From the end point of view, there is something strange and distant – almost otherworldly – at the beginning of a season. After all, it’s only been 10 months, barely the blink of an eye, and yet beliefs and beliefs and truths from then seem as archaic as the idea that we once believed you could see the future in the guts of a goat, or that humans were peepers. wore.
For example, it has been less than a year since Nuno Espirito Santo was voted Premier League manager of the month for his start at Tottenham Hotspur. Likewise, the idea that Romelu Lukaku “completed” Chelsea’s squad, or that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could deliver a title for Manchester United, or that running a repressive autocracy should prevent you from owning a Premier League team, just belong so well to another world.
It may not seem like it, but that all happened in the same Premier League season that concludes on Sunday. And while those matters are settled, countless others are not. As far as we have come, as much as we have learned, very little has been decided. There is still no champion crowned, no complete list of teams that have qualified for Europe, no conclusion to the relegation battle. A season can feel like it lasts a lifetime. This time it all comes down to one game.
Pep Guardiola wants his players to be relaxed. In the wake of Manchester City’s draw to West Ham last weekend – whoever actually guaranteed the Premier League champion’s identity would be decided on the last day of the season – he did not, as might be expected, land his side. for additional work.
Instead, with the club’s season hanging on to one game, he gave them some extra rest. The whole squad got a two day break, a chance to rest and recuperate and escape the pressure. Ilkay Gundogan was getting married.
Guardiola is, of course, right in stating that the test City awaits is primarily psychological. Under normal circumstances, it would easily send Aston Villa into their own turf: a couple of quick, early goals, a brazen display of superiority, an imperious procession across the line. The challenge, this weekend, is to make the conditions seem as normal as possible.
City, as it turns out, has no margin for error. The 14-point advantage it had over Liverpool in January has been reduced to just one. City have had several chances to resolve the matter in recent weeks – Riyad Mahrez could have beaten Liverpool in early April; he might have beaten West Ham too – but they failed. Now, if Guardiola’s team stumbles again and Liverpool beat Wolves, the title will go to Anfield.
The teams, of course, had been in this position before: in 2019 they also entered the final day, separated by a single point.
There was a big cheer at Anfield that day as the news trickled in that Brighton had taken a first-half lead over the visiting City. On the sidelines, Jürgen Klopp knew it was “too early”. City duly hit back, emphatically – won the game 4-1 and claimed their second straight title. The ‘intense pride’ Klopp felt was only tempered by the knowledge that his team had amassed 97 points and that it still wasn’t enough.
Things are a little different this time. Liverpool have already won two trophies this season, in both the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup. As in 2019, it also has a Champions League final in the offing as consolation.
Perhaps more importantly, the desire for a domestic title is no longer so desperate. It ended his three-decade wait for a championship in the eerie silence of pandemic football in 2020. Klopp and his players are more attentive than they could be in 2019.
City’s job is complicated not so much by the nature of his opponent, but by the identity of Guardiola’s counterpart. It is undoubtedly just a coincidence that Steven Gerrard gets the last chance to win Liverpool over the line, but football is not really a coincidence. Villa also has two former Liverpool players – Danny Ings and in particular Philippe Coutinho – in his ranks. There has been a lot of talk about narrative determinism on Merseyside in the past week.
It is, of course, City’s great strength that it rarely succumbs to such superstitions. It is more than good enough to put Villa aside, regardless of Gerrard’s intentions and motivations. Guardiola is well aware, however, that his team will have to be relaxed to do it. As good as this City side is, when the result is evened out on Sunday with 10 or 20 or 30 minutes to go, the nerves start to shred.
Of all the issues yet to be resolved, the battle for the Champions League places next season may be the most immediate. Anyway, in theory the identity of the fourth English team to qualify for next season’s Champions League was determined 10 days ago, when Tottenham defeated its bitter rival Arsenal in the north London derby.
That win – followed by a win over Burnley three days later and Arsenal’s defeat to Newcastle on Monday – allowed Spurs to skip Mikel Arteta’s side. It also means Tottenham will go into the final day with a two-point lead and a much better goal difference. Simply avoiding defeat in the final game would be enough to ensure safe passage back to the European elite and sentence Arsenal to another year on the outside.
That shouldn’t be too much to ask: Antonio Conte’s Tottenham face Norwich City, who have long been relegated and have been the proud owner of exactly one league win since January. The outcome of Arsenal’s curtain call at home to Everton should be irrelevant. (The bickering over the final Europa League slot is almost a mirror image: West Ham will take it away from Manchester United if it beats Brighton and United fail to beat Crystal Palace.)
For both Arsenal and Spurs, the near future depends on which side of that gap they end up on. Arsenal was once a mainstay of the Champions League and has not been seen in the competition since 2017. The club plans to provide Arteta with significant financial support in the transfer market this summer regardless of where the team ends up, but the options it will have for spending that money will be determined by whether it is in the Champions League or not.
The Spurs’ absence is considerably shorter – a finalist in 2019, having missed just two years – but his return is no less meaningful. A place in the Champions League could be enough to convince the unruly coach, Conte, to stay on, not least because it would give him more freedom in strengthening his resources. It could also prevent another summer dominated by doubts about where exactly Harry Kane sees his future.
There’s a photo of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, shirtless and smiling happily, which pretty much sums it up. He stands on the field at Goodison Park, surrounded by fans and police officers, wisps of smoke hanging over his head. His eyes stare into the camera. It is a picture of outright redemption.
At halftime on Thursday, Everton looked doomed to fail. Losing at home to Crystal Palace, the possibility of the club’s first relegation in nearly a century was drawing ever closer. And then, in 45 minutes, Frank Lampard’s team carried out a heartwarming rescue. A target. Another. Then, with five minutes to go, Calvert-Lewin launched his body on a cross and headed home a winning goal. Everton had taken it to the last minute, but it had survived.
As fans poured onto the Goodison Park field, their heroes swarmed and, in at least one incident, used their moment of euphoria to unnecessarily obstructing Patrick Vieira, the Palace coach, the relegation battle was reduced to two. Watford and Norwich will go to the championship next season. One of Leeds United and Burnley will join them.
Chances are it will be Leeds. It travels to Brentford, a place it hasn’t won since the end of rationing in the 1950s. Realistically, Leeds must win and hope Burnley lose at home to a Newcastle team that has long fulfilled its ambition for the season.
The reason for that is significant. Leeds’ form has changed a little since Jesse Marsch was installed as his coach at the end of February – replacing much-loved Marcelo Bielsa. Marsch has won three and drawn three of his eleven games, and three of the five defeats he has suffered have been against teams in the top six. The other two came in his first two games.
However, it is the very nature of football that it will be considered Marsch’s fault if Leeds slide back to the championship after two years in the top tier in England, when the return to the elite the club had dreamed of for 16 years turns out to be nothing. but a fleeting visit. That is the nature of management; its ruthlessness explains the salary.
And yet, if Leeds is demoted, the determining factor will not have been its form under Marsch, but its permeability in the final days of Bielsa’s regime. Bielsa lost his last four games with a total score of 15-0. In December, Leeds conceded eleven goals in four days. His vulnerability has been goal difference ever since. That’s why it’s basically a point behind Burnley even though they are equal on points. That is mainly what is once again putting Leeds United on the brink of collapse, relying on nothing more than hope of rescue.
