Newcastle United had a lucky escape as they join Manchester City and Chelsea in the Champions League, while Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest miss out.
The final day of the 2024/25 Premier League season was never likely to be a classic, considering the European places were the only thing needing to be settled, but there were a few twists and turns as teams switched positions.
Man City’s vital win over AFC Bournemouth in midweek left them one step away from Champions League qualification and they got over the line, winning 2-0 at Fulham on the final day to finish third and only three points behind second-placed Arsenal.
Pep Guardiola’s side were not made to sweat, but this cannot be said for the remaining four sides tussling for the other two Champions League positions.
Nottingham Forest and Chelsea battled at the City Ground in an edgy shootout for Champions League qualification, with a win for either likely enough to seal a top-five spot.
Unsurprisingly, this game was tight and lacked clear-cut chances, but Forest, who have somewhat run out of steam during the run-in, failed to produce one last great home performance as they came up short against Chelsea.
The Blues managed the game pretty well after Levy Colwill’s goal from close range gave them a vital advantage, showing strong character to see out the match to win 1-0 and claim fourth place.
Chelsea’s win moved them to 69 points and this was enough to comfortably secure Champions League football, as Newcastle United and Aston Villa joined Forest in slipping up.
Forest’s 1-0 loss ended their Champions League hopes as they finished in seventh on 65 points, while Newcastle were pretty lucky as they profited from Aston Villa’s misery at Old Trafford to fall and land on their feet.
The Magpies would have expected to slip out of the Champions League spots via a 1-0 home loss to Everton, but they finished ahead of Aston Villa on goal difference.
Ahead of the final day, Villa won three consecutive games to boost their Champions League hopes, but everything went wrong against Man Utd as they lost 2-0 and finished the game with ten men.
Potentially in his last game for Villa, Emiliano Martinez was sent off before the break for a challenge on Rasmus Hojlund and Man Utd controversially took the lead via Amad Diallo after Unai Emery’s side harshly had a goal chalked off for Morgan Rogers’ challenge on Alkay Bayinder.
Christian Eriksen netted a farewell goal from the penalty spot in the closing stages to add to Aston Villa’s misery, who will have to settle for Europa League football next season.
There are potentially eight Premier League teams in Europe next season and if that is the case, Brighton will be that team after they battled back from behind to beat a hungover Spurs side 4-1 to end on 61 points.
Elsewhere, Liverpool’s title celebration mood was ever-so-slightly quashed as they were held 1-1 against Crystal Palace. The champions finished the game with ten men following Ryan Gravenberch’s red card, but Mo Salah’s late leveller saw him equal the record of most goal involvements in a season with 47.
Also, it was pretty appropriate that the dire bottom three all lost their final games, with Southampton losing 2-1 against Arsenal, Leicester City 2-0 against Bournemouth and Ipswich Town 3-1 against West Ham.
In the other game, Wolves earned a 1-1 draw against Brentford, a game in which Bryan Mbuemo scored his 20th Premier League goal of the season. This result and Man Utd’s win sees Ruben Amorim move up to 15th, which is still embarrassing but not quite as bad as Spurs’ 17th finish, though that has admittedly been saved by their midweek Europa League triumph.
