The 2025-26 Premier League season has reached its final week, and the table is still shaking. Arsenal can still win a first title since 2003-04, Tottenham Hotspur could be dragged into relegation, and Bournemouth, Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford are all still in the hunt for the Champions League.
Every game on the final matchday on Sunday carries some significance or jeopardy, even Burnley against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Turf Moor, where the result will decide which of the two relegated sides avoids finishing bottom. That alone is enough to make this the most unpredictable Premier League season since the competition began in 1992-93, but it is only part of the picture. Chelsea could swing from winning the FIFA Club World Cup to ending up in the bottom half inside 12 months, while Liverpool’s title defense has unraveled so badly that a loss to Brentford at Anfield on Sunday could leave them outside Champions League qualification.
The headline race still belongs to Arsenal, who can take the crown and add a new chapter to one of the league’s standout seasons if results go their way over the next 48 hours. Steve Nicol called it “sad” that their last game could be ruined by a reserve Crystal Palace lineup, a complaint that captures the frustration around a run-in that could be diluted just as it should be at its sharpest. Arsenal are at home to Burnley on Monday, Bournemouth face Manchester City on Tuesday and Chelsea host Spurs the same night, all fixtures that could still reshape the title, Europe and the lower half of the table.
The pressure points reach deep into the standings. If Arsenal are crowned champions and Spurs avoid defeat at Chelsea, West Ham United would then be three points adrift with a substantially worse goal difference, a gap that would make the final calculations simple and brutal. Sunderland, promoted via the Championship playoffs last season, go into their home game against Chelsea knowing a win could seal Conference League qualification. Nottingham Forest, meanwhile, have already done enough to stay up after firing Nuno Espírito Santo, Ange Postecoglou and Sean Dyche before hiring Vitor Pereira as their fourth manager of the campaign.
Manchester United’s name also hangs over this season in a way that underlines how little has followed a straight line. The club fired Ruben Amorim, yet still climbed from their worst-ever Premier League finish of 15th last season to third position this time around. Bruno Fernandes matched the league assist record jointly held by Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry, and still has one match left away to Brighton to try to make the 21st assist his own. It is the kind of season that keeps producing one surprise after another, then dares the final weekend to top it.
There is history in that, too. Manchester United’s title in 1995-96 came after Newcastle United collapsed in the run-in, and their treble in 1998-99 remains one of the league’s defining achievements. Arsenal’s Invincibles season in 2003-04 sits in the same company. What makes this finish different is the scale of the uncertainty: title, European places and survival are all still live, and the final whistle on Sunday may not settle the mood so much as confirm that this Premier League season never stopped shifting.
