The ends of Premier League seasons are often remembered for what happens at the very top and bottom of the table. In those respects, the 2024-25 edition has been largely uneventful.
Liverpool took the lead in the title race in early November and barely looked back as they stormed clear of their rivals, confirming their second Premier League trophy with four games to spare.
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Down in the division’s basement, Southampton just about escaped the ignominy of becoming the Premier League’s worst team, in points terms, collecting their 12th of the campaign — one more than Derby County’s 2007-08 side finished with — from a 0-0 draw against Manchester City last week. Ipswich Town and Leicester City have performed slightly better but all three promoted sides knew they were returning to the Championship before April was over.
However, several subplots have simmered along in the season’s final weeks, and they will come to the boil when the last round of fixtures are played on May 25 (next Sunday).
Here, The Athletic analyses what can still be settled on the 2024-25 Premier League’s final day.
Champions League qualification
Declan Rice’s brilliant whipped effort from the edge of the box set up a 1-0 win against top-five rivals Newcastle United on Sunday afternoon, confirming Arsenal have a place in the Champions League for a third successive season.
With just two of the five spots in Europe’s premier club competition sewn up before the season’s final day — title-winners Liverpool are the other qualifiers — it’s all to play for between Newcastle in third and Nottingham Forest in seventh. Just one point separates the five teams.
Morgan Gibbs-White scored against West Ham to keep Nottingham Forest’s Champions League hopes alive (Steve Bardens/Getty Images)
Manchester City are sixth, one point behind Newcastle, Chelsea and Aston Villa, but Champions League qualification is in their hands as the only side in the group of five with two league games remaining. On Tuesday, Bournemouth at home could provide a tough test, but Andoni Iraola’s side have won just two of their last 11 league matches, and lost at home to City in the FA Cup quarter-finals in March. If City win a game postponed because they were playing in the FA Cup final this weekend, their strong goal difference means a draw away to Fulham on the final day should be enough to see them qualify for their 15th successive Champions League campaign.
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While a defeat away to Arsenal (pictured top) has put a slight dent in their ambitions, Newcastle also have a strong enough goal difference to be confident that a win next Sunday, against Everton at home, will secure a top-five finish.
The schedule has played out in Villa’s favour. They won 2-0 on Friday against a heavily rotated Tottenham Hotspur, who are focusing on the Europa League final against Manchester United on Wednesday. In a potential stroke of luck, Villa’s final game is against United, who may feel the effects (one way or another) from their season-defining European tie in the Spanish city of Bilbao. Despite United being 16th in the table and Spurs a place below them, the Europa League winners also get a spot in the Champions League next season.
Perhaps the fixture of the weekend is Forest against Chelsea at the City Ground, with whoever can get the win likely to have a good chance of playing Champions League football in September.
Chelsea have missed out on the riches of Europe’s premier competition for the past two seasons. Forest have never graced the tournament under its current name, but, like Chelsea, have two ‘Big Ears’ trophies in their cabinet. Under Brian Clough, Forest were back-to-back European champions in 1979 and 1980.
Europa League and Conference League
Crystal Palace’s FA Cup final triumph against Manchester City on Saturday was the club’s first major trophy — and also means they will play in Europe for the first time next season, with the winners of the FA Cup being given one of the two spots English football receives for the Europa League.
Palace won the FA Cup and got a place in the Europa League (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
The other spot usually goes to the team that finishes fifth in the Premier League, but due to the strong performances of English clubs in European competition this season, UEFA has granted a spot in the Champions League for England’s fifth-placed team. So, whoever finishes sixth will get that other Europa League spot next term.
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A spot in the Conference League is also granted to the winner of the Carabao Cup. Newcastle lifted the trophy in March with a 2-1 win against Liverpool. Chelsea are England’s representative in Europe’s third-tier competition this year, and they face Real Betis in the showpiece final on May 28 — and this is where things become complicated.
Depending on how Newcastle and Chelsea finish the season, there could be more European spots on the line on the final day.
Like with Spurs and United, should Chelsea beat Betis in the final, they will qualify for the next tier of European competition next season (the Europa League). However, if they book their place in the Champions League through their league position, they will play in Europe’s premier tournament next season, and the Europa League spot earned through their Conference League success will not go to another English club.
However, if they win the Conference League and finish sixth and Newcastle finish one place below them, or if Chelsea beat Betis and slip three places to seventh, the Premier League gains another spot in the Europa League. With a guaranteed sixth club in the Champions League due to the all-English Europa League final, that would be 10 English clubs in Europe next season.
There was a bit of confusion in some reports yesterday.
So just to make clear, there are only two ways 8th can get a place in the Conference League.
Chelsea 6th + win UCoL + Newcastle 7th
OR
Chelsea 7th + win UCoL
Chelsea finishing 6th + win UCoL by itself doesn’t do it. https://t.co/gtGfAVxFAw
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) May 18, 2025
With one eye on Chelsea’s game at home against Forest on the final day, eighth place may gain England’s Conference League spot. Brentford (55 points) are the occupants, but Brighton (55) and Bournemouth (53) have a game in hand on Thomas Frank’s side. Owing to a 3-2 comeback win against their west London rivals at the Gtech Stadium on Sunday, Fulham are also sniffing around, one point below Brentford in 10th.
Golden Boot
Unless Erling Haaland lets out all his pent-up frustration from Saturday’s FA Cup defeat by scoring seven goals in two games against Bournemouth and Fulham, or Alexander Isak recovers from injury and tears apart an Everton defence with five goals at St James’ Park, this award is as good as wrapped up.
Mohamed Salah has been the Premier League’s outstanding player this season, and would surely be higher up in the Ballon d’Or conversation had Liverpool not exited the Champions League at the round-of-16 stage to eventual finalists Paris Saint-Germain.
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Like Haaland, Salah still has two matches to reach the exalted 30-goal mark, a tally only hit in a single season by 11 players since the top flight’s rebrand in 1992: Alan Shearer, Andy Cole, Kevin Phillips, Robin van Persie, Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Luis Suarez, Harry Kane, Haaland and… Salah, way back in his debut season at Anfield in 2017-18. Should he achieve it, he would be just the third player (Shearer and Kane) and first non-British player to do it more than once.
If, as expected, the Egyptian claims the Premier League’s Golden Boot, he will stand alongside Henry at the top with four. He won his first in that debut season and shared the 2018-19 and 2021-22 awards.
Mohamed Salah won the Premier League and should win the Golden Boot (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
There’s also the small matter of the goal contribution record (combined goals and assists). In a recent Sky Sports interview with Gary Neville, he admitted his desire to break Cole and Shearer’s record — Salah is one away on 46.
“It’s for 42 games, because I have broken the one for 38,” Salah said. “It is important to me, and to be fair, we’ve slowed down because we’ve won the league, and I was telling the players, ‘Please!’.
“Last game, Lucho (Luis Diaz) missed a chance, and I was like, ‘Man, what else can I do?’. But I would love to break it. I think I will break it.”
Prize money
Premier League merit payments can make a notable difference to clubs’ finances. Each position in the Premier League is worth roughly £3million ($4m), ranked from one to 20, and comes from the domestic and international revenue pot.
In the 2023-24 season, Premier League champions Manchester City pulled in £56.4m from merit payments, with £33.8m from the domestic pot and £22.6m due to international broadcasting deals. In contrast, bottom club Sheffield United banked just £2.8m.
As next season is part of the same domestic broadcasting deal as in 2023-24, that number is unlikely to change significantly. This means that Tottenham and Manchester United, who cannot climb higher than 14th, can only aspire to receive a comparable sum to Wolves’ from 2023-24. That season, Wolves earned £19.7m from domestic and international broadcast deals, £25.4m and £17m less than Spurs (£45.1m) and United (£36.7m).
With places to play for in almost every position aside from top and bottom, millions of pounds are on the line on the final day.
(Top photo: Newcastle United after defeat to Arsenal; by Shaun Botterill via Getty Images)
