Bournemouth and Fulham Clear Path For Seagulls and Bees To Fight For Europe

It's now become clear that should Manchester City win the FA Cup, eighth place will become the Premier League's Europa Conference League spot. With Bournemouth suffering a home defeat to Aston Villa and Fulham becoming the latest victims of David Moyes' Everton revolution, Brighton and Brentford are now the two prime candidates for that final European place.

Image source: sofascore.com

Marco Silva's side have lost four of their last five - a terrible run of form in the worst possible moment. But with just two points between the four teams and an unpredictable set of fixtures, it is simply too close to call even with just two games left.

Remaining Fixtures Brentford: Fulham (H), Wolves (A) Brighton: Liverpool (H), Tottenham (A) Bournemouth: Manchester City (A), Leicester (H) Fulham: Brentford (A), Manchester City (H)

Having said that, Thomas Frank will likely be the most optimistic manager of the four; his men are top of the Premier League over the last five games. Brentford's attritional 1-0 victory over Ipswich on Saturday could prove vital.

The one guarantee is that all four of these teams will be tuning into Saturday's FA Cup final with incredibly vested interests. I wonder if any of them have Manchester City shirts.

Saints Survive Worst Season Worries

It's taken them 36 games, but Southampton are safe... from going into the history books for having the worst Premier League season for any club in history.

St Mary's attendees watched on as Simon Rusk (who recently became Southampton's interim manager for the second time this season) oversaw the Saints having just two shots to Manchester City's twenty-six but somehow come away with a point. Aaron Ramsdale produced four saves throughout the afternoon but for all their shots, City only produced 1.82 xG - a startlingly low figure considering the Blues' absolute dominance in the game.

Saturday saw Pep Guardiola's men have their second most shots in a league game this season - but their total xG ranks 20th across their 36 Premier League matches so far. They had just two efforts worth more than 0.2 xG throughout - a very un-Guardiola statistic.

It should be factored in that Southampton were, understandably, happy to run the clock down and sit in their own box throughout the game - to the point where Ruben Dias accused the Saints of "not trying to play" post-match. Nonetheless, the volume of shots compared to the cumulative xG value will certainly be of concern for City's boss.

Regardless of whether or not they were "trying to play", Southampton fans can at last take something away from this Premier League season. They will not be the worst ever, and they held the reigning Champions to a point.

Champions League Race Turns Sour At The City Ground

St James' Park played host to the game which comfortably carried the most jeopardy of the weekend as Chelsea travelled to Newcastle looking to assert themselves as favourites for a Champions League place. They left with their first loss in six games and without their striker for the final two games of the season.

It is the latter of these that has the potential to significantly harm the Blues. Their final two games (At home to Manchester United and away at Nottingham Forest) will now be much bigger tests due to Nicholas Jackson's red card.

The Magpies, meanwhile, leapfrogged Manchester City to move third in the table and are surely favourites to finish in that illustrious top five. Their win was all the more important considering Villa's victory on Saturday evening.

The other major Champions League talking point was sparked with controversy as Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis was seen verbalising his frustrations towards Nuno Espirito Santo after his side drew 2-2 with Leicester. The defeat leaves Forest in seventh and guaranteed European football, but Morgan Gibbs-White was clear that his side's defending was "unacceptable" for a team chasing Europe's most elite competition.

Scandalous from that Forest owner. Nuno should go and negotiate his exit tonight with him! The Forest fans,players and manager do not deserve that

— Gary Neville (@GNev2) May 11, 2025

Europa League Finalists Fluff Lines

Having both reached the Europa League final on Thursday, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur showed solidarity by both losing 2-0 at home to opposition in the Premier League bottom half.

Of the two defeats, United's meltdown to West Ham, who have themselves endured a season to forget, is without doubt the more concerning. To present the Hammers their first victory since February after so emphatically dispatching Athletic Club midweek is the kind of inconsistency that the Red Devils have come to hate. With their track record against Spurs this season (3-0 and 1-0 league defeats and a 4-3 loss in the League Cup), the one thing Ruben Amorim would have liked to have on their side going into the final was surely that of being the team in better form.

And while they're not in better form, they're not in worse. Both United and Spurs have taken just one point from their last league games. Ange Postecoglou's men have potential summer-target Eberechi Eze to thank for that, as his quickfire double was enough to see off the Lilywhites.

It should of course, be considered that both teams' league campaigns have been written off for some time. But this weekend saw the first time that the two occupy sixteenth and seventeenth spot in the Premier League - with United one point ahead on 39. From their perspectives, it must be quite a relief that the three relegated teams never posed a threat.

The Europa League has been both sides' potential season-saver for quite some time now, and while Spurs certainly have the upper hand from a head-to-head perspective, the onus will no doubt be on Postecoglou to win a trophy as a means to save his job. With that, comes huge pressure, and suddenly the final seems too close to call.

To add fuel to the fire, both teams face tough away fixtures ahead of the final on May 21st. Spurs visit Aston Villa, and United head to Chelsea.

Liverpool Guard of Honour Hushed By Arsenal Comeback

Mikel Arteta described Arsenal’s first half performance as “unacceptable” when asked about how his side presented Liverpool two goals in two minutes at Anfield yesterday. The Spaniard watched his team dominate possession but present Liverpool with three big chances in the opening twenty-one minutes. Not the kind of “dominance” or the “standards” that Arteta wants his men to adhere to.

“We reacted, great… but to do it after, it’s too late”. To go two goals down early on at Anfield is a position any side would struggle to recover from. Yet Arsenal’s second half response was phenomenal. They flew out of the gates and Gabriel Martinelli scored his first goal in six games to give the away fans hope.

When Martin Odegaard let fly from the edge of the box and forced Alisson Becker into a great save, Arsenal fans were probably just as pleased at the fact that the Norwegian had taken a shot than when Mikel Merino reacted fastest to draw the Gunners level. The Arsenal captain looked like a man with a point to prove, shooting four times across the ninety minutes, creating a big chance and providing two key passes on route to guiding his team to a point at Anfield.

Merino quickly went from hero to zero when a desperate challenge on Dominic Szoboszlai earned him a second yellow card. Declan Rice’s absence meant the 28-year-old was required in midfield - and despite scoring, his performance won’t have inspired many Arsenal fans who have already questioned his ability to play in Rice’s position.

Here come the champions!

Arsenal greet Liverpool onto the Anfield pitch with a guard of honour 👏#LIVARS pic.twitter.com/eeLHA8lcgD

— Premier League (@premierleague) May 11, 2025

The Reds didn’t seem to be too dispirited by the result, with Anfield in a party atmosphere for most of the afternoon. Apart from when two time Premier League winner, Champions League winner and 20-year Liverpool legend Trent Alexander-Arnold entered the pitch, at which point some supporters felt that booing one of their all-time greats was an ample way for their local hero to experience Anfield for the final time.

Distaste towards Alexander-Arnold is understandable - with the Englishman having run down his contract and able to leave on a free this summer, but booing, even to Jamie Carragher, was a “step too far”.

Two gameweeks remain, and while the title and relegation are both wrapped up, there are still many questions left unanswered for this Premier League season.