EPL Final Day: Salah Record, UCL Race Decided, More

Another season, gone. The final day of 2024-25 will be low on jeopardy, given the title and relegation spots have long been confirmed. But with the race for Europe reaching its climax, the finale is far from a formality.

Matchweek 38 is set to be the stage for a handful of never-before-seen records as well as for a few poignant goodbyes to club legends.

Here’s what to keep an eye out for on the final day of the Premier League season.

The race for the Champions League

The battle for next season’s Champions League places has gone down to the wire. Five teams — Manchester City, Newcastle United, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest — all go into the final day of the season with a reasonable chance of qualifying for Europe’s elite competition.

Lower down the table, analytics-favourites Brighton and Brentford also have a chance to qualify for Europe.

The possibilities are endless and luckily, ESPN’s resident-permutation expert Dale Johnson has broken it all down for us here.

Salah’s push to create history

Mohamed Salah is one goal contribution away from equaling the greatest individual season in Premier League history in terms of attacking output. The Egypt international has 46 goal involvements (28 goals, 18 assists), with Alan Shearer and Andrew Cole the joint-record holders on 47.

With Liverpool’s title long since wrapped up and Crystal Palace fresh off their historic FA Cup triumph, Sunday’s game will hardly be an intense affair. But you can be sure that at least one player who will be going full-throttle at Anfield. Will Salah sign off the season in style?

Slot: Salah has been ‘unhuman’ for LiverpoolArne Slot reacts to Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat to Brighton and reflects on their title-winning campaign in the Premier League.

De Bruyne’s departure

After 421 games, 108 goals and 177 assists, Kevin De Bruyne will be playing his final game for Manchester City on Sunday against Fulham. After City’s final home game against Bournemouth, the Belgium international was given an emotional farewell complete with a guard of honour, messages from old teammates and an announcement of a statue to be built outside the Etihad.

De Bruyne looked visibly overwhelmed by the occassion, as he took in the ovation from the crowd. But equally evident was his frustration at missing an open-goal in the first half.

“It was [a] terrible, terrible, terrible [miss]. There’s no excuses. My son is going to be very tough on me today,” he said post-match.

Being the type of ultra-competitor he is, you just know he’s going to push hard to end his City career with a goal at Craven Cottage. We could be in for one final piece of De Bruyne magic on Sunday.

To boo or not to boo

Real Madrid-bound Trent Alexander-Arnold’s penultimate appearance at Anfield saw him booed by a significant portion of the home supporters. The hostility from the stands sparked heated debates on when it’s okay to boo your own player, Alexander-Arnold’s manner of departure and if he should play a further part in their campaign.

Arne Slot left him on the bench for their loss at Brighton earlier this week, and it remains to be seen if he will do the same on Sunday. Will the party-atmosphere at Liverpool’s title coronation soften the sentiment towards Alexander-Arnold or will it only rub salt into fans’ wounds?

Bottoming Out

When you think of the final day, you think of nerve-jangling relegation drama. You think of West Brom, who became the first team to beat the drop after being bottom at Christmas. You think of Carlos Tevez’s West Ham heroics at Old Trafford or Sunderland’s repeated escapes in the early 2010s.

There will be no such scenes this time around, with Southampton, Ipswich Town and Leicester City’s relegation already confirmed. However, the doomed trio could script unwanted Premier League history this weekend by becoming the worst-ever bottom three in the league.

Last season’s batch of relegated teams — Luton Town, Burnley and Sheffield United — amassed 66 points between them. With 59 points going into the final weekend, this year’s relegated teams are likely to take their record. Per Opta projections, there is a 0.4% of all three teams winning.

Espn.co.uk