With the Premier League’s finishing line in sight, we have long known the answer to some of the season’s biggest questions.
It didn’t take this SBOTOP pen-pusher to tell you that the title race was over months ago and, sure enough, it was confirmed seven days ago that Liverpool had been crowned champions.
Nor did you need to look at the Premier League 2025 betting odds to realise that all three promoted clubs were going straight back down – Ipswich Town showed slightly more about them before it was certain they would join Southampton and Leicester City in timidly exiting the division.
So whatever drama was remaining, whatever Premier League 2025 highlights were to come which would have a real impact, was likely to be consigned to the race for the Champions League spots, complete with their associated financial subplots.
This weekend provided another development in the tale.
It all began on Friday night when Manchester City, helped a couple of times by the woodwork, overcame spirited Wolves to move into third place, courtesy of a Kevin de Bruyne goal.
Fast forward a few short hours and it was off to Villa Park for a Saturday lunchtime encounter between Aston Villa and spirited Fulham.
If you are a Villa fan, you should be smiling all the way as the astute work of Unai Emery continues apace.
They have recruited smartly and, in the current market, fairly cheaply.
Yet there was a feeling in last weekend’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace that a gruelling campaign may be catching up with them.
A superb five-match Premier League winning run came to a halt against Citybefore their loss to Palace at Wembley which meant that, within two weeks, they went from three competitions to one.
At least Villa can argue they are now laser-focused on their remaining matches.
In truth, they probably need another flawless run to have a chance of making the top five so victory at home to the spirited Cottagers was essential.
They secured it too as an early goal from the influential Youri Tielemans won the day and leaves them on the fringes of the top five.
One club which should have the runners-up position home and hosed is Arsenal but they are not there yet and will be looking a bit anxiously over their shoulders after Bournemouth made history in North London.
It didn’t take too much to predict that the Cherries could make history – not just by winning on Arsenal turf for the first time but also by completing a first ever league double over the Gunners.
That was especially clear as the hosts had one eye on their forthcoming Champions League semi-final against Paris St Germain.
However, the way they fought back from a half-time deficit was impressive and kept alive their outside aspirations of securing European football for the first time.
Victory was sealed as Dean Huijsen and Evanilson scored in eight second half minutes to cancel out and overturn Declan Rice’s opener.
Onto Sunday and it was Newcastle’s turn to try and move into third place.
That they could not manage but the importance of Alexander Isak’s 89th minute penalty could well prove crucial as it earned them a 1-1 draw at Brighton.
The Seagulls, who knocked Newcastle out of the FA Cup in March, had taken the lead through former Geordie man, impressive midfield talent Yankuba Minteh.
That result allowed Chelsea to move level on points and goal difference with the Tynesiders(who have the slight advantage after scoring more) and they did just that as Cole Palmer’s first goal since January, deep in stoppage time, sealed a 3-1 home win over Liverpool.
Enzo Fernandez’s third minute opener had put them in the ascendancy before a bizarre own goal, when Virgl van Dijk hit the ball against his team mate Jarell Quansah and saw it rebound into the net, 11 minutes after the restart.
Van Dijk made amends with a header five minutes from time but Palmer, who also hit the post, marked a man of the match display with a goal from the spot in the closing seconds after Quansah fouled Moises Caicedo.
All in all, Monday night’s game at Crystal Palace is massive for sixth place Nottingham Forest as they look to return to the big time.
Victory at Selhurst Park will move them level on points with both Newcastle and Chelsea.
At the other end of the table, we all know the gulf between the established Premier League clubs and the rest is getting wider with each passing year and the ‘playing field’ has never been as uneven.
Leicester, with no goals and no points from their last nine home games, are ending what has been a miserable season with matches against the only teams with home records worse than their own, with Southampton’s visit to be followed by that of Ipswich.
So they will take a small crumb of comfort after goals from club legend Jamie Vardy and Jordan Ayew sealed a 2-0 win over the rock bottom Saints whose miserable record had been even better, until Saturday, than the Foxes over the last 19 games, or exactly half a Premier League season.
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