Arsenal can move within touching distance of the Premier League title on Monday night, while Manchester City and Aston Villa also head into a crowded final stretch with everything still on the line in super 6.
Arsenal host Burnley at Emirates Stadium knowing a win would leave them one step from the championship. Manchester City, two points behind, beat Crystal Palace 3-0 on Wednesday and must then go to AFC Bournemouth on Tuesday night if Arsenal collect three points. Anything less than a City win on Tuesday and Arsenal would be champions with a game to spare.
The run-in is already starting to sort itself out. Aston Villa beat Liverpool 4-2 on Friday to lock up a Champions League place and can no longer finish lower than fifth. They are seven points clear of sixth-placed Bournemouth with six left to play for, which means the only remaining question for Villa is whether they can climb higher before the season ends.
For Liverpool, there is still a narrow path back into Europe’s top competition. Bournemouth would have to lose to City on Tuesday and Brighton & Hove Albion would have to fail to win at Leeds United on Sunday for Liverpool to stay in the mix. Villa, meanwhile, still have another route available: if they beat Freiburg in the UEFA Europa League final on Wednesday 20 May and finish fifth in the league, the sixth-placed team would take the final Champions League place.
Bournemouth are sixth and unbeaten in 16 Premier League matches, a run that has kept them alive in a race they have never been in before at this stage. They can secure a top-eight finish by avoiding defeat at home to City, and if Brighton do not win at Leeds on Sunday, a Bournemouth victory would also secure a top-seven finish. That matters because after City’s FA Cup win over Chelsea, the top eight clubs are set to qualify for Europe at least through the UEFA Conference League.
There is still room for movement further down the European chase. Brighton can lock up a top-eight finish by winning at Leeds on Sunday. Brentford can do the same by beating Crystal Palace at home and bettering the results of Everton and Chelsea, with Everton hosting Sunderland on Sunday and Chelsea facing Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night.
That leaves the final week of Matchweek 37 feeling less like a round of fixtures than a chain reaction. Arsenal can end the title race before the weekend is over. City can drag it to the last day if they handle Bournemouth. Villa can finish the season with two trophies’ worth of meaning if they win in Europe and hold their place in the league. And Bournemouth, after 22 years, are still trying to turn a remarkable late-season surge into a first-ever place among the Premier League’s elite.
The equation is simple, even if the calendar is not. Monday could settle the title, Tuesday could reopen it, and Wednesday 20 May could reshape the European places again.
