Key events
Will Unwin
At Wolves today where Vitor Pereira has a dish named after his famed phrase. The ‘Points then pints chocolate dessert’ sounds quite rich, if I’m being honest. I could review it later. A lovely use of beer jellies.
“Homemade chocolate and ale cake, dark chocolate ganache, malted vanilla cream, beer jellies, chocolate soil.”
Just five months ago, Chloe Kelly considered taking a break from football after a difficult start to the season with Manchester City.
Then, she joined Arsenal.
The 27-year-old is now back playing with a smile on her face – and with a Champions League medal around her neck.
Manchester City wrap up their Premier League campaign today with a game Pep Guardiola believes is “by far” their most important of the season. City head to Fulham knowing a draw will almost certainly secure a top-five spot and a place in the Champions League for next season.
After winning the title in the past four seasons, it is a relatively modest target but Guardiola recognises it is the least of the club’s expectations. The City manager said: “If we want to play in the Champions League, we have to take a result there. This is what we are going to do. Of course, it’s really important.” Asked if it was the most important game of the season, Guardiola said at a press conference: “By far.”
City go into the game in third place on 68 points, two ahead of Newcastle, Chelsea and Aston Villa. Nottingham Forest, a point further back, are also still in contention for a place in the top five. Given a superior goal difference over all their rivals, a draw should be sufficient for City but Guardiola is taking nothing for granted against a Fulham side that could finish as high as ninth.
The Premier League could be waving goodbye to some big players this summer, including the likes of Emiliano Martínez and Darwin Núñez.
Postecoglou’s future still unclear
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy hopes to use Wednesday’s Europa League success as a springboard for more silverware, but failed to provide clarity on Ange Postecoglou’s future in his end-of-season message.
Chairman Levy paid tribute to Postecoglou in his end-of-season message to fans before Sunday’s visit of Brighton and yet offered no assurances about the long-term future of the former Celtic boss.
“We did it. What an unforgettable night it was in Bilbao as we ended our long wait for glory. This is a huge moment for the whole club, an historic achievement that sees us lift our first European trophy since 1984,” Levy wrote in Tottenham’s matchday programme.
“This club has been on an incredible journey on and off the pitch since we last won silverware, the League Cup, in 2008 – establishing ourselves as one of the biggest in Europe, moving into our new stadium and experiencing some incredible moments – we knew a trophy was the missing piece.
“We’ve come so close on a number of occasions and never quite got over the line – I have never wavered from the belief that success is just around the corner. I’d like to thank Ange and the players for making this incredible achievement possible and thanks to all of our amazing staff– there is so much hard work that goes on behind the scenes and this moment is for everyone to enjoy.
“I’d also like to thank you – the fans – for staying with us and carrying that same belief. I know it’s been hard at times and I have shared in that pain and frustration along the way. But when we all come together, we know we can achieve something special. Your support – whether that was in Bilbao, in our own stadium or in pubs and homes around the world – was the driving force behind our team.
“This is one trophy – our clear ambition as a club has always been long-term, sustained success, competing for top honours every year. We have now tasted success and we are determined to use this as a springboard for more.”
Jacob Steinberg
Making my way to Nottingham for my first ever trip to the City Ground. It’s always good to see a historic old stadium, especially as you never know how long they’ll last. And it should be a cracking atmosphere this afternoon. Forest have had a great season but how will it end? They have guaranteed some form of European football next season but they’re an outside bet for the Champions League. They have to beat Chelsea and then hope for favours elsewhere. Chelsea, though, need a win to guarantee their place in the top five. Anything less will leave them at risk of missing out on the Champions League again. It won’t be easy. They have one away win since December and are without the suspended Nicolas Jackson. Whatever happens it feels like it’s going to be a crazy afternoon. Chelsea have to handle the occasion.
The League One playoff final is under way!
The stage is set at Wembley.
John Brewin
It’s a bright, shiny day at Wembley and it seems the fans are staying outside or in the concourses until late on. The Wembley DJ is playing away to a not especially receptive audience for his mash-up of the Ramones and Bruce Springsteen. A huge replica trophy stands on the sidelines, though the prize is much more than that for the players. Those fans in the ground are mostly in the process of waving to each other. Fourth in League One plays sixth, though that often means nothing once kickoff arrives. It’s something of a clash of styles with Orient manager Richie Wellens liking his team to play an attacking style, as a one-time trainee under Alex Ferguson. Nathan Jones’ teams are usually aggressive and efficient on set pieces. Remember how proud he was of his stats during that ill-fated time at Southampton? Orient last reached this stage in 2014, a penalties loss to Rotherham that gave rise to a famous Steve Evans celebration.
Leyton Orient defender Jayden Sweeney spoke to The Guardian this week about today’s League One playoff final…
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Here’s a reminder of today’s Premier League fixtures…
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Bournemouth v Leicester City
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Fulham v Manchester City
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Wolves v Brentford
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Nottingham Forest v Chelsea
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Manchester United v Aston Villa
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Southampton v Arsenal
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Newcastle v Everton
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Liverpool v Crystal Palace
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Ipswich Town v West Ham
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Tottenham v Brighton
Where could we see Kevin De Bruyne next? Rick Harris emailed in with his take…
Kevin De Bruyne could do a job for Spurs who now have Champions League football, but I can see Chelsea making an approach as he is head and shoulders above any of their midfielders (and yes that includes Cole Palmer). I still think he has a couple of years of PL level football in him but alternatively he could be a very astute signing for PSG, Bayern, Inter or a number of other clubs with CL football next season.
With his range of passing and ability to score goals himself I think in a team with a manager who is willing to allow him a free role De Bruyne could be the signing of the season.”
Charlton v Leyton Orient team news
Charlton starting XI: Mannion, Ramsay, Jones, Gillesphey, Small, Coventry, Gilbert, Docherty (C), Edwards, Godden, Campbell. Substitutes: Maynard-Brewer, A.Mitchell, Watson, Anderson, Berry, Aneke, Mbick.
Leyton Orient starting XI: Keeley, Agyei, Brown, Currie, Donley, Beckles (C), O’Neill, Galbraith, Kelman, Clare, Edmonds-Green. Substitutes: Phillips, James, Happe, Williams, Ball, Markanday, Abdulai.
Will this be the day that Joe Gomez finally scores his first goal for Liverpool?
Flip flops and cigars at the ready; guard of honour for both teams; come on Liverpool and Palace, let’s have a proper party. 4-4 with Gomez scoring.
Speaking of De Bruyne… Manchester City are set to wave goodbye to him this afternoon. The Belgian midfielder will leave the club as a free agent this summer after 10 years.
De Bruyne to Fulham? Richard Hirst says:
In order to get KDB to become Fulham’s midfield maestro (the first since Johnny Haynes to merit the monicker) we can’t afford to spoil his last game for City and potentially stop them qualifying for the Champions League. So, lads, it’s a tactical defeat today OK.”
More on Xabi Alonso here…
As always, I want to hear from you! I want to know your picks for player of the season, signing of the season, goal of the season and favourite moment. Fire away!
You may be wondering why the League One playoff final kicks off at 1:01pm rather than 1pm this afternoon. The change has been made as part of the Every Minute Matters campaign – a collaboration between the EFL and the British Heart Foundation which aims to inspire supporters to learn CPR, equipping them with vital skills that could help them save someone’s life.
Launching at the playoffs last season, the campaign has already inspired 270,000 people to learn CPR. Now, the EFL and the British Heart Foundation want to encourage 360,000 people to learn a lifesaving CPR technique.
The EFL Chief Executive Officer, Trevor Birch, said: “The Sky Bet Play-Offs are a special moment in the football calendar and tens of thousands of supporters will be at Wembley Stadium across the weekend with millions more tuning in from home. By kicking off all three Play-Off Finals one minute later, Every Minute Matters continues to harness the power and visibility of football to encourage even more people to learn CPR, which could ultimately help to save even more lives.”
Stuttgart fan Kári Tulinius has messaged in about the club’s German Cup win over Arminia Bielefeld yesterday…
After spending the last two decades of Stuttgart fandom mostly watching the Swabians lose matches, it was bewildering to reach halftime in the German Cup final with the game pretty much won. Even a late fightback by Arminia Bielefeld never introduced a feeling of peril. I’ve been on cloud nine all day, and those last two decades, even the glum season of 2018-19, feel worth it. Being a fan is such an odd pursuit, but days like this are why we persist.”
John Brewin
Our very own John Brewin is at Wembley today for the League One playoff final…
An early dart to beat the crowds on the way to Wembley ahead of the League One playoff was a failed mission. The Metropolitan Line was standing-room only – more like squeezing-room – as Leyton Orient fans travelled east London to west and Charlton Athletic supporters southeast to west. With both teams in red it’s difficult to tell who is bringing more but Wembley Way’s Box Park is sold out for Charlton fans. Real mix here today, families with small children right up to grandparents, a few likely lads around, even some old-style skinheads with tattooed craniums. There is an awful lot of excitement for this one. The League One playoff doesn’t have the attendant doom of expecting to get beaten every week in the Premier League its Championship equivalent includes. Both clubs have suffered enough in recent years, here’s a day to put things right. The air is full of optimism and the Gotham City-like streets of modern Wembley – towers everywhere – are packed out with almost two hours until kickoff. This is a massive day in the capital.”
To all the FPL managers out there, Ronnie Ruff – who is on track to win The Guardian’s FPL league for the third straight year – has some tips in preparation for the final round of Premier League fixtures.
Another Fantasy Premier League season reaches its conclusion today with thousands still in the hunt for mini-league glory and hitting rank targets. Gameweek 38 is always a tricky one to navigate, all ten games kick off at 4pm (2.30pm deadline) so if you do have the luxury of searching social media for potential team leaks, you could get an advantage.
The main talking points are based around the availability of the Newcastle forward Alexander Isak (£9.4m) because of injury and if the Arsenal midfielder Bukayo Saka (£10.4m) will start. Both could go big against Everton and Southampton respectively. Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne‘s (£9.5m) minutes could also affect your transfers if you own.
Taking on the three relegated teams seem the way to go, with Bournemouth at home to Leicester, Arsenal at Saints and West Ham making the trip to Ipswich. Evanilson (£5.9m) could be a shrewd pick as a possible Isak replacement along with Antoine Semenyo (£5.7m). If you need a defender, Milos Kerkez (£5.3m) or Newcastle’s Tino Livramento (£4.6m) are your men.
Jarrod Bowen (£7.9m) can continue his hot streak at Portman Road and Brighton’s Danny Welbeck (£5.5m) should cash in on a partying Spurs. Liverpool can get among the goals against an on the beach Crystal Palace so it’s hard to see past Mohamed Salah (£13.6m) for captaincy, but Saka and Bowen are fine alternatives if chasing. Good luck all!”
Xabi Alonso announced as new Real Madrid manager
Real Madrid have just announced that Xabi Alonso will become the club’s new manager from next month. Alonso will sign a three-year contract, keeping him at the Santiago Bernabéu until June 2028. He is set to be unveiled at an event in Madrid tomorrow before taking his first press conference.
This would surely be something special!
Let’s hope it’s just like busses…..
Harry Kane has a Trophy, so do Spurs, and the team he scored his first league goal for are playing in a final today. The treble is on! Come on You O’s
One person – a very well-known person – will be absent from the City Ground this afternoon. Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has been denied entry to the stadium for the match.
Arguably the most exciting game of the day is Nottingham Forest v Chelsea given that both are battling for a place in Europe. While both teams consider it a must-win, the Blues face a much higher level of pressure.
Thanks Taha! Yes I’ll be with you all for the next four hours or so as we count down to kick-off on the final day of the Premier League season. Speaking of which, I cannot believe we’re at this point of the year already. Where has the time gone?
Time for me to handover to Emillia Hawkins, who’ll be here till the close. Keep the correspondence coming.
As Manchester City head to Fulham, it’ll be interesting to see how much of a role Jack Grealish plays, his future probably lying elsewhere.
Rather, the tale of Grealish is a parable of how extreme wealth inequality allows the biggest clubs not just to accumulate talent but to mould it: to change its nature, to render it more immediately useful but also a little more boring, to narrow its horizons.
This might get you in the mood – or make you wish there was more jeopardy this year.
I would be up for watching the mechanics of the double guard of honour.
For years (actually decades since that FA Cup semi final in 1990) I thought Crystal Palace was one of Liverpool’s bogey teams (I thought Jürgen Klopp expressed my sentiments really well in a match interview once), but today none of that matters – it would be a touch of class if both teams gave each other a guard of honour, especially for Palace winning their first major trophy.
And for a Leyton Orient perspective, Ed Aarons had a chat with Martin Ling, former player, manager and now director of football at the club. Orient have undergone a significant revival during his tenure, having been in the National League six years ago.
To be where we are is a minor miracle. There’s a Hollywood story everyone talks about with Wrexham. But we’re probably more of a Wood Green story – it’s just we haven’t got the famous actors behind us.
Looking ahead to the playoff contest, here’s Ben Fisher’s excellent interview with Nathan Jones. The Charlton manager is asked about his Shawshank moment during the semi-final win.
People close to me said it was a bit over the top. I was just in the moment. It wasn’t fabricated, it wasn’t because the TV cameras were there, because I didn’t realise they were. I wouldn’t say it was an out-of-body experience, but it was an outpouring of emotion, a deflation of all the pressures.
I’ve long given up on my Fantasy PL team. If you’re down with that sort of thing, this should help.
Guardian contributor Maciej Slominski writes in from Poland:
When, in November 2024, Scotland beat Poland in the Nations League in Warsaw, Steve Clarke’s assistant John Carver didn’t think he’d be back in Poland in less than two weeks.
He picked up a call from Polish side Lechia Gdańsk’s technical director Kevin Blackwell (another name that rings a bell, doesn’t it?) and soon was appointed manager of the Ekstraklasa team. They were second bottom with only two wins in 16 games, wages not paid, fans disgruntled.
During the winter break Lechia got their licence suspended and were transfer banned. Carver didn’t panic but began hard work.
Lechia Gdańsk stayed in the league and had their licence for next season granted with a five-point deduction. It doesn’t feel like harsh penalty with John Carver signing for three more years. Fans and players were ecstatic as everyone loves old Geordie John here.
He has been nominated for manager of the season in the. Ekstraklasa, despite coming only midway through the season and his team finishing just above the drop zone. Maybe he’ll be the “best coach of Ekstraklasa”.
Brendan Rodgers was denied a third domestic treble with Celtic yesterday as Aberdeen won the Scottish Cup on penalties. Ewan Murray was at Hampden Park:
Tales of the unexpected still exist in Scottish football after all. History repeated itself in such wonderful fashion for Aberdeen, denying Celtic the domestic treble widely thought inevitable. As The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen blared out at Hampden Park, the backdrop to moving and euphoric scenes, a 35-year wait for the Scottish Cup had ended.
“Every team from Newcastle in fourth down to Crystal Palace in 12th have had games they will remember fondly and would be more than worthy English representatives in European competition next season.”
Jonathan Wilson on the Premier League’s burgeoning middle class:
Here’s how things panned out across the continent yesterday: Luka Modric and Carlo Ancelotti waved goodbye to the Bernabéu while PSG secured their third trophy of the season – and they’ve still got the Champions League final to come.
Serie A and La Liga wrap up today, with Barcelona, the Spanish champions, facing Athletic Club at 8pm BST.
Some lovely messages BTL.
Am lucky enough to be heading off to Wembley with a bunch of lifetime friends to watch my beloved Addicks in our 3rd outing in the brilliantly cruel PlayOff Finals.
With exception of birth of child, ‘98 was probably the most amazing experience of my life, only tempered by vivid memories of sobbing Sunderland fans on way out – a scene repeated in 2019.
Very pleased for them yesterday.
I’m sure a Champions League final, or winning the Premiership would be incredible, but they would appear to be somewhat unrealistic targets for Charlton.
The PlayOffs are so unfair, but what drama. So much riding on one game. Part of me wants to wish Orient good luck, because they’ve had a terrific second half of the season.
Obviously I can’t. There can be only one.
COYR!!!
Gonna be a bittersweet day today. Lost a close friend after a torturous 10 month fight against cancer on the weekend we beat Utd last September, will have his two sons over to celebrate the trophy lift – so there will be a lot of sad tears mixed with the happy ones. YNWA!
Here’s Arne Slot talking about – wait for it – Bruce Springsteen:
You talk about elite mentality. This guy’s been doing it for 50-odd years and he’s still putting on three-hour shows in front of 25,000 people. I’ve heard how he does this, what he does in his daily life, talking about habits, how disciplined he is to achieve this. Springsteen, at 75, is still able to do three hours on stage without even one minute of rest. He took three or four drinks of what I assume was water.
It’s 20 years since Istanbul: just say the word and everyone knows what you’re talking about. Sachin Nakrani was there, fresh-faced and rocking a top with ‘LFC 4 LIFE’ on the back. Love it.
Right, let’s hear your views on this Premier League season. I’d like the following: the verdict on your side’s campaign, your favourite moment, and predictions for next season (winner, relegated sides, best player).
David Moyes was their manager, John O’Shea their captain. Eight (!) years have passed since Sunderland’s last stint in the Premier League, but they’re back after a last-gasp playoff win over Sheffield United.
Saturday’s headline was Champions League glory for Arsenal, a momentous win, 18 years on from the last time they did it. Chelsea may have landed the domestic treble but its their north London rivals who have the biggest prize.
Jonathan Liew, Suzanne Wrack and Tom Garry were all there to take it in.
There is a whistle, and then there is a scream, and then there is pure confusion. Arsenal have planned this game to the very last detail, rehearsed every last contingency, mapped out every possible scenario. But not this one. Some run; some stagger. But in these earliest moments of triumph, wherever they are on the pitch, somehow it feels telling that the first instinct of these Arsenal players is to find each other.
The last day also means a final appearance for Gary Lineker on Match of the Day. I’ve never known the show without him; it’s going to be a strange sight next season.
Preamble
I need you to trust me, one last time. No, I’m not Ethan Hunt/Tom Cruise trying to save the world/cinema, but some support would be appreciated as I guide you through the final day of the Premier League season.
Alas, the real drama is done. All that’s left for Liverpool is a knockabout before the trophy lift, while Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton are already prepping for life in the Championship. It’s the quest for Champions League football that’s keeping this thing alive, with Manchester City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa vying for the three remaining spots.
City just need a point, while Newcastle and Chelsea know that three will do the job. Forest, who take on Enzo Maresca’s side, and Villa need wins and other results to go their way. All are in search of those big European nights and, let’s face it, the cashola.
There’s Wembley to keep track of as well, with Charlton meeting Leyton Orient in the League One playoff final. The former, once Premier League regulars, want to end a five-year absence from the Championship; the latter haven’t played in the second tier since 1982.
There’s plenty to keep tabs on as we build up to the drama. Drop me a line with all your thoughts, concerns, queries, Mission Impossible reviews, whatever you fancy.
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