English Premier League's season of surprises goes down to the wire for last Champions League spots

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The numbers are simple, five teams, three spots.

The $186-million boost that comes from making the Champions League is on the line for Manchester City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Three of those five will qualify, two will have to settle for the Europa League.

A chance to play with Europe’s elite, the added funds to pay for new players and the enticement to bring in new players because you’re in the top club competition all are significant prizes.

For the neutral fan, it would be spectacular to see Nottingham Forest make it. True underdogs who many picked to be relegated before the season, the Tricky Trees hung around in the qualification spots all season but a blip in the last month where their small squad ran out of legs has seen them lose control of their destiny.

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They have the most enticing and direct match this weekend, facing Chelsea, the club in the fifth and last spot. But the fact is their order remains the tallest. City has 68 points and plays Fulham. Newcastle has 66 and plays Everton. Villa has 66 and plays woeful Manchester United, and Chelsea and Forest go head-to-head. If Forest wins, but so do City, Newcastle and Villa, Forest and Chelsea both miss out.

While fans of Newcastle remain amongst the most dedicated in all of sport, it’s tough to pull for a team owned by the Saudi government, with all of its baggage. But the bottom line is money talks in soccer and the fact that the three richest clubs in all of world sport — Newcastle, Manchester City and Chelsea — are in the mix can’t be ignored.

The fact Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest are still in the fight is a great story and it would be brilliant to see them somehow see results fall their way to get into the tournament.

And while City has won the Champions League once and Chelsea twice, Forest has twice been crowned Champions of Europe in the 1970s and Villa once in the 1980s.

Proud clubs who have built themselves back into contention without a bottomless pit of money.

As is tradition, all the games are played at the same time on the last day of the season so supporters will be as glued to their phones as they are to their own team’s match as the roller-coasters all start together.

The three teams that get the right result on Sunday will join Liverpool and Arsenal as English qualifiers. And, of course Tottenham, who qualified by winning the Europa League final 1-0 over similarly moribund Manchester United on Wednesday.

After watching Spurs and United stumble through their worst league campaigns in decades, it seems a travesty two of those teams at the top of the table will miss out for Spurs, possibly the least-deserving qualifier in the history of the Champions League.

The final was laughably entertaining in its mediocrity. A scuffed, deflected goal the difference but a game brimming with ineptitude.

Spurs sit in 17th place — one above the relegation spots — have conceded 61 goals, 16 more than Nottingham Forest, and have qualified. They severely need to upgrade to compete in the top tier next season.

It had been 17 years since Spurs previously won a trophy of any sort, so you have to be happy for their supporters who have endured a lot with their club. And you must give them credit for progressing to the final and winning it.

They are a proud club that have been run in a comical fashion by chairman Daniel Levy, wasting money on dreadful purchases and changing managers far too frequently. But their supporters have stood by them through it all and now they have a chance to spend money properly and recruit to match the standing of the proud London club.

For United, it’s a disaster. Cutting budgets, selling players, still facing massive questions about their new manager — it’s a club in disarray that will try, once again, to spend its way out of trouble.

Party on at Anfield

If there’s one other match that will draw eyeballs on Sunday, it’s Crystal Palace at Liverpool. The winner won’t matter, but it will be party time inside Anfield, Liverpool’s famous old stadium.

After the match, the Reds will get their hands on the trophy as champions of England for the record-tying 20th time. The previous time they won, in 2020, the stands were empty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The atmosphere will be raucous, the celebrations will go long into the night and the parade the following day through the streets of Liverpool is being estimated to attract close to a million people.

An interesting side note, the match will be a preview of next season’s ceremonial curtain-raiser — the Community Shield — when Liverpool as Champions will meet Palace, winners of the FA Cup last weekend over Manchester City. That in and of itself was a fantastic story, seeing Palace win its first major trophy in its 120-year history.

Spurs, breaking a 17-year drought, Palace, snapping a 125 year-old one, and Newcastle winning the Carabao Cup for their first domestic trophy win in 70 years were all heartwarming.

Seeing long-suffering supporters who follow their teams year-in, year-out, at home and on the road, be rewarded with memorable seasons helps supplant the lack of drama at the top and bottom of the table, where the fate of the relegation teams and the champions has been known for weeks.

One more weekend and then it’s on to the Club World Cup in June before the buying and selling starts for the next Premier League season next August.

This weekend’s slate

Sunday: Bournemouth vs Leicester; Fulham vs Manchester City; Ipswich vs West Ham; Liverpool vs Crystal Palace; Manchester United vs Aston Villa; Newcastle vs Everton; Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea; Southampton vs Arsenal; Tottenham vs Brighton; Wolves vs Brentford.