SUNDERLAND 0, MAN UNITED 1.
Manchester United saw a 20th title snatched from their grasp in a final gripping twist to the most dramatic Premier League campaign.
The Reds lost on goal difference to their noisy neighbours, but that only tells half the story on an incredible final afternoon to the season.
United needed to win at the Stadium of Light, which they did, and then rely on City slipping up at home to QPR.
When City were losing 2-1 to the Londoners in stoppage time, it looked as through United would be crowned champions.
But injury-time goals from Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguerro saw City snatch the title from the grasp of the United players who were waiting on the pitch in the North East for the game at the Etihad Stadium to reach its conclusion.
It was a heartbreaking finish as United came agonisingly close to retaining their championship crown.
Yet it wasn’t today that United lost the title. How they will live to regret losing at home to Blackburn Rovers, those painful defeat at Wigan and Everton as well as squandering a 4-2 lead at home to Everton. Just one more positive result would have been enough.
Wayne Rooney was United’s matchwinner against the Black Cats which was fitting as he has been the Reds’ stand-out player.
It was a victory which ought to have been far more emphatic and there is no way they ought to have been holding on to a slender one-goal advantage at the final whistle.
United were denied three times by the frame of the goal and on another day could have won by a hatful.
After a laboured opening, Phil Jones headed inches over after beating keeper Simon Mignolet to a Ryan Giggs corner.
Jones turned provider with the cross for Rooney’s decisive goal in the 20th minute as the striker stole in at the far post to find the net with a close-range header.
United ought to have finished the opening half with the game out of sight as Rooney alone struck the crossbar with a free kick and missed a sitter when he rolled the ball wide of an open net.
Rooney was denied by a superb block by Mignolet soon after the restart as the second goal remained elusive.
The chance continued to flow as Jones headed wide, Ashley Young had a goalbound shot blocked while a terrific volley from Paul Scholes struck the upright and Ryan Giggs’ follow-up shot was brilliantly turned over by Mignolet.
And right at the death Rooney was denied for a second time by the woodwork from a free kick as he could easily have scored a hat trick.
In the end United’s win proved in vain as City snatched victory in stoppage time to spark a massive celebration in the blue half of Manchester as their 44-year wait for a championship triumph came to an end.