Manchester City's Vincent Kompany determined not to rest on his laurels in bid to make it two in a row

So close were Manchester United to claiming a 20th domestic championship that, with their final-day fixture at Sunderland ending in a 1-0 victory, Premier League officials had begun to remove medals from boxes at the Stadium of Light prior to an unexpected trophy presentation on the pitch.

By that stage, Edin Dzeko had scored an injury-time equaliser for City against Queens Park Rangers but, with 90 seconds left to play, it was nothing more than a consolation goal.

Then came the seismic moment, Sergio Agüero’s last-gasp winner for City, which led to the medals being hastily returned to their boxes at Sunderland and instead the trophy decked in blue-and-white ribbons at the Etihad.

With seconds left on the clock of the season, City had gone from nearly men to champions.

A weight had been lifted, the balance of power had shifted. As Roberto Mancini’s champions prepare to defend their title, however, City captain Vincent Kompany insists that the only way to repeat the success is to forget it ever happened in the first place.

“You can walk around thinking you’re a winner, but if you don’t train like a winner or if you don’t do everything in your life to maintain being a winner, it just stops there,” Kompany said.

“Just after we won the league, I was thinking, 'I don’t want this to have an influence on me’, because before I won the league I didn’t think I could win it.

“So I prepared twice as much as others, I’d like to believe, and did everything to win it. It was an obsession for us and myself, so I hope we just keep that obsession.

"Every day of my life, I’m still obsessed by this moment, by this victory at the end of the season. It’s what I want to have again.”

In the space of 12 months, City have ended their long wait for silverware and built on the club’s 2011 FA Cup triumph by winning the title last season.

The lack of transfer activity at the club so far this summer has irked Mancini and prompted the manager to warn that a failure to strengthen could compromise attempts to secure more trophies.

But Kompany, who signed a new six-year contract at the club last month, insists that City now have the platform upon which to build sustained and greater success.

He said: “People were asking what effect the FA Cup was going to have on us, having ended the club’s 35-year wait for a trophy.

“If the FA Cup had an impact on us winning the league, then I hope winning the league will have an impact on us winning things in Europe. But everything in time.

“You know, last year was our first participation in the Champions League and I’m convinced we will have a better run this year – but everything in time.

"At the moment, we have to prove ourselves to England. Hopefully, Europe and the world will come later, but it has happened in the right way so far – FA Cup, League and then we’ll see what we achieve.”

City’s success last season is arguably even more remarkable considering the distractions of Carlos Tévez’s lengthy dispute with the club, Mario Balotelli’s mad moments and the failure of the likes of Dzeko and Adam Johnson to deliver on a consistent basis.

Kompany insists, though, that everybody played their part last season and that those who bore the brunt of criticism will prove their worth in the new campaign.

“If you are part of a winning title team, from that moment on you have had your contribution, whether it is on the pitch or in the dressing-room,” the City captain said.

“All the players you named have made their contribution. You know what, those players will naturally develop.

"They are all young players. If they hold on to the positives from last season, I don’t think they will have any problems this season.”