Champions League places up for grabs

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/07/2020 (2221 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Here’s what we know:

Liverpool, having won the Premier League with seven games to spare, celebrated their first title since 1990 on Wednesday with a pyrotechnic display that cost more than £1 million. Manchester City, long since locked into second place, are looking ahead to their Aug. 7 showdown with Real Madrid in the Champions League. At the other end of the standings, Norwich City have already been relegated to the Championship.

Then there are nine teams, placed eighth through 16, that can neither go down nor qualify for Europe. It’s mid-table mediocrity for them, although many would have been satisfied with the outcome had it been offered them at the start of the season — a season, quite incredibly, that began more than 11 months ago.

The rest — and it’s a lot — remains up in the air as the English top flight contests its 38th and final matchday on Sunday (all kickoffs 10 a.m., DAZN). Two Champions League places are there for the taking; two more, and possibly three, in the Europa League. Another pair of clubs will join The Canaries in the chute to the second tier.

Perhaps, the most intriguing encounter will take place at Old Trafford, where Manchester United will host Leicester City in a winner-goes-into-the-Champions-League confrontation.

Leicester, in third spot through much of the campaign, have had a torrid time since the coronavirus lockdown. They’ve won just two of eight matches since the restart and are coming off a 3-0 loss away to Tottenham Hotspur. United, unbeaten since February, have nevertheless drawn two of their last three and only backed into third spot when Leicester and Chelsea lost on Wednesday. A single point separates them, which means another draw would be enough for United to finish in the top four.

The Red Devils can also book passage to the Champions League if they lose and Chelsea are beaten at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers. In other words, both United and Chelsea control their own destinies. It’s Leicester that absolutely have to win.

Wolves are also in a European scrap. Presently sixth, a win at Stamford Bridge would send them back into the Europa League, but a loss, coupled with a Tottenham victory at Crystal Palace, would put Spurs into the continent’s junior competition. That said, should Arsenal lose next weekend’s FA Cup final to Chelsea, the seventh-place side will end up qualifying, anyway. Still, better safe than sorry.

Safety, incidentally, is what Aston Villa, Watford and Bournemouth will be fighting for as the relegation war delivers its final battles. For Villa, the scenario is a straightforward one: beat West Ham and stay up. Given their 1-0 win at home to Arsenal on Tuesday, they’d seem to have momentum on their side.

Watford, who are level with Villa but trail on goal-difference, will be looking to throw a cat amongst the pigeons at the Emirates. Hosts Arsenal can finish no higher than eighth and may rotate their squad in preparation for the FA Cup final against Chelsea, which means a Hornets win is very possible. But they’d still require Villa to at least draw at the Olympic Stadium.

Bournemouth, finally, require a win at Everton and losses from both Villa and Watford in order to stay up.

Replacing the three relegated teams will be the trio promoted from the Championship, two of which are already known. Leeds United will make their return to club football’s most moneyed division for the first time since 2004 after winning the league, and runners-up West Bromwich Albion will join them. One of Brentford, Fulham, Cardiff City and Swansea City will also go up — the result of next week’s playoffs.

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Of the four, Brentford’s absence from English football’s top league has been the longest. They took part in the Premier League’s inaugural season of 1992-93 but were relegated, and as recently as 2009 they were stalled in the fourth tier.

Spot-kicks

• Never fully appreciated, Jordan Henderson won a much-deserved Footwall Writers’ Association Player of the Year award on Friday. The Liverpool captain, who has been capped 55 times for England, operates in an underrated midfield that, rather than retaining possession and looking to patiently break down the opposition, is tasked with winning the ball and moving it quickly upfield to an attacking trident that generally wins the plaudits. It’s refreshing to see an unspectacular yet effective counter-attacking midfielder properly recognized.

• Last weekend, Istanbul Basaksehir became the first club outside the “big three” of Besiktas, Fenerbahce and Galatasaray to win the Turkish Super Lig since 2010 — and just the second since 1984. But it’s not exactly a feel-good story. Basaksehir have ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose regime bankrolls the team and reportedly requires companies with government contracts to provide club sponsorship. They’ve spent big on the current squad, which includes the likes of Robinho, Gokhan Inler, Demba Ba, Martin Skrtel and Gael Clichy, and haven’t finished outside the top four since the government takeover in 2014. Much-despised in Istanbul, the COVID-19 restrictions have had little impact on their attendance as they’ve never drawn much of a crowd. 

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