The Premier League’s longest season is about for a dramatic end on Sunday as Chelsea, Manchester United and Leicester compete for Champions League places, whereas Aston Villa, Watford and Bournemouth battle to keep away from relegation. At a time of yr when Premier League golf equipment are normally jetting off for profitable pre-season excursions, the 2019-20 top-flight marketing campaign will lastly come to an finish after the three-month coronavirus delay. Liverpool have been presented with the Premier League trophy, second positioned Manchester Metropolis are assured a Champions League spot and Norwich have been relegated, however there are a number of key points nonetheless to be resolved.
In an exciting conclusion, high 4 locations, Europa League berths, relegation spots and the Golden Boot must settled within the final spherical of matches.
The highlight might be firmly on the King Energy Stadium, the place fifth positioned Leicester host third positioned Manchester United.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s group will return to the Champions League after a one-year absence in the event that they keep away from defeat, however a Leicester win would take them again into Europe’s elite membership competitors for the primary time since 2016-17.
United appeared jaded up to now week, however Solskjaer urged his group to complete the job after they climbed into the highest 4 for the primary time since September.
“We’re wanting ahead to the sport, we have given ourselves probability of being within the Champions League subsequent yr,” he mentioned.
“We need to go there and dominate. We’re not going to vary our strategy.”
United have a fall-back plan as they’d additionally qualify for the Champions League in the event that they win this season’s Europa League, which resumes in August.
Go for the win
Regardless of holding a high 4 spot for many of the season, Leicester supervisor Brendan Rodgers insisted it might not be a failure if his spluttering facet miss out.
“It wasn’t actually one thing we spoke about at first of the season as a result of naturally, the place the membership had been these previous couple of seasons, we needed to attempt step-by-step to reach there,” Rodgers mentioned.
Fourth positioned Chelsea want a degree at dwelling to Wolves to seal a high 4 end, however ought to Frank Lampard’s males lose, then a draw between Leicester and United would see these two qualify for the Champions League on the expense of the west Londoners.
It might be a nervous afternoon for Lampard, however he’s staying constructive: “We’re conscious of the scenario, however we attempt to win. I do not assume there’s another strategy to strategy the sport.”
Whoever misses out on the Champions League between United, Chelsea and Leicester should accept fifth place and Europa League qualification subsequent season.
Sixth positioned Wolves would make certain of the opposite Europa League berth in the event that they beat Chelsea.
Nonetheless, a slip from Nuno Espirito Santo’s males would give Tottenham the prospect to maneuver above them in the event that they win at Crystal Palace, who’ve misplaced their final seven video games.
On the backside, fourth backside Villa go to West Ham figuring out they need to be protected in the event that they match third backside Watford’s outcome at Arsenal.
Nonetheless, Villa are solely simply forward of Watford on objective distinction, with Dean Smith’s males on -26 and the Hornets -27.
Even when each groups win, Watford, with out a everlasting supervisor after Nigel Pearson’s sacking, may nonetheless survive if their margin of victory is 2 higher than Villa’s.
“Crucial factor is to be above that dotted line on Sunday and we all know now we have to win to ensure that,” Smith mentioned.
If Villa and Watford lose, then second backside Bournemouth, at the moment three factors adrift, may keep up on objective distinction in the event that they win at Everton.
Promoted
“The subsequent recreation is the largest recreation of all our careers,” Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe mentioned.
Within the race to complete because the league’s high scorer, Leicester’s Jamie Vardy leads the way in which with 23 targets, two forward of Southampton’s Danny Ings.
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