West Ham and Tottenham head into the final Premier League round with relegation on the line, while the end-of-season spotlight also lands on Pep Guardiola’s farewell at Manchester City and Mohamed Salah’s last Liverpool appearance.
On Sunday, the Premier League’s final round won’t just decide who stays in England’s top flight—it will decide who has to come back and rebuild.
In the fight to avoid the final relegation spot. West Ham are staring at a narrow escape with everything lined up against them. The east London club sits in third-to-last place. still holding their top-flight status for 14 years. but only by the smallest margin of points and the harsh math of goal difference. West Ham are two points behind Tottenham, and they trail Tottenham by a goal difference deficit of 12.
West Ham’s path is clear and punishing: they must beat Leeds at home. Even if they get the result they need, they also require Tottenham to lose at home to Everton.
Tottenham’s stakes are just as heavy. The club last played in the second tier in the 1977-78 season. which makes relegation from the top flight a shock on a scale not seen in generations. For a team with the Premier League’s biggest-name history. it’s a final-day moment that feels less like a match and more like a verdict.
The Premier League table isn’t the only story on the horizon, with the title already clinched by Arsenal. But the urgency at the bottom sits alongside an equally intense scramble higher up the standings as teams chase the final European places.
Sixth place will be enough for Champions League qualification this season. provided Aston Villa—the newly crowned Europa League champion—finish in fifth place. Villa’s situation depends on outcomes elsewhere: for Villa to fall from fourth to fifth. Villa needs to lose to Manchester City. At the same time, Liverpool has to beat Brentford to climb from fifth to fourth.
Bournemouth, meanwhile, travels to Nottingham Forest and is currently in sixth place, holding a three-point lead over seventh-place Brighton. Brighton hosts Manchester United with that margin in play.
Sunday also marks a pair of high-emotion farewells for football’s biggest figures. Pep Guardiola will take charge of his final game at Manchester City after a record-breaking 10-year spell. Bernardo Silva and John Stones are also leaving City at the end of the season. setting up an emotional afternoon at the Etihad Stadium.
And at Anfield, Mohamed Salah will play his last game for Liverpool after nine years. His manager, Arne Slot, has not confirmed whether the Egypt winger will start, after a critical recent social-media post.
A single round of fixtures ties all of it together: survival for West Ham and Tottenham, Europe for the teams clustered around sixth and beyond, and a farewell for Guardiola and Salah that will play out in real time—while the season’s last decisions land.
West Ham Tottenham Leeds Everton Premier League relegation Europa League champion Aston Villa Champions League qualification Arsenal title Manchester City Pep Guardiola Mohamed Salah Liverpool Bournemouth Nottingham Forest Brighton Manchester United