Arsenal crowned Premier League champions as Manchester City stumble at Bournemouth

Bournemouth: Manchester City’s Premier League title dreams were snuffed out on the ​south coast on Tuesday with a heartbreaking 1-1 draw at Bournemouth that handed Arsenal an ‌unassailable lead at ​the top, and their first league trophy after a 22-year wait.Needing victory to keep alive the race ahead of Sunday’s season finale, City were undone by Eli Junior Kroupi’s brilliant first-half strike at Vitality Stadium, extinguishing City’s hopes of a seventh league title for Pep Guardiola in what is expected to be his final season after a glittering decade as manager.The draw ⁠left City on 78 points, four behind Arsenal. Bournemouth – unbeaten in 17 league games and sixth on 56 points – secured European qualification for the first time.Kroupi fired Bournemouth in front in the 39th minute to break the deadlock in a tight game when Adrien Truffert was ‌played through down the left. Truffert picked out the 19-year-old Frenchman, who took a touch before unleashing a brilliant curving shot just inside the far post past Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was rooted to the spot.AFC Bournemouth's Lewis Cook and Marcus Tavernier celebrate after the match as Manchester City's Nico O'Reilly looks dejected after Arsenal are confirmed as Premier League champions Action. Picture credit: Reuters City’s ‌Erling Haaland pulled back a goal deep in injury time when Rodri’s ‌shot bounced off the post and dropped to the Norwegian.Haaland swiftly grabbed the ball out ‌of the back of the net, ‌desperate for a second goal, but the final whistle sounded seconds later to seal City’s fate.City’s Antoine Semenyo had briefly celebrated what he ​thought was the game’s ‌opening goal, but it was ​chalked off for offside.City had surged into contention ⁠with a formidable 15-match unbeaten league run that stretched back to mid-January, breathing down Arsenal’s neck and setting up a gripping race to the finish.After slipping to third last year, in a campaign ​that followed an unprecedented ⁠run of four successive Premier ⁠League titles, Guardiola’s side had rebuilt momentum at just the right moment and looked poised to mount another late charge for the trophy to put alongside this season’s FA and League Cup silverware.That ⁠push ultimately fell short when it mattered most.Bournemouth, whose manager Andoni Iraola is leaving at season’s end, put on a top performance, and narrowly missed several late chances of a second goal.Donnarumma dived to claw out Evanilson’s late stab at the net, then a sprinting David Brooks got behind City’s back line before ringing a hard shot off the post.With Bournemouth having ‌slammed the door on City’s league title hopes, their final game against Aston Villa now carries no weight in the ​standings and instead looms as an emotional occasion, expected to serve as Guardiola’s farewell.What might have been a high-stakes conclusion has been stripped of its drama, leaving City to close out the campaign with a sense of reflection, on both a remarkable era and on a night on the ​south coast when it dramatically came to ‌an end.