The Athletic has live coverage of the Manchester City vs Crystal Palace match. 

A Premier League season is 380 games long, but it is the final 21 which now hold the potential to shape all that has gone before in the 2025-26 edition.

This campaign’s last dash will crown new champions to succeed Liverpool and push a member of English football’s establishment over the relegation cliff edge into the EFL. There might also be a Champions League debut secured, as well as fresh invites sent out to join the other two European competitions, all by the time the full-time whistles blow on the final round of fixtures on Sunday, May 24.

This is how the Premier League table stands right now:

The remaining matches of the season will be played out over six of the next 12 days. Here, The Athletic assesses when the big moments could come.

The league title

It has been a two-horse race for the majority of this season, and one of them has now kicked for the line. Arsenal’s dramatic victory against West Ham United on Sunday has given them a five-point lead over Manchester City, who kept up their pursuit with a 3-0 win against Brentford the previous evening.

It is clear City cannot afford a single slip from here. Their home game against Crystal Palace tomorrow (Wednesday) has to bring Pep Guardiola’s side three more points or Arsenal could end a 22-year wait to land English football’s biggest prize as soon as next Monday night.

A draw or defeat in that meeting with Palace for a City team who also have Saturday’s FA Cup final against Chelsea on their fixture list would leave Arsenal with a simple equation: beat already-relegated Burnley at home on Monday and the title will be theirs.

Arsenal are already aware that two wins from their final two games will be enough, but there is a chance they could be crowned champions without kicking another ball after that match at their Emirates Stadium.

If City were to defeat Palace and they get the better of Burnley (two highly probable events) then it could be that Arsenal’s big moment comes a week today, when Guardiola and company visit in-form Bournemouth. Anything but an away win there would start the celebrations in north London.

Should City beat Palace and Bournemouth, though, all roads will lead to the final day of the season on Sunday week: when they are at home to Aston Villa, and Arsenal go to Palace.

There would be scope, albeit unlikely, for further twists.

Arsenal drawing with Burnley and City wins against Palace and Bournemouth would see the teams tied on 80 points heading into the final day, and the goal differences could be all square too if both City’s victories are by a single goal. City, by virtue of (almost certainly) having scored more league goals than Arsenal, would hold the narrowest of advantages.

Relegation

And then there were two. Crystal Palace, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest have all made their excuses and left the fight for Premier League survival, whittling it down to just two potential candidates to join Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Championship next season.

They are Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, the two London rivals who began the season believing this would be an inglorious scrap for others to endure.

Spurs’ 1-1 draw with Leeds on Monday night has maintained anxiety levels, with another winless home game (the 16th in 18 league fixtures on their own pitch this season) meaning West Ham are still within touching distance of the only team they can catch.

West Ham’s trip to Newcastle United on Sunday afternoon now carries enormous significance. A win on Tyneside would lift them above Spurs, whose weekend fixture away to Chelsea has been pushed back to next Tuesday owing to their opponents featuring in Saturday’s FA Cup final.

Anything less, though, swings the door open for Spurs to clinch survival at Stamford Bridge. Beating Newcastle is now the only way West Ham can guarantee this fight goes to the final day.

Spurs’ current advantage of two points and a far superior goal difference leaves little margin for error in the West Ham camp. One misstep could now doom them, after back-to-back defeats against Brentford and Arsenal.

A draw at Chelsea ensures Spurs will retain control of their fate regardless of what West Ham do in Newcastle but that last Sunday has the potential to turn fans’ stomachs worldwide into washing machines. At the same time as West Ham are hosting Leeds, just seven miles away across London, Spurs will be at home to Everton.

Race for Europe

Now this is more complicated.

Results in this season’s European competitions have already guaranteed that the top five finishers in the table will feature in the 2026-27 Champions League, but there is the potential for that to be extended to sixth place.

That eventuality would need Aston Villa to hold their current position of fifth and win the Europa League final against German side Freiburg in the Turkish city of Istanbul next Wednesday, May 20. Villa might yet finish sixth and take a Champions League place via winning the Europa League, but fourth place for Unai Emery’s side would not see the side coming sixth benefit owing to the complexities of UEFA’s European Performance Spots (EPS) system.

That makes Villa’s home game against Liverpool on Friday, moved up from Sunday to give them more time to prepare for that European final, particularly relevant, given those two teams are currently fourth and fifth, both on 59 points. A win for either will guarantee a top-five finish and a place in the Champions League, while three points for Liverpool would also effectively wrap up fourth spot, given the disparity in goal differences.

Sixth-placed Bournemouth are four points back but their priority is likely to be holding what they already have, given one of their two remaining games is against title-chasing Manchester City next Tuesday.

There is a good chance sixth will be enough to make the Champions League, which is why Brighton & Hove Albion’s remaining matches, away to Leeds and at home to Manchester United, might be laden with significance. They are currently two points behind Bournemouth but have a better goal difference.

Brentford, who are seventh and trail Bournemouth by four points, are also still in the mix, though sixth will be out of reach if they are unable to beat visitors Palace on Sunday.

All would not be lost, though. Seventh is sure to deliver European football of some sort, while eighth would also be sufficient if Manchester City beat Chelsea, currently ninth, in the FA Cup final. That would see a Europa League place awarded on the basis of Premier League standings. But if Chelsea were to win at Wembley (and so qualify for the Europa League) and Villa were to be crowned Europa League champions while finishing fifth, the top flight’s seventh-placed team would go into the UEFA Conference League.

Then, of course, there is the very real possibility of Palace also being in the Europa League next season, should they get the better of Spanish side Rayo Vallecano in the UEFA Conference League final in Leipzig, Germany, on Wednesday, May 27.

Clear? Hardly. But it soon will be.