Tottenham and – Tottenham enter Sunday’s final Premier League round with a two-point advantage over West Ham and control of their own fate—while West Ham need a win over Leeds plus Everton results elsewhere to stay up. After months of declines, changing managers, fan anger, a
By the time Sunday arrives, it won’t just feel like another matchday in north and east London—it will feel like a verdict.
Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United are now only hours away from learning which of them survives in the Premier League and which will spend next season in the Championship. Spurs go into the final round of fixtures holding a two-point advantage over their London rivals. and their superior goal difference. West Ham’s task is sharper. and harsher: they need to win at home to Leeds United and rely on Everton to beat Leeds’s opponents at the other end of the day.
When the season began, the distance between the two clubs looked wide. For Tottenham. there was a bright start under Thomas Frank. and a 3-0 win at Everton on October 26 left them third in the league. But Frank’s spell unraveled in November as defeats to Chelsea. Arsenal and Fulham exposed what both the results and performances suggested was a disconnect inside the team.
They limped through the months until Frank was sacked in February and replaced with Igor Tudor. Tudor’s time lasted for only five league games. and one moment became the nadir of the spell: on March 5. Tottenham lost at home to Crystal Palace after Micky van de Ven’s red card set off an astonishing seven-minute period in which Spurs conceded three goals just before half-time.
A four-month winless run in the league ended under Tottenham’s next coach. Roberto De Zerbi. when the team beat Wolverhampton Wanderers on April 25. De Zerbi has brought improvement, but not enough stability to prevent late damage. Conceding costly late equalisers to Leeds and Brighton & Hove Albion has landed Tottenham in the relegation scrap on the final day.
For West Ham, the fall looked even more sudden.
Their decline began after a 3-0 opening-weekend defeat away to promoted Sunderland. The east London side then lost four of their next five games in all competitions. which led to Nuno Espirito Santo succeeding Graham Potter as head coach. The change didn’t deliver the expected uplift—West Ham failed to keep a clean sheet in Nuno’s first 19 league games in charge. and they won only four times in that span.
Even when results briefly started to lift in early 2026, three straight losses—with only one goal scored—pulled West Ham back into the drop zone. That’s where they remain as Sunday approaches.
Between the football and the stakes, the season has also become a story of anger.
For Tottenham, frustration has been constant for much of the campaign. In November’s 1-0 home defeat to Chelsea, Spurs’ fans booed loudly after their team recorded an xG of 0.05. At full time. Van de Ven and fellow defender Djed Spence ignored Thomas Frank when he asked them to applaud the supporters.
A few weeks later, goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario was cheered every time he touched the ball after an earlier error contributed to Harry Wilson scoring for Fulham.
There was a noticeable shift ahead of March’s fixture against Nottingham Forest, when fans welcomed the team bus before kick-off, let off flares, waved flags, and tried to generate a powerful atmosphere. The mood was punctured when Tudor’s side suffered a 3-0 loss.
Since De Zerbi arrived at the end of March, supporters have looked more upbeat, but nerves remain. Tottenham haven’t won on their own pitch in the Premier League since December 6, and the lack of home momentum has kept pressure alive.
West Ham supporters say the same thing in a different language—frustration, annoyance, hurt, demoralisation, and disengagement.
Ahead of the game with Leeds, the emotions are stacked on top of a calendar of damaging moments. There was a 5-1 home loss to Chelsea in August. where a young supporter attempted to invade the pitch in protest. There were also back-to-back defeats to fellow relegation candidates Wolverhampton Wanderers and Forest in January. and then a spurned chance to leapfrog Tottenham when West Ham could only manage a goalless draw away to Crystal Palace in April.
After last weekend’s 3-1 loss at Newcastle United, West Ham supporters chanted that the players were “not fit to wear the shirt.” It wasn’t the first time fans had voiced that kind of displeasure.
Alongside the anger at performances, there has been sustained protest against West Ham’s ownership throughout the season. Vice-chair Karren Brady left the club last month, while chairman David Sullivan remains unpopular.
The survival stakes aren’t only about staying in the top flight for another season—they touch money, squad plans, and careers.
De Zerbi has insisted multiple times that he will be in charge of Spurs next season regardless of whether they are in the Premier League or the Championship. though it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that could change once the club’s new reality is known. Chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange could face intense scrutiny. Plans to hire a new co-sporting director could also be reshaped; Sebastien Kehl is among the leading contenders and he left the same job at Borussia Dortmund in March.
Spurs are officially the ninth-richest football club in the world. and relegation would be a huge failure with a major blow to their financial power. Even with long-term contracts recently signed by several first-team players—including captain Cristian Romero. Rodrigo Bentancur and Spence—higher-division rivals would likely look to cherry-pick the best talent.
Tottenham might be forced to overhaul their squad and sell several stars. The Athletic has previously reported that many players have relegation clauses in their contracts that would trigger automatic pay-cuts in the Championship, easing part of the financial hit.
For West Ham, relegation would mean a different kind of disruption: uncertainty over Nuno’s future. The Athletic previously reported he is undecided if he will remain in charge if the club go down. Nuno has Championship experience after winning promotion to the Premier League with Wolves in 2017-18.
If West Ham drop into the Championship, key players could be pushed toward exits. Jarrod Bowen, Mateus Fernandes, El Hadji Malick Diouf, Crysencio Summerville and Taty Castellanos could all potentially leave, and as reported previously, the club would expect to sell four to five players.
But the biggest fear for supporters is whether West Ham can return quickly. West Ham previously needed time after relegation in 2003; it took them two years to return to the top flight after that fall. The 2012 play-off final win over Blackpool showed they can get promoted—but this time. the worry is that the season could spiral into something worse.
Some fans fear back-to-back relegations, which recently happened to Luton Town. Other clubs—Blackburn Rovers, Stoke City, Charlton Athletic and Birmingham City—have struggled to return to the Premier League after relegation.
As the day nears, Tottenham’s path looks clear in its own way.
Spurs had appeared to suffer a knockout blow with their 3-0 loss to Forest before the international break. Then there was a brief moment against Wolves a month ago when they were four points behind West Ham and rapidly circling the drain. Back-to-back wins—against Wolves and then Aston Villa—propelled them out of the bottom three. Even after losing to Chelsea in midweek, they still retain the power to decide their own fate.
Avoid defeat on Sunday and they can begin “celebrating” a second successive 17th-placed finish.
Creativity has also returned in bursts. James Maddison’s recent cameos off the bench after a long injury absence have provided a spark that Tottenham have lacked. Richarlison keeps finding ways to score scrappy goals. and he was also a hero for Everton when they dramatically avoided relegation in the 2022-23 season. Dominic Solanke, dealing with a hamstring problem, is hoped to be fit enough to feature at some point on Sunday.
There’s also a specific pattern De Zerbi needs to beat: Tottenham tend to start games brightly under him before fading. If they come out of the blocks quickly today, Spurs might be able to keep Sunday from turning into a full-body test of nerves.
West Ham’s side of that equation is harder to feel good about.
The only flicker of encouragement is that West Ham are still in with a shout of survival on the final day at all. But hope has ebbed since a 3-0 loss at Brentford on May 2. After further losses to Arsenal and Newcastle. West Ham squandered the opportunity to put more pressure on Tottenham across three consecutive matchdays.
There is also no momentum heading into the game. West Ham have not beaten Leeds this season: they lost 2-1 away to Leeds in October and lost on penalties last month in a home FA Cup quarter-final after trailing 2-0, forcing extra time through a dramatic late rally.
Nuno and the players have described the season’s last few games as being like cup finals, but they have not risen to the occasion.
The concerns going into Sunday are shared, but they land differently.
For Tottenham. Mohammed Kudus. Xavi Simons and Dejan Kulusevski are expected to watch from the sidelines. and Solanke is only just battling his way back after not playing for a month. The loss at Chelsea exposed the lack of quality options available from the bench to change a game’s direction. There’s also a gamble in leaning on Randal Kolo Muani to produce a moment of magic—he has only scored once in 29 Premier League appearances since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain on loan last summer.
All of the pressure sits on Tottenham. They’ve struggled to cope with expectations for the past two seasons, and if things don’t start quickly, the atmosphere could quickly turn anxious and fraught.
For West Ham, the fear is sharper still: another slow start.
Recent weeks showed how costly that can be. West Ham conceded three times in the opening 19 minutes across defeats to Brentford and Newcastle. The players haven’t handled pressure well. but there can be no excuses against a Leeds side with nothing to play for. especially after Nuno’s plea for respect and dignity.
Relegation is the worst-case scenario. And after a season filled with frustration, there’s a worry that some fans might take matters into their own hands with disdain for the board.
A reminder hangs over the stadium: a March 2018 home loss to Burnley was marred by ugly scenes, with many gathering in front of the directors’ box. The chance exists for Sunday to turn similarly mutinous if the results begin to go against West Ham.
There’s still a question of who can deliver the rescue.
For Spurs, the romantic answer is Maddison. He has returned from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury suffered in pre-season to try to drag Tottenham over the line. He should have earned a penalty in the recent draw against Leeds. and Jorrel Hato’s remarkable block prevented him equalising in the defeat to Chelsea. De Zerbi has said Maddison is only fit enough to play around 25 minutes against Everton. so the hope is he won’t need to become an emergency solution in the second half.
Mathys Tel is another possible saviour. He has endured a mixed season—left out of the Champions League squad by Thomas Frank. then swinging from hero to villain after his wild overhead kick at home to Leeds led to a penalty awarded after he had opened the scoring. Still. Tel’s attitude has been described as fantastic throughout the season. and his development is presented as one of the only positives Spurs have had. Scoring the goal to secure their top-flight status would be a fitting finale.
For West Ham, Bowen’s week adds its own emotional pressure.
It has been a tough week for Jarrod Bowen after he was not named in England’s World Cup squad. Even with eight goals and 10 assists in the league this season. England coach Thomas Tuchel felt Noni Madueke. of Arsenal. was a better backup for club colleague Bukayo Saka on the right wing. Tuchel later admitted West Ham’s relegation battle has not helped Bowen’s chances.
At 29, Bowen has also faced criticism for his role as captain. He almost clashed with a supporter after the Carabao Cup loss at Wolves in August, and he has had to bear the brunt for most of West Ham’s struggles. Bowen has not scored a league goal since the 3-2 defeat to Chelsea in January.
Today is the perfect occasion, with a London Stadium crowd watching closely, to prove Tuchel wrong and play a leading role in West Ham’s Premier League survival.
Sunday will decide who gets to keep the lights on for another year and who has to rebuild from the second tier. For both clubs, the season’s messy history—manager changes, late goals conceded, and a fanbase that has felt every swing of the rollercoaster—ends here. The clock is almost out.
Tottenham West Ham relegation showdown Premier League final day Everton Leeds United survival