Will Nottingham Forest's season end in a fairytale or is it headed towards a nightmare finish?

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This has been one of the more refreshing Premier League seasons in a quite some time.

Manchester City had certainly turned the top of the table into a snoozefest, winning four years in a row, but the churn in the top spots below has been great for fans.

While City had been involved in some epic chases with Arsenal and Liverpool, ultimately they had won six of the past seven years. Liverpool in 2019-20 has been the only club to break that monopoly and look poised to do so again this season.

But consider the teams who have broken into the Champions League spots. For years the top four was comprised of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, City, Liverpool and occasionally Spurs — the grossly named ‘Big Six.’

Newcastle, Aston Villa and even Leicester in recent memory have broken into Europe’s big party. When more teams have hope, the whole season is more interesting for everyone, more games matter during the season and it brings more revenue in to allow teams to invest in future players.

Newcastle’s story is complex, their rise is a welcome reward for some of the best supporters the sport has ever seen, but there’s a grotesque edge about their ownership, both in their beliefs and their actions, but also in their resources which make Manchester City’s gaudy riches look like pocket change.

Which brings us to Nottingham Forest. This is a club that has a glittering history, even if you need a telescope to see it. They won the European Cup — the forerunner to the Champions League — twice in the 1970s, one of just six English clubs to win it and one of just four to win it more than once.

They suffered relegation in 1997 and didn’t return to the Premier League until 2022. Under the stewardship of Greek billionaire Evangelos Marinakis, investment has reaped reward.

They have been the best story of the season. Until Fulham beat Liverpool two weeks ago, the Tricky Trees were the only club to beat the Champions-elect in league play this year. They seemed a dead certainty to get into the Champions League next season, but consecutive losses in the past two weeks have thrown the season into turmoil for the first time.

With how well English teams have done this year, they may well get five spots in Europe’s top competition, but considering there are five clubs in range of those last two spots, it’s going to be a nervy run-in to the end of the season for Forest. Forest currently sits in fourth with 57 points, two points behind Newcastle, two ahead of Manchester City, three ahead of Chelsea and Aston Villa.

Their schedule is favourable the rest of the way — after Spurs this weekend, they play Brentford, Crystal Palace, Leicester, West Ham and then finish in what could be a massive match at home against Chelsea.

One of the more difficult things for Forest is they essentially lose the tie-break against almost all of these teams. They’ve reached the heights they have with a stout defence, but their goal difference of plus-13 is significantly worse than every other club except Villa, whose plus-3 mark also puts them in a dramatic deficit.

Newcastle are the form team, having won five in a row, Villa has won four straight and those teams play each other on Saturday at Villa in a tasty FUBO Game of the Week.

Newcastle is roaring, having beaten Crystal Palace 5-0 on Wednesday, and as well as Villa is playing, it’s going to have to emotionally recover from being knocked out of this season’s Champions League, just falling short in their quarterfinal match with Paris St. Germain in midweek.

Newcastle has scored nine goals in their past two games so Villa’s defence is going to have to stiffen up if they want to stay in the conversation to get back into the Champions League for next season.

Villa, in fact, can boil their season down to this week. Despite being lauded for such a heroic effort against PSG, facing Newcastle on Saturday and then Manchester City next Tuesday could define their season.

Manchester City’s form continues to float along in a sea of mediocrity, by their standards, having two wins, two draws and a loss in their past five, but after they host Villa next Tuesday, then face Wolves, Southampton, Bournemouth and Fulham. If they can’t get into the Champions League for next season, they’ll only have themselves to blame.

Champions in waiting

With Arsenal only managing a pair of draws in the past two weeks, the title is all but decided. Liverpool needs just six points — two wins — in their last six games to ensure the biggest prize in English soccer. And that’s assuming Arsenal wins all their remaining games.

Liverpool has Leicester this weekend and Arsenal has Ipswich, so you’d imagine the number would go down to three. With Spurs and Chelsea up next, you’d assume Liverpool will get over the line before Arsenal go to Anfield on May 11.

It would be quite something if that’s the game after they clinch and the Gunners will have to offer up a guard of honour, as is customary when the new champions come out in the first game after they are declared winners.

Arsenal, though, won’t be bothered if they can keep the momentum going in the Champions League. They saw off Real Madrid in midweek and now face PSG in the semifinals.

Being runners-up yet again in England won’t bother them if they can be crowned Champions of Europe for the first time in their 134-year history.

This week’s slate

Saturday: Brentford vs Brighton; Crystal Palace vs Bournemouth; Everton vs Manchester City; West Ham vs Southampton; Aston Villa vs Newcastle.

Sunday: Fulham vs Chelsea; Ipswich vs Arsenal; Manchester United vs Wolves; Leicester vs Liverpool.

Monday: Tottenham vs Nottingham Forest.

Tuesday: Manchester City vs Aston Villa.

Wednesday: Arsenal vs Crystal Palace.