EPL Final Day: What's At Stake, Who Gets the Final Relegation Spot?
By Mike Cardillo
To answer the query in the title of this post? Not very much. Chelsea clinched the championship weeks ago. The Top Four is set, too with Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United. All that’s left is figuring out which team will join QPR and Burnley in the Championship next season and some positioning for the Europa League.
Relegation:
Newcastle United controls its own fate Sunday at home against West Ham United. If the Magpies win, they survive and allow owner Mike Ashley to pocket another year of the EPL’s television profits and other financial windfalls, despite taking one point over the last 10 games heading into the final day of the season. Hull City needs to defeat Manchester United and hope Newcastle doesn’t win.
Should Hull win and Newcastle draw Hull likely survives do to superior goal differential. Manchester United still has a longshot chance of jumping Arsenal for third place — which means avoiding the Champions League playoffs in August — but needs to win, have Arsenal lose and offset a seven-goal difference across those two scorelines. Today’s match could be the final in United colors for both keeper David De Gea and on-loan striker Radamel Falcao.
Europa League:
Liverpool (62 points), Tottenham (61) and Southampton (60) will finish fifth, sixth and seventh in some combination. As of today all three clubs are set for the Europa League, but that’s tied to the FA Cup final. If Arsenal beats Aston Villa, all three clubs qualify. If Aston Villa wins, it gets a spot in the Europa League over whichever club finishes seventh.
Of note: Stoke City-Liverpool will be Steven Gerrard’s final competitive match for the Reds before joining the Los Angeles Galaxy next month.
All 10 matches will air live in America across the NBC family of networks.