Newcastle U 0 Manchester C 2:HIGH IN the Milburn Stand, a familiar face from Manchester City's past could be seen wiping away tears of joy. Mike Summerbee, a veteran of the last City team to win the championship in 1968, scarcely seemed able to take it all in. One more win now, one more good performance against the sort of team they have swatted aside all season, and the long, often excruciating wait will be over: City will be champions.

Roberto Mancini, the manager who has overseen the renaissance, did his best to keep a lid on all the emotion, pointing out it would be dangerous in the extreme to underestimate Queens Park Rangers, their opponents on the final weekend of the season, who are still fighting against relegation.

But beneath that calm exterior, he will know the significance of Yaya Toure’s second-half goals, what they meant for the title race and what surely comes next, as well as the dynamics of where it leaves the club in relation to Manchester United. City have dropped two points at the Etihad Stadium all season and are unbeaten at home since December 2010. QPR have lost 13 of 18 away fixtures and conceded six goals to Chelsea in the last of them. Surely, City cannot blow this chance.

This is the modern-day City, remember, not the team of old who would crumble under pressure. Never did they start panicking, or rushing, when they were struggling to get behind Newcastle’s defence, the minutes were ticking down and their position at the top was starting to look vulnerable. They simply kept going, trusting themselves to find goals.

In the end, they wore down Newcastle with their sheer persistence. Mancini was on the pitch at the end to congratulate his players and salute the City supporters.

A few minutes earlier, when Toure lashed in his second goal, the joy on the City bench was unconfined. However, much Mancini tried to quell the euphoria, City must believe they have done the really hard work.

A lesser team would have folded when they went eight points behind United four weeks ago, on the back of a 13-point swing in little more than a month. Instead, City simply rolled up their sleeves and went about the business of staking their claim to be recognised as the best football team in the Premier League.

“City’s cracking up”, United’s supporters had sung. Now we know it was anything but true.

Toure has scored some crucial goals for City over the last year or so, including the winner in the 2011 FA Cup final, but none have carried this significance. His timing was impeccable, too, because when he opened the scoring, with 20 minutes to go, the game was just about reaching the stage when, back in Manchester, Alex Ferguson might have started daring to hope for another twist in the title race.

City had controlled most of this match but their domination had been repelled by a stubborn Newcastle side. Alan Pardew’s team threatened only sporadically but they are still a side pushing for a Champions League place. For City to dictate almost the entire match is a measure of their great resolve.

There were some anxious moments along the way, both in their inability to turn their superior possession into clear-cut chances and also Newcastle’s sporadic threat on the counterattack, such as when Hatem Ben Arfa brought the game’s outstanding save from Joe Hart. But City were the dominant attacking side.

They deserved to win. Toure’s first goal was a beauty, advancing through midfield, exchanging passes with Sergio Aguero and then curling his shot past Tim Krul. Here, too, was a snapshot of Mancini’s expertise. A few minutes earlier he had replaced Carlos Tevez with Nigel de Jong, a defensive midfielder, purely so Toure could push further forwards. The tactic worked exquisitely.

Newcastle had to push forward with greater adventure, leaving City with space to exploit. Aguero fired wide with only Krul to beat and Toure was also later denied.

Then, on 89 minutes, Gael Clichy picked out Toure and his left-footed finish flashed into the net. City could start thinking about next Sunday and all the joys that will come from defeating the team managed by Mancini’s predecessor, Mark Hughes, and captained by their former midfielder, Joey Barton.