The battle for Champions League qualification is center stage for the Premier League run in. Arsenal’s win over Real Madrid during the week clinched a fifth spot for the league in next year’s competition. Liverpool and Arsenal are comfortably first and second in the league table with surprising Nottingham Forest third, four points clear of its nearest pursuers.
It is then that things get extremely congested, and thus exciting. Chelsea and Newcastle are level on points in fourth and fifth place, respectively, Chelsea holding a goal differential advantage. Manchester City follows one point back with Aston Villa just one point behind the Citizens. Thus, four clubs, no more than two points removed from each other, are competing for the final two Champions League positions behind Nottingham Forest.
Manchester City could be facing the toughest challenge of those contenders this weekend when it hosts a Crystal Palace side which has been nothing short of sensational since the turn of the calendar year. The Eagles have accumulated more points in 2025 than all but two teams as the club has galvanized under the steady leadership of underrated manager, Oliver Glasner.
The Citizens meanwhile have improved versus their dreadful November/December run of performances but still fail to instill any fear in opponents. Manchester City has won but two of its last six matches and looked quite ordinary in a tedious draw with Manchester United last week. 
Oliver Glasner
Newcastle, meanwhile, moved past City in the table last week with their third straight Premier League win and now prepare for their own matchup with the Red Devils at St. James Park on Sunday. Winners of 11 of their last 15 topflight matches, the Magpies have also placed an EFL Cup in their trophy case in recent weeks. They will face a Manchester United side which has nothing but moral victories such as last week’s dreary draw with Manchester City to cheer about. The 13th place Red Devils have been largely unwatchable in a string of performances which has made Ruben Amorim statistically the worst manager in Premier League history in terms of win rate and average points per match.
Newcastle will try to keep pace with fourth place Chelsea, which will be hosting relegation bound Ipswich Town at Stamford Bridge. Though a mismatch on paper, the Tractor Boys stunned Chelsea 2-0 in the reverse fixture earlier this season at Portman Road. Sunday’s matchup will see Chelsea try to record a sixth consecutive home victory, a run the club has not seen since 2020. The home crowd will do its best to incent Cole Palmer to find the net for the first time in his last 14 combined league and cup performances. His power outage has coincided with a precipitous drop in scoring from Manager Enzo Maresca’s side from their early season form. Production from Palmer and striker Nicolas Jackson will be essential to the Blues’ drive to secure their ticket for next season’s Champions League.
Aston Villa will also be facing a relegation side when it heads to Southampton. The Saints were mathematically demoted last weekend, with the firing of Manager Ivan Juric following shortly thereafter. The beleaguered Saints now face an angry Aston Villa side which was outclassed in a 3-1 Champions League defeat to PSG during the week. Southampton hopes will rest on Aston Villa resting some of its feature players for the PSG rematch next Tuesday.
Arsenal is on the right side of a 3-0 advantage heading into the second leg with Real Madrid on Wednesday. With hopes of a Premier League title long since dashed, the Gunners could face a trap game with pesky Brentford at the Emirates on Saturday. The Bees had won five consecutive away matches before tripping at Newcastle on their last venture away from home.
Arsenal is 11 points behind league leading Liverpool with the Reds, who host West Ham this week, seemingly able to coast to the title at this point. Overshadowing this weekend’s match with the Hammers was Friday’s announcement that Mohamed Salah has signed a new two year contract with the club. The expiring contract status of Salah and teammates Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold has been a cloud hovering over the success of a successful league season. Van Dijk is now expected to follow Salah in committing to the project of first year manager Arne Slot. Alexander-Arnold, however, could pursue his football future in Spain with Real Madrid.
Liverpool and Arsenal holding the top two spots in the league is no surprise. The club right behind them, however, has surprised everyone. Initial shock has now given way to grudging respect for a Nottingham Forest side which has claimed a place in the top four just a season removed from scrambling to survive in the league. The Tricky Trees, however, were nipped 2-1 by surging Aston Villa last week and now face another tricky contest versus Everton. The Toffees are never an easy out, having only lost to Liverpool in their last ten Premier League matches. Wins have been rare of late, however, with the Toffees drawing five of their last six matches.
Outside of those clubs in the Champions League picture are clubs who would be delighted with a Europa League or Conference League berth. Two clubs in the midst of that scramble will face off when Fulham visits Bournemouth on Monday. The Cottagers have been up and down, alternating wins and losses in their past six outings. It has been mostly down for Bournemouth as the Cherries have not won since a February 15h victory over hopeless Southampton. Even with that recent decline, however, Bournemouth is just three points behind eighth place Fulham and a potential European assignment.
Currently resting between the Cottagers and the Cherries in the standings is ninth place Brighton which has now dropped two matches in a row after falling to rival Crystal Palace last week. The Seagulls return home this weekend to face relegation bound Leicester. The Foxes have been terrible under Manager Ruud van Nistelrooy who replaced Steve Cooper in November. Leicester has lost 15 of its last 16 league matches, failing to score in 13 of those contests. Another scoreless effort against Brighton would equal the Premier League mark of nine consecutive matches without scoring.
Tottenham Hotspur underwhelmed its supporter once again with a 2-2 home draw to Eintracht Frankfurt in Europa league play during the week. The league season has been a disaster for the 14th place club. Everything, including the job of its manager, thus rests on a successful rematch with the Germans next Thursday. Expect a lot of player rotation and little focus when the north London side visits Molineux Stadium to face Wolves on Sunday.
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