A Premier League season is 380 games long, but it is the final 19 which now hold the potential to shape all that has gone before in the 2025-26 edition.
This campaign’s last dash will crown new champions to succeed Liverpool and push a member of English football’s establishment over the relegation cliff edge into the EFL. There might also be a Champions League debut secured, as well as fresh invites sent out to join the other two European competitions, all by the time the full-time whistles blow on the final round of fixtures on Sunday, May 24.
Here, The Athletic assesses where we are with the title race, European spots and relegation.
The league title
It has been a two-horse race for the majority of this season, and one of them has now kicked for the line. Arsenal’s dramatic victory against West Ham United last Sunday gave them a five-point lead over Manchester City, who kept up their pursuit with a 3-0 win against Brentford the previous evening.
City’s 3-0 win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday meant they closed the gap to two points with two games remaining.
Remaining games
ArsenalMan City
May 13
Beat C Palace (H) 3-0
May 18
Burnley (H)
May 19
Bournemouth (A)
May 24
C Palace (A)
Aston Vlila (H)
It is clear City cannot afford a single slip from here. Had they failed to beat Palace, Arsenal could have ended a 22-year wait to land English football’s biggest prize as soon as Monday night. But the comfortable victory denied Mikel Arteta’s side that chance.
Arsenal are aware that two wins from their final two games will be enough, but there is a chance they could be crowned champions without kicking another ball after that match at their Emirates Stadium.
If Arsenal get the better of Burnley then it could be that their big moment comes when Guardiola and company visit in-form Bournemouth on Tuesday. Anything but an away win there would start the celebrations in north London.
Should City beat Bournemouth, though, all roads will lead to the final day of the season on Sunday week: when they are at home to Aston Villa, and Arsenal go to Palace.
There would be scope, albeit unlikely, for further twists.
Arsenal drawing with Burnley and City beating Bournemouth would see the teams tied on 80 points heading into the final day, and the goal differences could be all square too. After the 3-0 win over Palace, City are one ahead on goal difference and seven ahead on goals scored.
Relegation
And then there were two. Crystal Palace, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest have all made their excuses and left the fight for Premier League survival, whittling it down to just two potential candidates to join Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Championship next season.
They are Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, the two London rivals who began the season believing this would be an inglorious scrap for others to endure.
Spurs’ 1-1 draw with Leeds on Monday night has maintained anxiety levels, with another winless home game (the 16th in 18 league fixtures on their own pitch this season) meaning West Ham are still within touching distance of the only team they can catch.
Remaining games
TottenhamWest Ham
May 17
Newcastle (A)
May 19
Chelsea (A)
May 24
Everton (H)
Leeds (H)
West Ham’s trip to Newcastle United this afternoon now carries enormous significance. A win on Tyneside would lift them above Spurs, whose weekend fixture away to Chelsea has been pushed back to next Tuesday owing to their opponents featuring in Saturday’s FA Cup final.
Anything less, though, swings the door open for Spurs to clinch survival at Stamford Bridge. Beating Newcastle is now the only way West Ham can guarantee this fight goes to the final day.
Spurs’ current advantage of two points and a far superior goal difference leaves little margin for error in the West Ham camp. One misstep could now doom them, after back-to-back defeats against Brentford and Arsenal.
A draw at Chelsea ensures Spurs will retain control of their fate regardless of what West Ham do in Newcastle but that last Sunday has the potential to turn fans’ stomachs into washing machines. At the same time as West Ham are hosting Leeds, just seven miles away across London, Spurs will be at home to Everton.
Race for Europe
Now this is more complicated.
Results in this season’s European competitions have already guaranteed that the top five finishers in the table will feature in the 2026-27 Champions League, but the prospects of a sixth English team joining them have been reduced.
Remaining games
LiverpoolA VillaBournemouthBrightonBrentfordChelseaEvertonFulhamSunderland
May 15
Lost 4-2 v Villa (A)
Won 4-2 v Livepool (H)
May 17
Leeds (A)
C Palace (H)
Sunderland (H)
Wolves (A)
Everton (A)
May 19
Man City (H)
Tottenham (H)
May 24
Brentford (H)
Man City (A)
N Forest (A)
Man Utd (H)
Liverpool (A)
Sunderland (A)
Tottenham (A)
Newcastle (H)
Chelsea (H)
That eventuality needs Aston Villa to finish fifth and win the Europa League final against German side Freiburg in the Turkish city of Istanbul next Wednesday, May 20, but the 4-2 win over Liverpool on Friday night has made that outcome less likely. That result has guaranteed Villa a return to the Champions League and means a point in their final game, away to Manchester City, would confirm they finish fourth.
A Liverpool win at home to Brentford, coupled with Villa losing at Manchester City, would swing the door back open for sixth place squeezing into the Champions League but the complexities of UEFA’s European Performance Spots (EPS) system says another English team can only benefit if it is Villa, who must also win the Europa League, that finishes fifth.
Liverpool, stumbling towards the finish line, would finally wrap up Champions League football for next season if Bournemouth, currently sixth, are beaten by Manchester City on Tuesday and Brighton & Hove Albion, in seventh, fail to win at Leeds today. A Bournemouth win in midweek, though, might yet mean Liverpool have to beat Brentford at Anfield next Sunday.
Manchester City’s win over Chelsea in the FA Cup final yesterday ensures that there will currently be two Europa League places up for grabs in the Premier League over the next week. One of those (sixth) could become a Champions League berth in the event of Villa finishing fifth and winning the Europa League but the current standings would see sixth and seventh go to the Europa League (with the extra place coming from City winning the FA Cup) and eighth into the Conference League.
Brighton’s remaining matches, away to Leeds and at home to Manchester United, give them a strong chance of holding on to seventh, while Brentford, who are eighth and trailing Bournemouth by four points, are also still in the mix. Sixth will be out of reach if they lose to visitors Palace on Sunday.
Eighth is now sure to deliver European football through the Conference League, which means Chelsea, Everton, Fulham and Sunderland are all realistically still in the hunt. Everton and Sunderland face one another at the Hill Dickinson Stadium today.
Then, of course, there is the very real possibility of Palace also being in the Europa League next season, should they get the better of Spanish side Rayo Vallecano in the UEFA Conference League final in Leipzig, Germany, on Wednesday, May 27.
Clear? Hardly. But it soon will be.