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At the post-match press conference, Mourinho was inevitably asked to reflect on another Premier League title.

"The season is over, Manchester United finish first, Liverpool second, and Manchester City third. You said before the season that the objective was a third consecutive league title. How does it feel to have achieved it?"

Mourinho smiled.

"We achieved what we said we wanted to achieve, so of course I'm happy. Are Manchester United the best team in England this season? Yes. The table says that, and I think the performances say it too."

"Our players deserve the credit. They have been fantastic over the entire season, and I particularly enjoyed the way we finished today. A derby, the title on the line, and a very strong performance. That shows the character of the team."

Mourinho's appetite for trophies had never diminished with age. If anything, success only seemed to make him want the next one more.

"Last season's seven trophies are something we'll always remember, but this season we already lost the Community Shield. People can say it's only a small trophy, but if someone puts a cup in front of me and says I can win it, I want it."

He shrugged.

"I've had success in my career, but I don't want to spend the rest of it talking about things I won years ago. I don't want people to remember me only as the manager who brought Manchester United another league three-peat. I want more."

There was good reason for his confidence. United's squad remained relatively young, and several key players were still improving.

More importantly, Mourinho believed the structure of the team had become strong enough to survive occasional setbacks without collapsing.

Yet he also knew there was one player whose influence could not simply be reproduced through tactics.

His eyes moved toward Ling, who was answering questions a few seats away.

"In three years, we've won every major domestic trophy available to us," Ling said. "At this point, I think we've earned the right to say we're the strongest team in the Premier League."

He smiled.

"We should enjoy today. Everyone worked for this, and everyone deserves to celebrate. But our season isn't finished. We still have the FA Cup final and the Champions League final."

Asked what United wanted from those two matches, Ling gave the obvious answer.

"To win them."

"What else would I say?"

The room laughed.

"PSG are very strong. Neymar, Mbappé, Di María... everyone knows what they can do. Their only disadvantage is that this will be their first Champions League final, and you never know how a team reacts to that kind of pressure."

A reporter brought up United's remarkable comeback against Real Madrid two years earlier and asked whether Ling feared finding himself on the opposite side of something similar.

"Of course it can happen. That's football. We were the team everyone thought was finished that night, and we still came back."

"So if we reach a good position against Paris, we can't start thinking the match is over. We have to make sure we don't give them the opportunity we had against Madrid."

Somewhere along the way, Ling had stopped worrying so much about producing perfectly polished media answers.

He was experienced enough now to say what he actually thought without creating unnecessary controversy.

...

Manchester remained lively deep into the night.

Three consecutive league championships meant something special to a club with United's history.

Since the Premier League began in 1992, United had repeatedly built periods of dominance, but completing a three-peat had never been easy.

Ferguson's first great side won consecutive titles in 1992–93 and 1993–94, only to fall one point short of Blackburn in 1994–95 after failing to beat West Ham on the final day.

United won back-to-back titles again in 1995–96 and 1996–97 before Arsenal stopped another attempt at three in a row the following season.

The breakthrough finally came between 1998–99 and 2000–01, when Ferguson's team completed the club's first Premier League three-peat.

Another followed between 2006–07 and 2008–09, during the era of Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney, Ferdinand, Vidic, and the rest of one of Ferguson's strongest squads.

By the time Ferguson retired in 2013, United had accumulated thirteen Premier League championships.

In this version of history, Mourinho's team had now added three more in succession.

Sixteen Premier League titles in twenty-eight seasons.

More than half of them.

For supporters who had feared a long decline after Ferguson's departure, the transformation felt almost impossible.

The discussion quickly spread across the football media.

📰 The Guardian: Manchester United Complete Another Premier League Three-Peat

United had once again established themselves as the dominant domestic side, while Liverpool finished runners-up despite another excellent campaign.

📰 The Mirror: Klopp Promises Liverpool Will Keep Chasing United

Klopp refused to treat the title race as the beginning of permanent United dominance, insisting Liverpool would improve again and challenge next season.

Then, inevitably, The Sun found a stranger angle.

📰 The Sun: Superstition Returns as PSG Prepare for Manchester United

The tabloid revived old stories about footballers, curses, and supposed witch doctors after rumors circulated that someone connected with PSG had sought supernatural help before the Champions League final.

The story quickly descended into familiar football folklore.

It mentioned the Ghanaian spiritualist who had once claimed responsibility for Cristiano Ronaldo's knee problems before the 2014 World Cup, along with another rumor that someone had supposedly attempted to curse Ling before United's Champions League final the previous season.

Ling had never taken those stories seriously.

The fact that he had somehow lived through an experience as impossible as transmigration had not made him willing to believe every supernatural claim he encountered afterward.

As far as he was concerned, if someone wanted to beat him on a football pitch, they would have to do it with eleven players rather than a curse.

His habit of visiting temples occasionally only made the whole thing funnier to him.

'If I'm already covering both sides, surely I'm safe.'

Online discussion was considerably more focused on football.

📱 @StretfordEndTomThree straight Premier League titles. Three straight Golden Boots for Ling. This generation is ridiculous.

📱 @NeutralFootballImagine being Haaland or Sancho. You finally reach the age where Messi and Ronaldo are slowing down, and Ling is waiting for you.

📱 @BallonDorWatchThe frightening thing is his age. He could theoretically stay at this level for years.

📱 @GunnersNorthBankCan we not discuss the Ballon d'Or for five minutes? We have an FA Cup final against these people.

| ↳ 📱 @RedDevilBeijing| Reply: That is unfortunately why we are discussing it.

📱 @ArsenalFaithfulEveryone has already written us off, which means losing would be expected and winning would be hilarious. I'll take those odds.

📱 @WembleyWatchUnited still have the FA Cup and Champions League finals. The season isn't over yet.

...

Ling did not spend much time celebrating the league title.

The following morning, he returned to his normal training routine.

The Premier League trophy mattered enormously, but in his mind the biggest prize still waited in Lisbon.

Winning three consecutive Champions League titles would achieve something no club had managed since the competition was rebranded.

Before United could think about PSG, however, there was one final domestic match to play.

The FA Cup final.

At Wembley.

Manchester United against Arsenal.

...

The occasion attracted supporters from far beyond Manchester and London.

Wembley's larger capacity meant there were plenty of neutral spectators as well, many simply interested in watching the team that had dominated English football for three seasons.

Ling's popularity added to the demand.

He had become one of the most searched and recognizable footballers in the world, and organized football tours had become increasingly common among international supporters hoping to see him play in person.

One tour guide, Zhang Wei, had spent the previous two years taking groups to Premier League matches and had become a devoted Ling supporter himself.

He now owned a signed United shirt that had cost considerably more than he preferred to admit.

Before leading his group toward Wembley, he gave everyone one warning.

"Whatever happens after the match, do not run onto the pitch. Security is strict, and I'm not spending my evening helping anyone explain themselves to the police."

That earned several laughs.

He was only half joking.

...

The broadcast began shortly before kickoff.

"Good evening and welcome to Wembley for the 2019–20 FA Cup final: Manchester United against Arsenal."

Arsenal had long been the most successful club in the competition, but United's recent success had brought them level in this timeline with thirteen FA Cup trophies each.

Victory today would put one club alone on fourteen.

The contrast in domestic form was significant. United had just won the Premier League, while Arsenal had endured a difficult campaign and finished well below the European places.

Arteta had replaced Emery during the season and begun changing the team's structure, but several problems could not be solved in a few months.

Goalkeeper had been one area of scrutiny.

Leno was the established starter but had been criticized at times for costly errors, while Emiliano Martínez had spent much of his Arsenal career being sent on loan before finally receiving a meaningful opportunity with the first team.

Midfield protection remained another concern.

Arsenal had spent years trying to find the right balance in front of their defense.

Xhaka, Torreira, Guendouzi, and Ceballos all offered different qualities, but no combination had consistently provided the blend of ball progression, physical coverage, and defensive discipline that Arteta wanted.

Against most opponents, those flaws could be managed.

Against United, they were much harder to hide.

Arteta nevertheless approached the final aggressively.

Arsenal pressed high from kickoff, hoping to disrupt United before Mourinho's players could settle into their normal rhythm.

For roughly ten minutes, it worked.

Then United began escaping.

Ling's presence immediately became a problem for Arsenal's back three.

Holding and David Luiz could not step forward too aggressively because of the space he threatened behind them, while dropping too deep allowed Havertz and the midfielders to receive comfortably between the lines.

United took advantage in the 14th minute.

Wan-Bissaka won possession with an excellent tackle near the touchline and kept the ball in play.

McTominay collected it and drove into midfield before finding Havertz moving into the right half-space.

With Havertz playing behind the forwards rather than Bruno, United's attacking rhythm changed slightly.

Havertz tended to drift closer to Ling and combine through short movements around the penalty area, while Bruno usually looked for more direct passes from deeper positions.

Havertz carried the ball toward Xhaka, dragged it across the midfielder, and then lifted a delicate pass into the box.

Ling received with David Luiz tight against his back.

The two had once shared the same dressing room, which gave the duel a little extra familiarity, but that did not help the Brazilian here.

Ling used his body to protect the ball, created half a yard with his first touch, and shot before Luiz could recover.

Martínez reacted quickly.

Not quickly enough.

The ball passed him and went into the net.

1–0.

"Manchester United have the early breakthrough," Drury said. "Wan-Bissaka begins the move, McTominay carries it forward, Havertz finds the pass, and Ling finishes from close range."

Beglin focused on the buildup.

"Arsenal's press is broken by the first two passes, and once Havertz receives facing forward, the back line is immediately under pressure. Ling only needs a small amount of room to finish."

Wembley's United end erupted.

Fourteen minutes into the final, Arsenal were already chasing the match.

Martínez slapped his gloves together in frustration.

There was little he could have done about the finish. His greater concern was the ease with which United had moved from Wan-Bissaka's tackle to a shooting opportunity.

"Come on!" he shouted toward his defenders. "It's one goal. Wake up!"

David Luiz glanced toward Ling and resisted the temptation to reply.

It was easy for the goalkeeper to say.

He was not the one wrestling with Ling every time United attacked.

Still, Luiz knew complaining would accomplish nothing. He turned toward Holding and reorganized the line.

There was plenty of football left.

...

Mourinho had no intention of protecting a one-goal lead.

He stood at the edge of his technical area and repeatedly urged United forward, sensing that Arsenal had not recovered from the opening goal.

The pressure increased.

Arsenal's three center-backs were forced into repeated sprints, clearances, and physical duels.

Tierney moved across constantly to help Holding and Luiz, while the midfield struggled to slow United before attacks reached the defensive line.

By the half-hour mark, the workload was beginning to show.

In the 34th minute, Holding received possession with Ling closing him down.

He hesitated.

Ling stole the ball.

Suddenly, there was nobody between him and Martínez.

The Argentine goalkeeper came forward and set himself carefully.

Ling approached at speed but did not immediately choose a side. His upper body shifted one way, then the other, while the ball remained under complete control.

Martínez tried to wait.

Ling feinted left.

The goalkeeper committed.

Ling immediately touched the ball right and went around him.

The rest was simple.

He rolled the ball into the empty net.

2–0!

There was no extravagant celebration.

Ling turned toward the supporters, raised one arm, and waited for his teammates to arrive.

United had taken control of the final.

Arsenal continued competing, but every attempt to push higher created more space for Mourinho's side.

Their midfield spent increasing amounts of time chasing rather than controlling possession, while United remained comfortable switching between patient buildup and direct attacks whenever the opportunity appeared.

Two more goals followed during the remainder of the match.

By the final whistle, there was no ambiguity about the result.

Manchester United 4–0 Arsenal!

For the second time in a matter of days, United were preparing for another trophy presentation.

Their fourteenth FA Cup had moved them ahead of Arsenal as the most successful club in the competition in this timeline.

The Premier League was already secured.

Now the FA Cup was theirs as well.

Only Lisbon remained.

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