Manchester City started this season very poorly, losing heavily to Leicester and even going on to slump into the bottom half of the table.
After Pep Guardiola's worst ever start to a season, few saw this league-winning resurgence coming, but City turned it round emphatically.
More surprisingly, given defensive leakiness over the last few seasons, they turned out one of the best defensive records and joint-highest clean sheets as they secured the title.
Across this season, Man City have stumbled, fallen and risen again to be champions.
Here, Mirror Football picks out four key fixtures that defined their season.
Man City 2-5 Leicester City, 27 Sep 2020
On only the second game of the season, City suffered one of their most convincing defeats in recent years.
An unstoppable Leicester led by Jamie Vardy - the only player to score a hat-trick against Guardiola - tore apart a shaky City whose defensive woes looked worse than ever.
The lack of leadership at the back post-Vincent Kompany showed as the rudderless team spiralled every-time Leicester came forward.
It would start the roughest patch of City's season during which many wrote them off and they won only two in seven league games.
This game was pivotal because of everything they did wrong against a rampant Leicester.
It showed a team seriously lacking in defence, and threatened all their dreams of silverware.
Two days after, they would confirm the signing of Ruben Dias. Alongside a revitalised John Stones, who didn't feature against Leicester but would become a common starter afterwards, Dias would turn the City defence, and team, around.
This was only City's second game, but it set the tone for what their season could be if things did not change.
Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Man City, 21 Nov 2020
Guardiola is widely considered one of the best managers of all time. However, even the best get it wrong sometimes.
Over a seven game spell, a struggling City won only twice.
Despite having 67 per cent possession against Jose Mourinho's Tottenham Hotspur and nearly twice the number of passes, they would lose 2-0 as Spurs went top of the league. City, on the other hand, slumped into the bottom half.
During what now feels like an entirely different world, Spurs under Mourinho were the more tactically disciplined of the two teams, and ruthlessly took their chances when it came.
City had possession, but couldn't do anything with it.
This loss galvanised a struggling City and deflated Pep at the time.
A few months later he would reflect on the tactical shift after that game, saying: “Without the ball you have to run. But with the football you have to walk, or run much less: stay more in position and let the ball run, not you.”
He, in essence, got his team to run less on the ball.
This wasn't of course the only change; using Joao Cancelo to overload the midfield became a well-known tactic and using under and over-lapping runners on the wings helped too.
It's difficult to argue with the changes the Spurs defeat forced upon City. Afterwards, they went on a 19-game unbeaten streak and have only lost three in the 27 games.
This game saw City change how they were playing, to great effect. It was a marker in their season.
Southampton 0-1 Man City, 19 Dec 2020
After City's second-leg win over Paris Saint-Germain to secure their place in the Champions League final, Kyle Walker himself pointed to this game as vital in their season.
It was a tough-fought match against an energetic Saints who countered well and were solid in defence.
After a 16th-minute Raheem Sterling goal, Southampton threatened a number of times, but City held on and ground out a win.
These types of wins are vital for any title winning side; the treble-winning Manchester United team are perhaps the best example, bagging a number of 1-0 or 2-1 victories during the winter of 1998/99.
Southampton pushed City to the final whistle and made them fight hard for the three points. Where Guardiola's men may have buckled in previous seasons, they stood firm in this one.
Under the Spaniard, City have long been a team renowned for the aesthetic style they play with - but to win the title they had to learn to be pragmatic and see out the tough games.
Liverpool 1-4 Man City, 7 Feb 2021
This was City’s first win at Anfield in almost 18 years and only their third in 50 games since 1956.
Despite having a tough season, Liverpool were still no pushovers. To beat them so emphatically during a 19-game unbeaten run demonstrated the class of this City team.
The game saw a virtuoso performance from the 20-year-old Phil Foden and two goals from Ilkay Gundogan.
The German's position atop City's top-scorer list is a surprise to many, as the once defensive midfielder was never previously rated for his goal scoring ability.
In previous league-winning seasons, City were led by a dominant striker - usually Sergio Aguero - but this season they lacked a prolific frontman, and then often chose to play without one.
The victory at Liverpool was important because it showed that where many had struggled and floundered this season, City hadn't - they had adapted and improved.
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