We’ve arrived at the final week of the English Premier League season and it is Manchester City’s title to lose.
Both City and Liverpool held their nerve to snatch wins in Week 37 and the former can confirm their fourth title in the Premier League era by beating Mat Ryan’s Brighton on the road. The Reds will host Wolves at Anfield.
As per usual, all ten matches will be played at exactly the same time and you can find ten Week 38 Premier League tips below.
We’ll kick off in London as Spurs and Everton each look to close out their season a on a positive note.
Another quality Premier League campaign from the North London club and perhaps unlucky not to have finished higher. For at least a little while they looked a capable of winning the league, but inconsistency through the middle to late stages of the competition and losses to minnows have prevented a title again.
The Toffees have restored a bit of fight into their badge and will likely finish the season eighth. They’ve found a great patch of form in the latter part of the season and a win over Spurs would cap a positive campaign.
Tottenham can finish as high as third, but it would take Leicester beating Chelsea and I really do not think that is going to happen. Happy to take the value on offer for the draw.
Well, well, well. Here we go on the matches that actually mean something. Nothing less than a win and a Manchester City loss is required for Liverpool to secure their first title in the Premier League era, but they will have their hands full with a Wolves side that has been credible all season. They’ve been buoyed by that ludicrous performance and win over Barcelona in the Champions League midweek and a repeat of that performance would see them putting 10 past Wolves.
Wolves are confirmed to finish seventh and that is their best result in England’s top league since 1979/80. Another win over Fulham last week was their third in succession and they will be quietly confident of confirming that Liverpool will not win the league.
Nerves will be high but surely, Liverpool just wins. Close, but not close enough.
An interesting fixture to end the season for both clubs and Leicester can potentially cost Chelsea third spot (not that it really matters at all) by winning this.
The Foxes produced a commendable effort to go within a whisker of ruining City’s title defence and you’d have to think that at home, against a worse team that has less on the line, they’ll be even better here. Who bloody knows though, there’s also nothing on the line for them.
All in all, another quiet and pretty forgettable season for Chelsea and focus is fixed on next season’s prospect. Take a look at their 2019/20 jersey when you get a spare minute. It looks like being another long and fruitless one, at least for us who have to watch.
This is the final time that we’ll see Aaron Mooy’s Huddersfield Town in the Premier League, at least for a while and they are understandably huge outsiders to beat Southampton.
Following a pleasing 2017/18 campaign, the Terriers offered virtually nothing this season and won just three matches. A rebuild is just what the doctor ordered and as long as they don’t just continually drop through the leagues as several other clubs have, I think they’ll be alright.
Southampton have found a decent run of form throughout the last few months and should be winning this with relative ease.
Fifth place remains up for grabs for Manchester United and the relegated Bluebirds are the only thing standing in their way (assuming Arsenal bottles it again). It’s been a bizarre season for the Red Devils, but they’ve been largely good since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over and they’re offered a good opportunity to end the season on a high at the expense of a minnow.
It’s been an extremely tough season for Cardiff both on and off the pitch, but they have proven to be fighters several times and there is little doubt that they’ll be a force in the Championship next season.
The third and final club set to be relegated from the Premier League is Fulham and who knows what they’ll face when Newcastle comes to town.
Relegation was already all but assured, but the Cottagers strung together three smart wins leading into last week’s loss to Wolves and they will be eager to bow out of the top div with an eight win for the season under the belt.
To their credit, the Magpies were good against Liverpool last week, but that followed a 1-1 draw with Brighton which they were probably lucky to take something from. Newcastle have again been saved by other clubs being even more inconsistent than they are and there’s nothing on the line for them here.
Betting suggests that this will be one of the tighter fixtures of the final week and I tend to agree. Both clubs have claims, but both clubs are also more than capable of leaving their boots at home.
Watford have fallen a little off the wagon of late, but what a pleasing season this must have been for a club of their current standing and signs are good for another competitive in 2019/20. They will line up opposite a West Ham side that has underachieved, given some of the names on their roster, but who have recorded two smart wins over Spurs and Southampton at their two most-recent appearances.
Surely everyone will be hitting the equivalent of the red button and tuning into this blockbuster on the final day of the season.
Both clubs are safe, but neither club has anything to gain by winning this one. Palace have recorded some typically smart results this season and I’m more than happy to be with them at Selhurst Park.
These days, fourth almost seems like a pipe dream for the Gunners and what a typical sight it would be to see them drop all the points to Burnley on the final day of the season.
Passages through the middle stages of the season suggested that they were on their way towards a return to the Champions League, but they’ve fallen apart again and boy, it must be tough to be an Arsenal fan.
Burnley held City to just one goal two starts back and lost to Everton at their most recent appearance and surely, they’ve just shut up shop for the season.
And this is what it all comes down to. I’ve said it several times this season, but if one club knew how to ruin their own chances previously it was Manchester City. Not now, though. They are clearly one of the world’s best teams and a win over Brighton will secure their first-ever successful defence of the Premier League title. Little hope for Mat Ryan and co., but they played their final to secure another Premier League season last week and that was more than enough.