Key events
Nottm Forest v Chelsea
Nottm Forest (4-D-2) Sels; Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams; Sangare;
Dominguez, Anderson; Gibbs-White; Wood, Elanga.
Subs: Carlos Miguel, Morato, Hudson-Odoi, Toffolo, Jota Silva, Yates,
Sosa, Danilo, Boly.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Sanchez; James, Adarabioyo, Colwill, Cucurella; Caicedo, Enzo; Caicedo, Madueke, Palmer, Sancho; Pedro Neto.
Subs: Jorgensen, Badiashile, Dewsbury-Hall, Chalobah, Gusto, George,
Acheampong, Guiu, Lavia.
Referee Anthony Taylor (Cheshire)
Bournemouth v Leicester team news
Bournemouth Arrizabalaga, Smith, Zabarnyi, Senesi, Kerkez, Adams, Brooks, Tavernier, Kluivert, Semenyo, Evanilson.
Subs: Dennis, Huijsen, Scott, Soler, Jebbison, Araujo, Hill, Silcott-Duberry, Winterburn.
Leicester: Stolarczyk, Justin, Coady, Faes, Kristiansen, Skipp, Soumare, McAteer, Ayew, Thomas, Daka.
Subs: Iversen, Okoli, Ricardo Pereira, Golding, Buonanotte, Aluko, Evans, Monga, Braybrooke.
Referee Lewis Smith (Lancashire)
Fulham v Man City team news
Kevin De Bruyne starts on the bench. Jack Grealish does not, and he’s not in the XI either. That’s a pretty sad end to his Manchester City career.
Fulham (4-2-3-1) Leno; Tete, Andersen, Cuenca, Robinson; Cairney, Lukic;
Traore, Andreas Pereira, Wilson; Jimenez.
Subs: Benda, Bassey, Vinicius, Berge, Iwobi, Willian, King, Sessegnon, Smith Rowe.
Man City (4-2-3-1) Ederson; Matheus Nunes, Dias, Akanji, Gvardiol; Nico Gonzalez, Gundogan; Bernardo Silva, Marmoush, Doku; Haaland.
Subs: Ortega, Ake, Rodri, De Bruyne, Savio, Echeverri, Foden, O’Reilly, Lewis.
Referee Andrew Madley (West Yorkshire)
Newcastle v Everton team news
Newcastle Pope, Schar, Botman, Burn, Murphy, Guimaraes, Tonali, Livramento, Barnes, Isak, Gordon.
Subs: Dubravka, Trippier, Lascelles, Wilson, Krafth, Osula, Willock, Longstaff,
Miley.
Everton Pickford, Young, Keane, O’Brien, Mykolenko, Garner, Gueye, Harrison, Alcaraz, Ndiaye, Beto.
Subs: Virginia, Begovic, Patterson, McNeil, Calvert-Lewin, Doucoure, Chermiti, Broja, Welch.
Referee Tony Harrington (Cleveland)
Ipswich v West Ham team news
Ipswich Palmer, Tuanzebe, O’Shea, Greaves, Davis, Morsy, Cajuste, Hutchinson, Chaplin, Broadhead, Hirst.
Subs: Walton, Woolfenden, Jack Taylor, Burgess, Delap, Szmodics, Luongo,
Clarke, Boniface.
West Ham Fabianski, Todibo, Kilman, Mavropanos, Wan-Bissaka, Ward-Prowse, Alvarez, Scarles, Soucek, Bowen, Fullkrug.
Subs: Areola, Cresswell, Coufal, Lucas Paqueta, Kudus, Luis Guilherme, Ings, Rodriguez, Irving.
Referee Tim Robinson (West Sussex)
Southampton v Arsenal team news
Southampton Ramsdale, Sugawara, Wood-Gordon, Taylor, Fernandes, Downes, Ugochukwu, Welington, Robinson, Sulemana, Stewart.
Subs: Moore, Sanda, Onuachu, Archer, Bree, Smallbone, Aribo, Manning, McCarthy.
Arsenal Raya, Partey, White, Kiwior, Tierney, Nwaneri, Rice, Zinchenko, Sterling, Merino, Martinelli.
Subs: Lewis-Skelly, Kabia, Henry-Francis, Havertz, Jorginho, Trossard, Odegaard, Saka, Neto.
Referee Darren Bond (Lancashire)
Wolves v Brentford team news
Wolves (3-5-2) Jose Sa; Doherty, Agbadou, Toti Gomes; Nelson Semedo, Joao Gomes, Munetsi, Andre Trindade, Ait Nouri; Cunha, Goncalo Guedes.
Subs: King, Bueno, Larsen, Hwang, Rodrigo Gomes, Sarabia, Bellegarde, Pedro Lima, Mane.
Brentford (4-2-3-1) Flekken; Kayode, Collins, van den Berg, Lewis-Potter; Norgaard, Yarmolyuk; Mbeumo, Damsgaard, Schade; Wissa.
Subs: Valdimarsson, Hickey, Henry, Pinnock, Jensen, Thiago, Ajer, Konak, Nunes Gomes.
Referee Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire)
Man Utd v Aston Villa team news
Alejandro Garnacho, who flapped his gums about his exclusion from the Europa League final, isn’t in the Man Utd squad. Youri Tielemans, who has missed the last two games, returns to the bench.
Man Utd (3-4-2-1) Bayindir; Lindelof, Maguire, Heaven; Mazraoui, Casemiro, Fernandes, Dorgu; Diallo, Mount; Hojlund.
Subs: Heaton, Eriksen, Dalot, Ugarte, Evans, Mainoo, Collyer,
Fredricson, Obi.
Aston Villa (4-2-3-1) Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Maatsen; Kamara,
Onana; Rogers, Asensio, McGinn; Watkins.
Subs: Olsen, Mings, Barkley, Tielemans, Digne, Garcia, Malen, Bailey, Ramsey.
Referee Thomas Bramall (Sheffield)
Liverpool v Crystal Palace team news
Trent Alexander-Arnold starts on the bench for Liverpool. That’s the reality TV bit covered; we’ll have the XIs asap.
Liverpool (4-3-3) Alisson; Bradley, Konate, van Dijk, Robertson; Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Jones; Salah Diaz, Gakpo.
Subs: Kelleher, Gomez, Endo, Nunez, Elliott, Jota, Tsimikas, Alexander-Arnold, Quansah.
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1) Henderson; Lerma, Lacroix, Richards; Munoz,
Hughes, Kamada, Mitchell; Sarr, Eze; Mateta.
Subs: Turner, Ward, Nketiah, Franca, Esse, Devenny, Kporha.
Referee: Darren England (South Yorkshire)
It’s great when you’re eighth… yeah
There may yet be a Conference League place for the team that finishes eighth. And that team will be Brighton, just as long as they get at least a draw away to a team who have justifiably spent the last few days imbibing pints of 17 Year Itch. Should Spurs beat Brighton, Brentford will go above them if they win at Wolves.
For the team in eighth to qualify, two things need to happen.
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Chelsea win the Conference League and
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Chelsea finish seventh in the Premier League (which isn’t beyond the realms) or Chelsea finish sixth and Newcastle seventh. The latter is mathematically possible but let’s not go there again.
Champions League permutations
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Manchester City will qualify if they drew at Fulham. Mathematicians will tell you otherwise, but they need to live a little. If you said 420 to them the first think they’d think is ‘60 x 7’, could also be 105 x 4’.
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Newcastle need to beat Everton to be sure of finishing in the top five. A draw will be enough if Aston Villa fail to win at Old Trafford or Chelsea draw at the City Ground.
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Chelsea must – must – beat Nottingham Forest at the City Ground to be sure. A draw will only be enough if Villa fail to win at Old Trafford or Newcastle suffer death by Moyes at St James’ Park.
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Aston Villa will qualify if they beat Man Utd and one of the following happens: Man City lose at Fulham, Newcastle fail to win, Chelsea fail to win. A draw could be good enough, but only in the sense that Donald Trump could wake up tomorrow morning with the temperament of the Dalai Lama.
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Nottingham Forest need to beat Chelsea and hope that Newcastle or Villa fail to win.
Confused? Of course you are, that’s the whole point of permutations. All I need at the three digits on the back of the card and you’re free to go.
Preamble
This is the end, beautiful friends. Another Premier League season has whooshed by faster than you can say “You know what, I’m not sure Liverpool are going to have a blip”, and it will come to an end this afternoon – as a Premier League season always should – with 10 simultaneous fixtures being played on a sultry Sunday in May.
The first game of the 2024-25 season took place 282 days ago. In one sense it feels like last month, in another a lifetime ago: that match was Manchester United 1-0 Fulham, and cautious optimism abounded at Old Trafford.
Man Utd are one of many teams with nothing to play for except pride, and you can probably insert your own joke here. The biggest issues – who wins the title and who goes down – were settled ages ago, but the dogfight for Champions League places has kept the hype going right to the end.
Five teams, separated by three points, are scrapping for three places. And two of them, Nottingham Forest and Chelsea, meet each other at the City Ground. Scott Murray is doing a separate MBM for that game, but this is the place for breathless goalflashes and hastily adjusted permutations.
These are today’s games. Just in case you’ve been at a digital retreat in the Kerguelens for the past month, the teams fighting for Champions League places are in bold. (Cool your jets, data fam, we’ll get to eighth place in a minute.)
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Bournemouth v Leicester
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Fulham v Man City
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Ipswich v West Ham
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Liverpool v Crystal Palace
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Man Utd v Aston Villa
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Newcastle v Everton
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Nottm Forest v Chelsea
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Southampton v Arsenal
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Lads, it’sTottenham v Brighton -
Wolves v Brentford
Kick-offs 4pm.
