Premier League Match Week 36 Preview

Once upon a time, Sunday’s match at Anfield between Liverpool and Arsenal would have been highly anticipated as a potential determinant of this year’s Premier League champion. In reality, not so much. Liverpool is already champion, having clinched the Premier League title two weeks ago. Arsenal is 15 points behind the champions and licking its wounds from being bounced from this year’s Champions League on Wednesday by PSG. There are no more trophies or titles still to be won by either side this season.

Beyond pride to play for, there is the mathematical, though highly unlikely, chance that Arsenal could flub its lines in the waning weeks and not secure the necessary two points to qualify for next season’s Champions League. More threatening for the Gunners is a Manchester City side just three points behind the Gunners entering the weekend. Finishing behind Pep Guardiola and his gang once again would leave a particularly bad taste. Manchester City is at bottom of the table Southampton this weekend.

The weekend’s best matches are Chelsea’s visit to Newcastle and the match on the south coast between Bournemouth and Aston Villa. Fourth place Newcastle is level on points and goal differential with Chelsea, the Magpies enjoying only an advantage in goals scored. The loser of Sunday’s match at St. James’s Park will fall out of the Champions League places should Nottingham Forest defeat Leicester. The Tricky Trees will be huge favorites at home against the futile Foxes who have lost 10 of their last 12 matches with only sorrowful Southampton proving inferior to the Foxes in that stretch.

Just a point below Nottingham Forest in the table lurks an Aston Villa side anxious to return to the Champions League for a second consecutive season. Villa has won six of seven matches to threaten such a return, though that one loss was a dispiriting defeat to fellow contender Manchester City. Aston Villa is just three points back of Newcastle and Chelsea in the frantic scramble for Champions League.

There is then a seven point drop off to the second gaggle of squads, led by Bournemouth, scrambling for Europe. The battle for a Europa Conference League, and possibly even a Europa League slot, sees four teams separated by just two points. Bournemouth enters its match with Aston Villa holding onto the eighth position in the table which would mean European qualification  for the Cherries. Manager Andoni Iraola has rallied his squad after their season headed south with a horrendous stretch of four losses in five matches stretching from February to April. The Cherries have since pieced together a five-match unbeaten run punctuated by last week’s win over distracted Arsenal which put the Cherries in the driver’s seat for a Europa Conference League berth. Evanilson has been a key man for Iraola, scoring in five of his last eight Premier League appearances.

Just a point back of Bournemouth are Brentford and Brighton with the Bees making a late run to join this particular dance. Brentford’s dispatch of Manchester United last week marked a third consecutive victory and extended its unbeaten run to five matches. While many Premier League sides seem to endlessly pursue quality goal scorers, Brentford is one of only three clubs in all of Europe, the other two being Bayern Munich and Barcelona, that boasts three players with 10 or more league goals this season. The Bees’ Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and Kevin Schade have accomplished that feat for the Bees and, in so doing, have positioned their club for possibly its first ever European qualification. Brentford is at relegated Ipswich Town on Saturday to continue that quest. Brighton conceded a gut wrenching 89th minute penalty equalizer to Newcastle last week and those dropped two points could keep the Seagulls from Europe. The late concession continued a frustrating seven match run in which Brighton has won but once.

The Seagulls will try to make a course correction this week at Wolverhampton. It won’t be easy. Wolves was on a six-match winning run before being edged 1-0 by Manchester City last week. Brighton can take some optimism, however, from the fact that Wolverhampton has lost more home matches this season than any side outside the bottom three.

Three losses in four matches have pushed Fulham outside the top half of the table as the 11th place Cottagers host Everton on Saturday. Fulham could still land in Europe, however, as the Cottagers are just two points behind eighth place Bournemouth. Their opponent on Saturday, meanwhile, has quietly lost steam in recent weeks. Everton Manager David Moyes has, for the most part, been masterful in guiding the Toffees away from any relegation fears. His club, however, has won just one of its last ten matches as they visit Craven Cottage this weekend.

Given that it is a London derby, there should be at least a bit of energy exhibited in the Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace matchup. Not a whole heck of a lot though. Spurs’ whole season centers on its Europa League final with Manchester United in a few weeks. Crystal Palace is 12th in the table which is pretty much where the Eagles always tend to nest. Tottenham Hotspur’s Europa League final opponent, 15th place Manchester United, has a meaningless fixture with 17th place West Ham on Saturday.