There was a time, long ago, before the oil money and Pep Guardiola and a brand of bewitching, pulverising football we have never seen before, when Manchester City might have been considered the sentimental choice in an FA Cup Final. Now they are so good that they are the enemies of romance and friends only to relentless and unprecedented achievements.
At a bee-stung Wembley, Watford's fans filled the stadium with the kind of colour and wide-eyed enthusiasm that recalled an era when this was the biggest event in the English football calendar but City had a different kind of history in mind and they pursued it with the unforgiving rigour and the beautiful, scintillating football that has been the hallmark of another breathtaking campaign.
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