All eyes were on the race for the Champions League places this weekend in another great round of Premier League football. With just two games to play, and the title and relegation places confirmed, ten teams still have something to play for in the hunt for European football.
Brentford, Brighton and Hove Albion, Bournemouth and Fulham, in positions eighth to 11th are all chasing Europa Conference places, while the six teams trailing Liverpool are battling for four Champions League places, and this was a great weekend for Newcastle United, who beat rivals Chelsea to fall in behind Arsenal in the top three. Manchester City fluffed their chance to cement their position while Aston Villa won to keep their chances alive; and Nottingham Forest’s top five hopes took a further knock when they were held at home by relegated Leicester City.
The stakes were high when Newcastle hosted Chelsea in the 1pm Sunday kick-off, our SBOBET featured game of the weekend, and it was the Magpies who collected the winnings after taking an early lead and then seeing the Blues go down to ten men. The win took Eddie Howe’s men up to third, leapfrogging Manchester City and closing the gap on second placed Arsenal to a point, before the Gunners played their top of the table clash with champions Liverpool in the late Sunday kick-off.
Tyneside is rarely a happy hunting ground for Chelsea and it took all of two minutes for them to go behind as the in-form midfielder Sandro Tonali met a Jacob Murphy cross at the back post and converted an easy chance. Any hopes of the Blues launching a comeback were severely dented when striker Nicolas Jackson saw red with an hour of the game left to play. The on-field referee booked him for a clash with Magpies defender Sven Botman but VAR intervened and it was clear the Chelsea man had led with his forearm… and that was his last contribution.
Enzo Maresca’s Blues stayed in the game, and registered ten shots and three on target to Newcastle’s 15 and six, but they were undone in stoppage time when a deflected strike from Bruno Guimaraes flew into the top corner and the Black and White army marched on to third place. Chelsea are still in the hunt in fifth, but now three points behind the Geordies and two behind Manchester City in fourth.
City stumble on the South coast
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City blew their chances to close the gap on second placed Arsenal and keep their starting place of third as they were held to a 0-0 draw away to bottom club Southampton. The Sky Blues could actually have drawn level with the Gunners had they, as fully expected, dispatched the Saints but they could not break down a defence which had conceded 82 goals in 36 games, the highest number of any team in the division. With over 70 per cent possession, 26 shots to two and five to nil on target this was as one sided as a match could be, apart from the final score!
Guardiola’s team, which has given up its title all too easily, the pre-season Premier League 2025 betting odds backed the Sky Blues to make it five titles on the run, came closest through Bernardo Silva but his effort was cleared off the line by Southampton defender Jack Stephens. The hosts earned the point that took them to 12, one more than Derby County’s lowest ever, while City still have work to do to confirm their place in the 2025 Champions League.
In other Premier League 2025 news Aston Villa are in sixth, on the same points as Chelsea in fifth and two behind Manchester City thanks to a 1-0 win away to Bournemouth, as Ollie Watkins became the Villans’ top Premier League scorer of all time with his 75th strike for the club. Unai Emery’s team are now guaranteed a place in Europe next term, but in which competition remains to be seen.
Villa have a better chance than Nottingham Forest after Nuno Espirito Santo’s team had another disappointing result with a 2-2 draw at home to Leicester City. This has been a sensational campaign for Forest but the wheels have fallen off in recent weeks and the Midlanders have picked up just two points from the last three games. They had a shocker of a start on Sunday when Conor Coady put the Foxes ahead, but goals from Morgan Gibbs White and Chris Wood, with his 20th of the season, seemed to have given Forest all three points. But Leicester had other ideas and attacking midfielder Facundo Buonanotte equalised late on.
Nuno’s men are now in seventh and a point off the top five, having spent the majority of the campaign in the Champions League places. Owner Evangelos Marinakis marched on the pitch to remonstrate with his manager; and, in my opinion, Nuno shouldn’t have to put up with that after the miracles he’s performed at the City Ground.
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