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Daniel Storey is currently away on holiday so i’s team of football writers have put The Score together in his stead.
We’re in the end game now. Manchester City are hot on Arsenal’s heels in the Premier League title race, while at the other end of the table, Burnley and Luton Town look resigned to their fate. After months of moaning about referees, Nottingham Forest have finally got their act together, with their survival all but guaranteed if they beat Chelsea next Saturday.
Speaking of the Blues, perhaps it’s time for Todd Boehly to put his faith in Mauricio Pochettino. For all the chaos, they are starting to look like a team again, even if they only have an outside chance of qualifying for European football next season. It’s just a shame that it has taken them this long to figure it out.
As for Ivan Toney, his goal drought continues after Brentford drew a blank at home to Fulham, but Thomas Frank probably isn’t too bothered because they, like their west London neighbours, are already on the beach.
Scroll down for our verdict on every team (listed in table order).
Gameweek 35 results
Saturday 4 May
- Luton 1-1 Everton
- Arsenal 3-0 Bournemouth
- Brentford 0-0 Fulham
- Burnley 1-4 Newcastle
- Sheff Utd 1-3 Nott’m Forest
- Man City 5-1 Wolves
Sunday 5 May
- Brighton 1-0 Aston Villa
- Chelsea 5-0 West Ham
- Liverpool 4-2 Tottenham
Arsenal
The Premier League’s latest VAR disasterclass may have hogged the limelight after Arsenal’s win over Bournemouth, but as questionable as some of the decisions were it should not detract from what was another highly polished performance from Mikel Arteta’s side.
It was a particularly good day for three of Arsenal’s summer signings. Kai Havertz won a penalty (admittedly in controversial fashion) and dominated Bournemouth’s centre-back pairing from the first minute until the last, Declan Rice boosted his tallies for both goals and assists in the second half, and David Raya claimed another clean sheet to secure the Golden Glove award.
Between them, that trio cost in the region of £200m and there was no shortage of accusations that Arsenal had overpaid for both Rice (£105m) and Havertz (£65m).
The £30m fee for Raya which will be triggered upon the completion of his loan deal at the end of this season was the least scrutinised deal with that price influenced by his contractual situation at Brentford.
Nobody is debating the value of those deals now. Rice was the game’s best player despite having a mixed first half in which he failed to make the most of a counter-attack and missed a golden chance to open the scoring.
He made amends in the second half with a glorious eyes-in-the-back-of-his-head assist for Leandro Trossard (another inspired recent buy) and a goal that summed him up to a tee: a crisp finish following a lung-busting run into the box in the 97th minute of the game with Arsenal already 2-0 up.
“Declan Rice, we got him half price,” might be pushing it, but he has justified that nine-figure fee during his debut season. By Oliver Young-Myles
Read more: The £200m trio showing Arsenal have learnt from their Sven Mislintat mistake
Manchester City
Missed penalties have already cost Manchester City dearly this season but, as Erling Haaland continued his mastery of the spot-kick art with two against Wolves, statistics suggested that will not happen again over the closing days of the title race.
The Norwegian, who missed the penalty shoot-out defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League last month, took his tally for the season to eight out of nine penalties, 16 of 18 for his City career, and a conversion rate of a super-elite 89 per cent.
Interestingly, until Haaland’s arrival, penalties had been a problem for Pep Guardiola’s side – 27 misses in his seven seasons before this – with an average conversion rate ranging from a low of 62.5 per cent to a high of 78.5.
Considering the “industry standard” is 85 per cent, and the Premier League this season hitting 88.5, this is a rare area in which Guardiola’s team has proved sub-par on his watch.
Now? Not so much. City, as a team, have scored 12 of 13 this season – Haaland’s miss against Sheffield United the only one – and a conversion rate of 92.3 per cent is, by a long way, the best ever by a Guardiola City team.
“Having mental strength is a skill as well,” Guardiola said. “And the people say ‘oh the penalty shooting is down to luck.’ No it’s not.
“If you are a good taker you have a better chance, if you are a good keeper you have a better chance and Erling is, of course, going to miss penalties, but everyone know he is a good taker. He thinks I am going to take a penalty, I am going to score. It’s his confidence. That’s right.”
Haaland’s unflappable nature extended off the field following the 5-1 win, with a post-match interviewer gamely trying to elicit a response when he suggested the recent quotes from Roy Keane, labelling him a “League Two” striker, must serve as an inspiration.
“I don’t really care that much about that man, so that’s all right,” Haaland said. “The boys have been through this many years — the club also. I’ve got experience from last year, it’s about focusing on game by game.”
Game by game is how City and Arsenal must take the concluding fortnight of the campaign, with five left in total – three for City, two for Arsenal.
For many weeks now, the two combatants, plus Liverpool, have had their kick-off times staggered by television demands, although Guardiola has cut through talk of mind games or advantages of going first or last with some very simple maths.
Arsenal, he says, will win their remaining two games which means City must do likewise.
“Today we arrived here and the players knew if we don’t win, ciao, ciao, bye bye, next season we see each other! It’s not complicated. It doesn’t matter if it’s before or after,” Guardiola said.
“Since the winter break, the way they [Arsenal] are playing. It’s not the fact that they are winning, it’s the way they play, so you smell that they are not going to lose in the games they have left. They are not going to.” By Ian Whittell
Liverpool
In recent days Jurgen Klopp has seemed like a politician who has just conceded defeat in an election, suddenly more at ease with the world, more accepting of his fate. Summing up the slow fade of Liverpool’s title challenge in his programme notes, Klopp remarked: “We just need to be ourselves.”
It has been a long while since Liverpool were themselves at Anfield. You would have to go back to the 4-1 rout of Chelsea at the end of January to find a game when Liverpool were last so often what they have been under Klopp; imperious, thrilling and inventive. It was the first Premier League game after Klopp’s announcement he would be leaving Liverpool at the finish of the season. There are just two more matches left and, though it may not end with the league title, the long goodbye should finish with a flourish.
It matters not at all that Tottenham were terrible. They were a side challenging for the Champions League, a name, albeit one that had won a single league fixture at Anfield since 1993. Within an hour, Liverpool were four goals up and Mohamed Salah, who at West Ham last week had turned very publicly on his manager, was playing the kind of football he has not done since being injured in the Africa Cup of Nations.
There are those who argue that Liverpool missed a trick by not shipping out a 31-year-old forward the moment Saudi Arabian clubs started offering £250m. However, Salah is central to Liverpool in a way that Steven Gerrard, Kenny Dalglish and Kevin Keegan once were. He is the only member of this Liverpool side to have his own banners on the Kop and the sublime touches and cushioned assist for Andrew Robertson’s goal were indications that they will be fluttering for a while yet.
And yet, 4-0 up, Liverpool relaxed. Salah managed to miss from a yard, Trent Alexander-Arnold tried to score from the halfway line and Spurs did score twice. The tension lifted to such an extent that it resembled a benefit game to the extent that you half expected Robbie Williams or the cast of Gavin and Stacey to come trotting on.
In September 1978 a freshly-promoted Spurs came to Anfield and were thrashed 7-0 in a way that Manchester City would have thrashed this Tottenham side, if only because goal difference might just decide this title. They will not get that close yet, as Klopp fist-pumped towards the Kop, it was in the knowledge that, just in time for the last hurrah, he has got his Liverpool back. By Tim Rich
Aston Villa
Criticising Unai Emery’s tactics this season feels a little churlish but the Aston Villa manager will surely be ruing his decision not to have made more than two changes to the side that suffered such a damaging defeat at home to Olympiakos on Thursday evening.
At Brighton, his team looked sluggish from the outset and barely threatened an out-of-form side throughout the 90 minutes. It may have taken Joao Pedro’s late goal to defeat them but the Seagulls ought to have been out of sight long before then.
That said, a glance at Villa’s bench suggests that there were limited options available to him with six first-team regulars missing through injury.
Emery said: “Today we lost and we didn’t deserve more. We competed and we tried to stop them.
“They created more chances than us and they were dangerous. Today we needed the goalkeeper and he was here. Robin Olsen he was fantastic.
“Now the most important thing is to try and recover players. The most important thing now is rest. Thursday is now more difficult for us against Olympiakos but we will be there.”
After a bruising week for Villa, Emery repeated again how proud he was of his players for what they have achieved this season. By Tom Prentki
Tottenham Hotspur
To quote Ange Postecoglou’s predecessor as Tottenham manager: “They don’t play for something important; they don’t want to play under pressure. It’s easy this way. Tottenham’s story is this.” Those remarks in March last year cost Antonio Conte his job but the symptoms he identified are still there.
Having seen Brighton overcome Aston Villa to keep open the possibility they might yet qualify for the Champions League, Tottenham delivered a performance that was every bit as abject as last month’s 4-0 defeat at Newcastle with the proviso that this time they conceded all four goals within the hour.
At the business end of the season, they have lost four games in a row and failed to overcome anyone in the top half of the table for two months. The real Tottenham is this.
Postecoglou argued that Spurs had played well. Before this game, he said he would rather change personnel than his aggressive tactics. The sight of £100m worth of Spurs players on the bench tells a story of who might be surplus to requirements, the fact that they played rather more effectively once Richarlison and James Maddison were on the pitch tells another. Scoring twice when 3-0 down to Arsenal and 4-0 down at Liverpool has given Spurs a kind of fig leaf but to try to win game from these kinds of position is like trying to win a grand prix after slashing your tyres.
Part of Postecoglou’s appeal has been his acknowledgement that Tottenham is a club that values style. There would not have been that many in the away end at Anfield who would have been alive in 1961 but the words of their Double-winning captain, Danny Blanchflower, that football is about the getting of glory would have had resonance in the years since Tottenham and Liverpool met in a Champions League final.
Postecoglou has gone some way to diffusing the toxic atmosphere created by Conte and Jose Mourinho – Nuno Espirito Santo was not around long enough to make any impression on the players, who found him aloof and diffident. However, it is one thing making Tottenham fun to train with and fun to watch. They are increasingly fun to play against. By Tim Rich
Newcastle United
Considering they have not won a significant trophy since 1969, the most noticeable feature of Newcastle supporters is their optimism and as they travelled back from Burnley they would have had quite a few reasons to be optimistic.
It was not just the result but the return of Joelinton for his first league game since New Year’s Day, Miguel Almiron’s comeback after six weeks out, and Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson playing upfront together for the first time in a year. They will not always be faced by the kind of defence that would gift them the kind of space they enjoyed at Turf Moor. Away from St James’ Park, Newcastle have been flat-track bullies.
Aston Villa remain the only side of significance they have overcome away from home. Nevertheless, should they beat Manchester United at Old Trafford, where they have won once since 1972, Newcastle might be in the Europa League next season. That, after a season of injury disruption and a few feeble performances, would be counted as a good season. By Tim Rich
Read more: Inside Newcastle’s transfer plans – goalkeepers, Gibbs-White and Guimaraes
Chelsea
Three weeks ago Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson were squabbling like schoolkids over who got to take a penalty; this time they united in perfect harmony to create goals for each other.
Palmer swept in Chelsea’s first after Jackson’s shot from Madueke’s cross had been blocked; Conor Gallagher scored the second after another block, this time to deny Madueke from a Palmer pass; number three was a close-range Madueke header; the fourth, straight after half-time, saw Madueke unselfishly square for Jackson to tap in; and Jackson ran through for a fifth that involved an offside flag overturned by VAR.
“Now we’re starting to put everything together, being unselfish and working as a collective,” said Madueke, whose personal improvement in the last few weeks mirrors his team’s. The winger has kept Raheem Sterling on the bench and it is not inconceivable that a full England debut, presumably post-Euros, will follow.
“The assist from Noni to Jackson showed that we learn, that we are smart,” said manager Mauricio Pochettino. “The situation with the penalty, we received too much criticism but young teams always make mistakes. They are starting to feel like a group.” By Jon West
Manchester United
Play Crystal Palace on Monday night.
West Ham
Whoever takes over from David Moyes at West Ham – and Julen Lopetegui could be forgiven for turning his phone off after this one – his No 1 priority should be selecting a new captain.
It seems impossible that Moyes, his current contract not so much running out as stumbling chaotically, will still be in charge next season. Not after another complete capitulation, a shipping of five goals for the second time in three games, and a fourth overall this term.
Moyes was quick to point out that the loss of Declan Rice last summer was a big reason why only the bottom three have let in more than the Hammers’ 70 goals and counting in league action alone.
But Rice has equally been missed as their captain: he wore the armband in his final season and before that when long-time leader Mark Noble was not picked.
Kurt Zouma is West Ham’s current skipper, as poor a choice as Moyes has made in his entire managerial career. The centre-back, arguably more famous for maltreating a cat than for any on-pitch endeavour in claret and blue, had a stinker of a return to his former club.
That can happen but what did he do on the final whistle? Vladimir Coufal, Jarrod Bowen – unlucky to hit the woodwork three times – and Tomas Soucek made a present of their shirts to young fans who remained in a rapidly-emptying away end. Others went over and clapped but not Zouma. He was first down the tunnel, despite words from coach Kevin Nolan – another former captain.
“We were lacking toughness, leadership, mental toughness,” listed Moyes, who had also opted for a quick tunnel exit. “The manager will always take the responsibility but somewhere along the line the players will have to take the responsibility for not doing their jobs.” By Jon West
Bournemouth
Bournemouth could count themselves hugely unfortunate to be on the wrong side of two contentious decisions at key points in the game during their defeat at the Emirates.
Kai Havertz initiated contact to win a penalty when the scoreline was level just before half-time and the length of time it took VAR to eventually side with referee David Coote indicated their uncertainty. After holding firm in the face of an unrelenting onslaught it was an unfortunate way to go behind.
Worse was to come later on when at 2-0 down and with 15 minutes to go Antoine Semenyo had a goal that would have set up a nervy finale ruled out for a foul on the keeper by Dominic Solanke. It was a soft decision and one compounded by the lack of a penalty as a consolation after William Saliba clearly impeded Philip Billing.
Credit to Andoni Iraola then for being so measured in his post-match press conference when he reiterated Arsenal deserved to win on several occasions despite big decisions going against his team.
“First of all, I think I would like to say that I think Arsenal deserved to win today,” he said.
“I think they were better than us, especially first half. I think they pushed us a lot, but I don’t think the game should have gone the way it has gone because the referee decisions, I don’t agree with the decisions.
“I don’t agree with the penalty one, but especially with the disallowed goal.
“But I want to repeat – I think they were better than us and I think they should have won the game.”
That Bournemouth have already secured their highest-ever points tally in the Premier League makes it easier for Iraola to keep his cool, but other managers could certainly take note of his demeanour. By Oliver Young-Myles
Read more: A Vegas gamble and Iraola’s culture shift: How Bournemouth made history
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Matheus Cunha led the calls for his Wolverhampton Wanderers teammates to end the season on a high, even if it means ruining Jurgen Klopp’s Anfield farewell.
A nervy home win over relegation favourites Luton is Wolves’ only victory from their last eight league games, a run that has brought five points out of an available 24.
Injuries have played their part in that run and relegation has long since ceased being a concern for Gary O’Neil’s side.
But, with only a home game against Crystal Palace and Klopp’s Anfield farewell on 19 May, to come, the Brazilian international believes a strong finish would set up his side for next season.
“I think six points would be very important,” he said. “It’s hard, we play Liverpool and an important game against Crystal Palace at home – we have around the same points, so we need to play and get three points and keep focused.
“We’ve done an unbelievable season, but we cannot finish with a bad feeling. We need to win to make it feel like a good season and keep going for the next one.”
O’Neil watched this game from the stands, serving a suspension for criticising the officiating decisions in a recent defeat to West Ham.
In the 5-1 loss to City, Wolves conceded two more spot kicks to VAR, although O’Neil was slightly more diplomatic in his analysis this time.
“The first penalty was a really poor decision, terrible,” he said. “The second penalty was right but I was really surprised it was overturned as a clear and obvious error.
“But officials have no real part in the way the game ended up today. We fell short today and I’m disappointed with how we fell short, because there was a lot of effort and determination, but we made some key errors.” By Ian Whittell
Fulham
Before qualification for the Europa League, when you had be a champion to enter the Champions League, most clubs’ seasons ended like this in a series of dead fixtures that were either chock full of goals or achingly dull.
Journalists used to describe the team as ‘being on the beach’ because all they seemed to be thinking about was their summer holidays which then were on the Costa Brava but are now in Mykonos or Dubai. Fulham’s players are not just on the beach but appear to have fallen asleep on their sunbeds. They followed up last week’s insipid draw with Crystal Palace with an even more forgettable London derby with Brentford.
Raul Jimenez, who had not scored since the 2-1 win over Arsenal on New Year’s Eve, spurned a glittering opportunity to break the drought. “It was tough for both sides,” said the Fulham manager, Marco Silva. It was tougher for anyone who had bought a ticket. By Tim Rich
Brighton
Brighton will feel that this is a season which has slipped away from them. No wins in six games before the visit of Aston Villa and no goal scored since 31 March at Anfield has meant that entertainment has been in short supply for the Seagulls faithful. But Simon Adingra, comfortably the game’s best player, provided plenty of it against Unai Emery’s side and was a constant thorn in the side of Ezri Konsa who eventually brought him down for the penalty from which Joao Pedro scored at the second attempt.
“Adingra was the best player for us and anyway, he can improve,” Roberto De Zerbi said. “We have to give him the right time to improve, to progress. The most important thing is to be a good guy with the right attitude to improve and he is a smart guy.”
A top-half finish remains a distinct possibility for Brighton who, like Villa, have been hampered in their Premier League ambitions by a lengthy injury list and midweek European football.
“We are suffering in the last two months, we are losing too many games and but we have to accept it. Since October we are playing without seven, eight, sometimes ten players. I think we didn’t show an amazing game in terms of quality of football but we showed a big attitude.” By Tom Prentki
Crystal Palace
Play Manchester United on Monday night.
Everton
Everton’s off-field problems may be on a global scale – the lawyers for prospective owners 777 Partners must be the busiest on the planet – but their players, having avoided relegation comfortably in the end, are certainly local heroes.
Literally in fact as no manager likes to pick Englishmen more than Sean Dyche, who chose nine as starters in Friday night’s 1-1 draw at Luton. Indeed, the last 45 instances of that in the Premier League have all been Dyche selections – 41 for Burnley plus four as Toffees manager.
One is Jordan Pickford of course, with the goalkeeper on 60 caps and counting ahead of the Euro finals. Another is Ashley Young, evergreen at 38, and a man who won his last of his 39 England caps six years ago.
The rest, though, have either had tastes of the big time handed to them by Gareth Southgate or never made it past the Under-21 stage. Would it be cruel, therefore, to suggest that this makes their places vulnerable to a summer upgrade, should any legitimate owners be in place to finance one?
Dominic Calvert-Lewin is in fine form at the moment – his goal against the Hatters was his fourth in five games – but persistent injury woes have stalled his international career at 11 caps. Defensive duo James Tarkowski and Ben Godfrey have been capped twice each and it is difficult to see them as anything other than Three Lions fringe men.
Jarrad Branthwaite could be the exception to that – the 21-year-old has had an exceptional season and was included in Southgate’s most recent squad. It’s his first full season in the Premier League though so let’s not get carried away.
Would a team of regular internationals do any better? Dyche doesn’t seem to think so and with Everton’s financial position unlikely to improve significantly any time soon we may never know. By Jon West
Read more: Everton takeover plunged into doubt amid claims 777 is running out of money
Brentford
Perhaps it was significant that the first thing Thomas Frank wanted to talk about after a goalless draw with Fulham was to congratulate Ipswich Town on their promotion to the Premier League.
A politician would have admired the Brentford manager’s deflection of an interview because there was not much to say after a game so miserable that the Radio Five commentator suggested it would not just be last on Match of the Day but it would be better if the BBC showed a blank screen. It was not just shown last but after Luton vs Everton, which was on Friday, and a piece on Chelsea’s Women’s Super League team. That Ivan Toney has now failed to score for 10 straight league games would be a conversation stopper for a manager who hopes to make a considerable profit from the forward in the summer.
If Frank wanted to squeeze some positives from a forgettable afternoon, he could have pointed out that since the turn of the year at the Gtech Community Stadium, as we must now call the new Griffin Park, Brentford have lost only twice – to Liverpool and Manchester City. He could have added that, if this time next year, Ipswich are safe with two games to spare, that really would be a cause for congratulation. By Tim Rich
Nottingham Forest
With his other club, Olympiakos, beating Aston Villa in the Europa Conference League semi-finals, this was a pretty good week for Evangelos Marinakis. Should Nottingham Forest survive – and the odds are that they will – his gamble of firing Steve Cooper and replacing him with Nuno Espirito Santo will be judged a success.
Nuno has improved results but not by very much. His points-per-game score this season is one, compared to Cooper’s 0.82. A point a game is usually enough to stay up and even the 31 Cooper was on course for before his dismissal might have been sufficient with two such dreadful teams in the mix as Burnley and Sheffield United – but not with the points deduction. Their first game since Mark Clattenburg’s resignation as Forest’s refereeing consultant saw them concede a penalty after 17 minutes.
However, as their manager pointed out, Forest reacted and, although they rode their luck at times, it was enough. Their final away day of the season at Burnley may have nothing riding on it. Next season will provide a truer test of Marinakis’ decision to do away with the manager who took them to the Premier League. By Tim Rich
Luton Town
Luton have given it their best shot and, as looks likely now, will go down with few regrets: Rob Edwards’ Hatters have given their passionate fanbase much to cheer this season.
Yet there have still been plenty of “what if?” moments, not least the game at Bournemouth in March when a 3-0 lead somehow ended up as a 4-3 defeat. It was a similar tale at Newcastle the month before as 4-2 up soon turned to 4-4.
Luton’s biggest regret though will be the injury to Elijah Adebayo that sidelined him from 10 February until the end of last month. The striker, on target in his side’s 1-1 draw with Everton on Friday in his first start in three months, was on a run of seven goals in 11 games before getting injured, with Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle each failing to stop him. Brighton were steamrollered for a hat-trick.
The Everton goal was his 10th in the Premier League, joining fellow front-man Carlton Morris in double figures.
And to put that stat into perspective, no Premier League debutant duo has managed that since Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s first campaign at Arsenal in 2018. By Jon West
Burnley
It would be hard to imagine a more disastrous afternoon. Burnley began it having lost just one of their previous eight matches, the last of which was a high-octane display at Manchester United.
They would be facing a Newcastle side whose away form had been a persistent weakness all season and whose defence would be without Sven Botman, Fabian Schar and Kieran Trippier. If they won, Burnley rather than Luton would have been the likelier to overhaul Nottingham Forest and save themselves, probably by beating Forest at Turf Moor in the last game of the season. It did not quite go to plan.
The 4-1 thrashing by a side supposedly unable to function outside St James’ Park, combined with Forest’s rather predictable win at Sheffield United, mean they will now have to win at Tottenham and beat Forest. You would not fancy their chances given that Burnley last scored a goal at Spurs in 2017 and have not won there since 1974 and the days of Leighton James, for whom the flags flew at half mast at Turf Moor on Saturday.
Even then Forest would need just a point from their final two matches to send Burnley down on goal difference. All this assumes Luton do nothing. This is the match that effectively relegates Burnley and the unforced errors and naivety they displayed against Newcastle were a demonstration of why they will be leaving the Premier League. By Tim Rich
Sheffield United
Bramall Lane used to stage first-class cricket and even once upon a time a Test match. It was fitting that it should once more celebrate a century as Sheffield United became only the second team in the history of the Premier League to concede 100 goals in a season.
Like the first, Swindon Town, Sheffield United will be relegated in last place. The big question is how this will impact United on their well-deserved return to the Championship. Swindon suffered such a toxic shock in the 1993-94 campaign that they were relegated again the season after.
Chris Wilder would hope they are better equipped but there is something fundamentally wrong about a side that has kept a single clean sheet in a season. By Tim Rich
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