League by winning the Europa League, where they are in the semi-finals.
Australian Associated Press
