Premier League Match Week 33 Results: Title Not Clinched But Another Straggler Goes Down - Liverpool and Arsenal Both Win; Chelsea Relegates Leicester; Aston Villa Stuns Newcastle; Wolves Clinch Safety; Nottingham Forest Retakes Third With Win At Spurs

The title “race” continues as both Liverpool and Arsenal won this weekend, preventing Liverpool from claiming its well-deserved title. While Liverpool’s eventual crowning is yet to officially happen due to Arsenal’s victory, it is all over for Leicester after their 1-0 loss to the league leaders. A well-earned relegation became official on a day that Leicester failed to score for a ninth consecutive home match at King Power Stadium. The Foxes could not even put a single shot off on target on Sunday. Yeesh.

Arsenal was also little troubled at Ipswich Town in a 4-1 victory. To his credit Arsenal Manger Mikel Arteta played a strong side to delay Liverpool’s clinching for another week. Ipswich Town, which has won but once this season at its Portman Road home, inched closer to officially joining Leicester and Southampton in the one and done club. Ironically, it was the already relegated Southampton side which kept Ipswich Town alive for now with a 1-1 draw with West Ham. The Hammers fell to 17th in the table as the Graham Potter experience continues to trend badly.

Wolverhampton leapt over the Hammers and ensured their own safety in a 1-0 win over Manchester United as the success of Wolves Manager Vitor Pereira stands in stark contrast to the futility of Potter. Pereira took over a team in the relegation zone in December and now has them 17 points clear of the drop after their fifth consecutive victory on Sunday. Wolverhampton is now level on points with  a Manchester United club which has long since given up on its own Premier League season. The Red Devils 15th Premier League loss on Sunday is the most in a season by Manchester United in 35 years. And yet that’s still three fewer losses than shambolic Tottenham Hotspur has posted in the Premier League this season. Only clubs in the relegation zone have more losses than a Spurs side which was once again booed off the pitch at halftime in a 2-1 home loss to Nottingham Forest. The victory by the Tricky Trees snapped a two-match losing run and launched the club back into third place in the Premier League table.

🤯 pic.twitter.com/5bzSCaGLYR

— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 21, 2025

Newcastle fell back to fourth after a 4-1 capitulation to Aston Villa which put a halt to a four-match winning run by the Magpies. Sunday’s match was important for Newcastle, but Aston Villa needed it more and played with a greater sense of urgency. Striker Ollie Watkins openly talked of his anger at being left out of the lineup for the midweek match with PSG which eliminated Aston Villa from Champions League. A motivated Watkins was back in the lineup on Saturday and announced himself with a goal one minute into the match. The Villans extended their own winning run to five matches to remain in the thick of the hunt for Champions League qualification.

Beyond Liverpool and Arsenal, there are five clubs now in the chase for the three remaining berths in Europe’s top competition. Villa and Chelsea are locked on 57 points, three points below third place Nottingham Forest. Before climbing to the Trees, however, those clubs first would need to get by Newcastle and Manchester City who are fourth and fifth in the table after the weekend’s action.

Manchester City struggled to overcome a determined Everton at Goodison Park but late goals in the 84th minute and in stoppage time delivered the needed 2-0 result which kept the Citizens in possession of the final Champions League berth for now. Manchester City and Aston Villa, both of whom will be playing in FA Cup semifinals this weekend, now face each other in a titanic clash on Tuesday.

Nottingham Forest, another FA semifinal participant, will then face Crystal Palace on Wednesday. The Eagles ended their staggering concession of ten consecutive goals to opponents in a goalless draw with Bournemouth on Saturday. Last week’s win over Fulham was the only victory for the Cherries in their last eight matches as they hold onto European hopes only due to the failures of other clubs. The draw leaves Bournemouth alone in eighth position, usually the final European qualification slot, one point ahead of Fulham and Brighton who both lost on the weekend. Fulham held a 1-0 halftime lead on Sunday over a Chelsea club which was booed off the pitch by away supporters at the interval. The Blues  were once again looking into the maws of defeat for a second straight week before responding late once again in a 2-1 win over the Cottagers. Chelsea had looked miserable for much of a 2-2 draw with lowly Ipswich Town the week before until two late goals salvaged a point. This week, all three points were claimed with Pedro Neto’s stoppage time match winner. Elsewhere in London, Brentford handled Brighton 4-2 to extend the Seagulls winless run to five matches as European hopes for the tenth-place club are fading quickly. Brentford is just two points south of the Seagulls in the table after the Bees’ Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa both scored in the same match for the seventh time this season.

Premier League Match Week 33 Preview

Newcastle United rolled over Crystal Palace by a 5-0 margin on Wednesday to overtake Nottingham Forest for third place in the Premier League table. Newcastle has won five straight and now faces another streaking side in Aston Villa, winners of four straight league matches, at Villa Park on Saturday. Aston Villa’s European quest for this year is over with this past week’s Champions League loss to PSG. A tasty clash is thus set up for two clubs now solely focused on competing in Europe’s top competition next season.

Nottingham Forest had seemed a lock to book its ticket to the Champions League just a short while back. Two losses in a row, however, have left the Tricky Trees not only inhaling Newcastle’s fumes but looking over their shoulder at three clubs who are now within three points of the fourth place Trees. Nottingham Forest could be sitting outside the top five by the time Manager Nuno Espirito Santo’s club takes to the pitch versus Tottenham Hotspur on Monday.

Beyond fifth place Manchester City, Villa and Chelsea both trail Nottingham Forest by just three points with Chelsea holding a superior goal differential to Forest. Chelsea faces a high stakes London derby at Fulham on Sunday. The Cottagers have their own European aspirations which were damaged by a one-goal loss to Bournemouth last week, leaving the Cottagers in a three-way deadlock for the final European place with the Cherries and Brighton, Bournemouth owning the best goal differential of those three Europa Conference League contenders. Chelsea, meanwhile, needed to come back last weekend from a two-goal deficit to nick a point off Ipswich Town, a sure relegation bet at this point. Chelsea’s form has declined in the latter half of the season after a bright start under Manager Enzo Maresca, a trend which was also exhibited by Maresca’s Leicester club last season. Chelsea supporters are left wondering whether the early season success was a carryover from the work of prior manager Maricio Pochettino, now receding as Maresca’s system has become fully implemented and serves to stymie some of the club’s young stars. Fulham Manager Marco Silva, meanwhile, is one of the current Premier League managers being rumored to replace beleaguered Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou. Bournemouth Manager Andoni Iraola, who defeated Silva in their direct matchup last week, is another rumored candidate for the north London job. Somewhat humiliating for Spurs is that neither manager, both enjoying the support of their current owners, appears interested in the managerial graveyard in north London. Although it is probably already too late, Postecoglou’s stock got a boost during the week with his club’s win over Eintracht Frankfurt to advance to the Europa League semifinals. One can only guess whether performance ticks down again in league play on Monday versus Nottingham Forest.

Bournemouth, meanwhile, is at Crystal Palace this weekend with Eagles manager Oliver Glasner also rumored to be in the mix for the Spurs job. That interest may have cooled off with the Eagles now having conceded 10 consecutive goals over their last two losses.

Selhurst 🔜#CPFC // #CRYBOU pic.twitter.com/iPAic1JLkl

— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) April 18, 2025

Manchester City scored five times to put Crystal Palace away last week. The going could be tougher for the Citizens this weekend when they visit Everton. The Toffees, having lost just one of their last eleven matches, have not allowed more than a goal to their last six opponents. Brighton has not won in its last four matches, dropping to tenth in the table as the Seagulls need a result at Brentford on Saturday to keep their European hopes alive.

Matches of little interest to anyone but the individual clubs’ supporters this weekend include a visit by West Ham to Southampton and a match up at Old Trafford between Manchester United and Wolverhampton. Like Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United advanced to the Europa League semifinals while it sleepwalks through the remainder of a best forgotten Premier League season.

Both Liverpool and Arsenal, meanwhile, will face relegation teams in Leicester and Ipswich Town, respectively. A win by Liverpool and loss by Arsenal would result in an anticlimactic title clinching at King Power by Liverpool. The title race has long been over. Arsenal’s thoughts are obviously elsewhere after advancing to the semifinals of the Champions League over Real Madrid during the week.

Premier League Match Week 32 Results: Nottingham Forest At Risk After Everton Loss; Newcastle, Aston Villa Extend Winning Runs To Four; Manchester City Blitzes Crystal Place; Manchester United and Spurs Focus On Europe Matches As Premier League Losses Mount; Chelsea Drops Points, Again, To Relegation Fodder Ipswich Town; Seagulls Crash Land Against Leicester

Nottingham Forest supporters are understandably a bit nervous after the Tricky Trees were felled by a 94th minute strike from Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucoure in a 1-0 loss at the City Ground. A second consecutive defeat leaves the Tricky Trees only three points ahead of Chelsea and Aston Villa. Those latter two clubs are sixth and seventh in the table. The first five places are guaranteed to compete in the Champions League next season. Forest could be in trouble as the loss pulls the Trees back into the scramble with the host of other clubs vying for the remaining Champions League berths behind Liverpool and Arsenal.

Aston Villa defeated Nottingham Forest last weekend and was little troubled in a 3-0 walkover at Southampton on Saturday. The Villans have won four straight matches to jump into the thick of the Champions League qualification scramble. Their rise has been fueled in part by aggressive January moves which have delivered for Manager Unai Emery’s side as Borussia Dortmund loanee Donyell Malen scored the second goal against the Saints, one week after scoring the winner versus the Tricky Trees. Emery’s substitutions were masterful on Saturday as three goals were scored by three different substitutes for the first time in Premier League history.

Morgan was on target in the first leg last week 🎯 #UCL pic.twitter.com/NjN5cuDf14

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 14, 2025

The victory left Aston Villa level on points with sixth place Chelsea after the Blues suffered a damaging 2-2 home draw against relegation bound Ipswich town. Highly vocal Stamford Bridge supporters let their unhappiness be known when the Blues fell behind by two goals to a lowly side which had defeated the Blues by the same 2-0 score earlier this season. A second half own goal by the Tractor Boys and a beautiful, curling equalizer by Chelsea’s Jadon Sancho quieted the discontent only mildly as the dropped points could factor in whether Chelsea reruns to Europe’s top competition next season. If the season ended today, Chelsea would miss out on the Champions League after dropping seven of the last twelve points available to them in league play. Heads were shaking at Stamford Bridge on Sunday at more missed opportunities by forwards Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer. Jackson has not scored since December and Palmer has not scored since January.

Newcastle, tied with Chelsea on points entering the weekend, broke free of the Blues and into fourth place in the table with the Magpies’ fourth consecutive Premier League victory, a 4-1 thrashing of Manchester United. Newcastle is now just a point behind third place Nottingham Forest after Harvey Barnes scored a second half brace to break open a match which was tied at a goal apiece at halftime. An error by Manchester United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, deputizing on the day for much criticized starter Andre Onana, handed the final goal to Newcastle’s Bruno Guimares. With a win in a rescheduled match against Crystal Palace on Wednesday, Newcastle would move past Nottingham Forest into third place in the Premier League table.

Manchester United Manager Ruben Amorim, meanwhile, tried to quickly refocus his post-match press conference on his own team’s upcoming midweek match, an all-important Europa League quarterfinal second leg match versus Lyon. Pundits such as former Manchester United players Roy Keane and Gary Neville, however, were not letting the Red Devils off the hook that easily as they ripped the club for yet another miserable league performance. With Sunday’s loss, Manchester United is now assured of finishing with the lowest Premier League point total in the club’s history.

It was a brighter weekend for the other Manchester team as Manchester City overcame a streaking Crysal Palace side which had won four times during a five-match unbeaten run leading into Saturday’s Match at the Etihad. Crystal Palace has been among the league’s top performing clubs in 2025 and was continuing that form in carving out a 2-0 advantage over their hosts through the first 39 minutes. Manchester City then obliterated the Eagles with five consecutive goals in a 5-2 victory. Kevin De Bruyne, who has already announced he is leaving the club after this season, had a goal and an assist in the comeback which puts the Citizens a point ahead of Chelsea and Aston Villa for the fifth and final Champions League slot. Omar Marmoush had one of City’s quintet of goals and now has scored six times since joining the club in January, a haul which only Marmosa’s Egyptian teammate Mohamed Salah has exceeded in that same timeframe.

Salah established a new Premier League record for goal involvements in a 38-match season by adding to his league leading assist total in Liverpool’s 2-1 win over West Ham. That assist led to Luis Diaz’s 18th minute goal which was the only score until Andy Robertson added some drama to the match with an 86th minute own goal. Virgil van Dijk, who bore some complicity in Robertson’s gaffe, then set things right with an 89th minute winner which further increased Liverpool’s point advantage over second place Arsenal to 13 points. Liverpool can now clinch the Premier League title as early as next weekend with a win and an Arsenal loss. A win next week by Liverpool at Leicester could set up a possible title clinching match for the Reds on April 27th against Tottenham Hotspur no matter what Arsenal does the next two match weeks.

The Gunners dropped more points on Saturday in a 1-1 draw with Brentford. Arsenal opened scoring with a goal by Thomas Partey before conceding an equalizer to Brentford’s Yoane Wissa, the 16th time this season that Arsenal has dropped points from a winning position in the Premier League this season. The Premier  League, however, is no longer Arsenal’s primary focus. In preparation for the critical second leg of its Champion’s League quarterfinal with Real Madrid this coming Wednesday, Manager Mikel Arteta made five changes from the lineup which defeated Real Madrid 3-0 during the week.

The manager of rival Tottenham Hotspur similarly deemphasized his club’s Premier League matchup, prioritizing Spurs’ upcoming Europa League quarterfinal second leg against Eintracht Frankfurt by making six changes to his lineup. The result was abject embarrassment as Tottenham Hotspur lost 4-2 at Wolverhampton. That made it 17 losses on the season for Tottenham Hotspur, the same as Wolverhampton and more than any other Premier League side not being relegated at the end of the season. The abject display on Sunday included the gifting of two goals to their opponent through egregious defensive mistakes. Things got ugly early for Spurs when Wolves scored before two minutes had elapsed. A brief moment of hope for Spurs, coming on an 85th minute goal by Richarlison, was quickly extinguished when Matheus Cunha scored one minute later for the 4-2 final. The victory continued a late season surge by Wolverhampton under Manager Vitor Pereira who replaced Gary O’Neil in December. In sixteen matches, Pereira’s side has garnered 26 points. In the 16 matches under O’Neil, Wolves had posted but nine points. Sunday’s win marked a fourth consecutive victory and moved Wolverhampton past West Ham into 16th place in the table, still a bad place to be but far better than the relegation which supporters feared was coming under O’Neil.

Andoni Iraola, who succeeded Gary O’Neil at Bournemouth in 2023, has also improved his club’s standing. Despite a recent poor run, the Cherries put themselves back into European contention with a crucial 1-0 win over Fulham. The battle for an expected Europa Conference League berth now has the Cherries, Cottagers and Brighton all knotted at 48 points in the 8-10 positions in the table. Only one of those clubs will play on the continent next season. Brighton hurt its chances in a 2-2 draw with Leicester. Leicester had not scored in eight matches before twice equalizing the match against a Brighton side which now has a four match winless run at a most precarious point in their season.