⚽ Premier League 2025/2026 Discussion Thread ⚽

[Pandorak]

It all depends on the next fm5 fixtures you get me? Nottingham Forest would scale through they have fixtures they should win if they're focused  the only major threat comes from Chelsea.  Seemed scary before now but Pep Guardiola and his side will make it to another Champions League football competition. I fear more for clubs like Newcastle and Chelsea and Aston Villa. Newcastle could make it,  I see it's toughest for Chelsea amongst these three. The swith in morale with these Chelsea squad blows my mind,  they need to wise their ass up.

It is undeniable, the club that is ranked above, especially Newscastle, Chelsea and Aston Villa are in a dilemma at the moment, points that are closely adrift make each club have to make more efforts to ensure victory in the next match, Aston Villa, which previously lost to Manchester City, lost the opportunity to win 3 valuable points, besides that Manchester City managed to strengthen its position with the victory obtained.

And there is Nottingham Forest who performed brilliantly against Tottenham in the 33rd match, they managed to add to the coffers of points, next they will face Brentford, a club that plays quite well, based on statistics only suffered 1 defeat in the last 5 matches, Nottingham Forest must be careful, because they must win this match if they do not want to lose their position and the opportunity to be able to compete in the next round.

[Woodie]

Trossard has really stepped up his game in the last couple of games , which is expected tbh...and with Champions League football around the corner, Arsenal needs it's players polished and ready for the next assignment as the champions league title is two teams away and if they play their cards well, they certainly can make it especially that they are playing some wonderful football.

Anyway, current task is to beat Palace which they are doing and I don't see more goal to come as they will go to sleep and play a reserved game.

[sana54210]

Man City 2-1 Aston Villa

Big win by Man City. The winning goal was scored in the stoppage time, but the City fully deserved that win.
This was the only match of round 34, the rest to be played tomorrow. The pressure is on for Nottm Forest, Newcastle, and most of all, for Chelsea, who are now outside of the top 5 (the Champions League zone) with two points behind.

It isn't a big win, Man City only won the match with a narrow score. True, Man City scored the winning goal in injury time. 

Man City deserves to win the match, they really dominated the match. I don't know why Aston Villa performed rather badly in this match, I saw unfamiliar starting lineup. Emery put Watkins, Asensio, and Donyell Malen on the bench. IMO, these players performed quit well for Aston Villa recently, it is just surprising to see them on the bench. 

Man City is in the top 3 now. But Nottm Forest, Newcastle, and Chelsea still can overtake Man City again. It surely depends on the result of the next matches.

Win is always won big or small not matter because this win give 3 points to Manchester City now their chances are also increased for staying into top five which is big boost for them after this win against Aston Villa.
Nottingham and Newcastle United both can overtake Manchester City, but Chelsea is having no chance of going into top five because they are having 57 points while Manchester City is having currently 61 points which giving them advantage for staying into top five. Chelsea is having fewer chances than Aston Villa or other teams for having spot into top five because their mostly encounters are challenging while other top teams are having easy matches which give good advantage to them.

Chelsea vs Everton is going to play at Stamford Bridge which is not easy place for Everton while Chelsea home record is also good which give them good advantage, and they can easily take three points from here in last two games Everton not able to score any goal here.

[len01]

Chelsea and Aston Villa have by far the worst fixture ahead, Newcastle have some other very dificult matches but not that bad.

It is difficult to determine who will succeed in getting a ticket to UCL and UEL this season. Because Chelsea, Aston Villa and Newcastle sometimes make mistakes in the rest of these matches lose points in several matches make competition more difficult to predict. On the one hand Nottingham also had a 2x defeat that made competition more competitive.

And seeing from the remaining match schedule, it seems that Chelsea and Newcastle have a slightly heavy match schedule and have to face several popular teams in this EPL that can have an impact on losing points again.

[MK-74]

Arsenal drew 2-2 at home to Crystal Palace tonight, with both teams earning 1 point.
Arsenal played well but couldn't win the match. They are 6 points ahead of their closest rivals in the league.
Jean-Philippe Mateta entered the game in the 80th minute and scored the equalizer 3 minutes later, earning Crystal Palace 1 point.

[KingsDen]

Nottingham Forest has only Chelsea as great opposition - They have high chances of qualifying.

Newcastle United has Arsenal and Chelsea - Also a good chance of qualifying.

Manchester city has no tough opposition - express qualification.

Chelsea has Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest - They will not qualify.

Aston Villa has Manchester city, Manchester United - slim chances of qualifying for champions league.

[JiiBs]

Arsenal drew 2-2 at home to Crystal Palace tonight, with both teams earning 1 point.
Arsenal played well but couldn't win the match. They are 6 points ahead of their closest rivals in the league.
Jean-Philippe Mateta entered the game in the 80th minute and scored the equalizer 3 minutes later, earning Crystal Palace 1 point.

I don’t see much sense in Arsenal’s strategy today towards this game. I think they felt is a game they could easily win and approached it so softly but what they seem to forget is that, Crystal Palace are out to gain on their loss over the course of the previous week against Manchester City from that come back and their draw to Bournemouth over the weekend. They were not about to lose yet another game which we know Arsenal could easily deal that to them and Mateta with just 10minutes of game play gave them the equalizer.

[Agbe]

Arsenal drew 2-2 at home to Crystal Palace tonight, with both teams earning 1 point.
Arsenal played well but couldn't win the match. They are 6 points ahead of their closest rivals in the league.
Jean-Philippe Mateta entered the game in the 80th minute and scored the equalizer 3 minutes later, earning Crystal Palace 1 point.

I don’t see much sense in Arsenal’s strategy today towards this game. I think they felt is a game they could easily win and approached it so softly but what they seem to forget is that, Crystal Palace are out to gain on their loss over the course of the previous week against Manchester City from that come back and their draw to Bournemouth over the weekend. They were not about to lose yet another game which we know Arsenal could easily deal that to them and Mateta with just 10minutes of game play gave them the equalizer.

Crystal Palace where impressive in yesterday game you can see that anytime they held the ball you could see the urgency at which they where playing crystal Palace should be commended for this kind of performance as for arsenal I don't think that they still have enough energy to be playing the premier League because to me this is one completion that they have lost so they are no longer focusing on the premier League this is the reason why they played that way arsenal intrest now is turned into the champions League but

[Floxynice]

That was a wonderful performance by Arsenal. However, I still want to point out some lapses they need to fix as they prepare for the Champions League semi-finals next week.

First, Arsenal had a weak defence, which they really need to look into. We all saw that from the mistake by William Saliba, which led to the equalizer around the 83rd minute. Arsenal needs more focused defenders if they truly plan to defeat PSG next week.

Secondly, I expect more from Declan Rice and Jorginho in controlling the midfield, since Ødegaard is injured and Partey is suspended.

Arsenal performed well, but we expect more come next week.

[Juse14]

..................

Manchester city has replaced Nottingham Forest at number 3rd position, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United have played one game less compared to Manchester United. Both Nottingham Forest and Nescastle can improve there rankings if they win there next games. A loss at this crucial phase of EPL means the club is not going for next champions league. After losing to Man City, Aston Villa now need to win all of there remaining matches so that they might have the chance to qualify for UCL.

Although they managed to climb to third place, Manchester City's position is not completely safe, because Nottingham Forest or Newcastle could retake Man City's position in third place. Pep Guardiola's team must appear consistently in the remaining matches, they must be able to maintain their position so as not to leave the top 5 standings, because the most important thing for the team right now is how Man City can compete in the Champions League next season.

And there is the opponent of Nottingham Forest in week 34, they will face Bournemouth, seeing how the performance of both teams in the last few matches, the match will likely end with a win for Nottingham Forest and the worst possibility is ending with a draw. While the match between Newcastle United VS Ipswich, I think this will be a fairly easy match for The Magpies, so it is possible that Manchester City's position will be shifted again.

[Distraction]

Manchester United have completely given up on the Premier League clearly after having no target left. Their recent results are also proving that.

This is why I'm thinking of betting on their opponents in all of their remaining matches.    I guess some of those bets would fail but I don't think most of them would. They are terrible in home and away matches both.

Not only the league ones by the way, including the 1st leg against Athletic Bilbao too.

[AirtelBuzz]

After losing 2 times in a row, Nottingham Forest finally returned to winning ways by beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1. There are only a few matches left, so I hope Nottingham Forest can maintain their position in third place until the season really ends. And besides, Nottingham Forest still has a match schedule in the FA Cup, they managed to reach the semifinals and their opponent is Manchester City, hopefully Nottingham Forest gets the best results.

And regarding Tottenham Hotspur, they have really performed badly this season. And seeing how Spurs are currently performing, in their last 5 matches they have only been able to win one match, it is likely that in the following week their position will drop again because apart from the point difference with West Ham being quite thin, only one point, but in the following week Tottenham Hotspur will face a fairly tough opponent, Liverpool, so there is a possibility that Tottenham Hotspur will lose points again in that match.

Manchester city has replaced Nottingham Forest at number 3rd position, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United have played one game less compared to Manchester United. Both Nottingham Forest and Nescastle can improve there rankings if they win there next games. A loss at this crucial phase of EPL means the club is not going for next champions league. After losing to Man City, Aston Villa now need to win all of there remaining matches so that they might have the chance to qualify for UCL.

It would literally be said that Manchester City has replaced Nottingham Forest. Moreover it is undeniable that some teams in the English Premier League are now in a dilemma. Having seen Nottingham Forest's outstanding performance earlier, we never thought they would drop from their position. It is clear before our eyes that Manchester City are not going to lose the match easily now, while Forest are suddenly losing the match. The sudden defeat in the match created a gap between City and Forest. In my opinion if Newcastle Football Club could have at least drawn with Aston Villa, they might have been level on points.

[Sim_card]

Manchester United have completely given up on the Premier League clearly after having no target left. Their recent results are also proving that.

This is why I'm thinking of betting on their opponents in all of their remaining matches.    I guess some of those bets would fail but I don't think most of them would. They are terrible in home and away matches both.

Not only the league ones by the way, including the 1st leg against Athletic Bilbao too.

United already knows that nothing good can come out from EPL and that's why they have focused more on Europa League where they have the possibility of winning the league. I hope that United will perform better next season in EPL than this season.

[Lannakosa]

It would literally be said that Manchester City has replaced Nottingham Forest. Moreover it is undeniable that some teams in the English Premier League are now in a dilemma. Having seen Nottingham Forest's outstanding performance earlier, we never thought they would drop from their position. It is clear before our eyes that Manchester City are not going to lose the match easily now, while Forest are suddenly losing the match. The sudden defeat in the match created a gap between City and Forest. In my opinion if Newcastle Football Club could have at least drawn with Aston Villa, they might have been level on points.

City have gone through a difficult crisis and are now gradually starting to get better, and with Nottingham everything happened the other way around, Espiritu lost to Aston Villa and there is nothing surprising about it, but then there was a loss to Everton, no one expected this from them in a home match. But despite this, Nottingham has one game in hand and in case of a win can rise to third place again, Nottingham has become the biggest surprise this season, if they manage to maintain a place in the top 5, it will be a huge success.

[Adiljutt156]

Manchester City scored in the 90+4th minute. It was an incredible end to the game. Doku firstly with a dribble, then with an assist at the back post. Pep rejoiced as if they were champions. The Aston Villa game was expected to be very tough, they managed to win it. They're probably very sad about their losses during the season.
By the way, I think the penalty was very simple, but Ruben should have paid more attention. Such mistakes by defenders can be very costly. Today City dodged a bullet.

Aston Villa football team could not play well against Manchester City football team and that was not one sided match because no team did more goals in this match. Silva was a player who did goal at 7 minutes of the match and after this I expected that Aston Villa football team will do come back and they did goal at 18 minutes and Rashford was a player who did second goal of the match and he was the only person who did goal from Aston Villa team . Nunes was a person who did goal at 94 minutes of the match and match was ended with result of 2-1 . That  was a match of premier league and that match was organized in the Etihad Stadium.The overall performance of both teams was excellent because both teams did goals in this match and everyone played crutial role in this match.

[Volgastallion]

Aston Villa suffer one drop on their performance in one aprt of the tournament and that kill them, with the new reinforcement like Rashford and Asencio they can wake up jsut in time to do a super good performance on Champions League and also to save their spots in europe in the current Premier League, but im sure if they dont have that drop for sure they can be fighting much higher this season.

[pawel7777]

The remaining fixtures of round 34, together with odds (by BC.GAME):

Chelsea FC x1.58 Vs Everton FC x5.8; Draw x4.0
Newcastle United x1.2 Vs Ipswich Town x13.0; Draw x6.8
Wolverhampton Wanderers x1.55 Vs Leicester City x5.8; Draw x4.2
Southampton FC x4.9 Vs Fulham FC x1.66; Draw x4.0
Brighton & Hove Albion x1.66 Vs West Ham United x4.8; Draw x4.1
AFC Bournemouth x1.7 Vs Manchester United x4.6; Draw x4.0
Liverpool FC x1.26 Vs Tottenham Hotspur x9.8; Draw x6.2
Nottingham Forest x2.18 Vs Brentford FC x3.2; Draw x3.55

I wonder if Liverpool still have the motivation to fight for the win, knowing nothing can stop them at this stage. Bookies seem to be thinking so, with Liverpool beating a big favourite.

An easy game for Newcastle. Ipswich is too far behind to avoid relegation, while Newcastle still have to press hard to secure themselves a place between the 3rd and 5th place to participate in the Champions League next season. But sometimes pressure can harm performance, and relaxed teams, with nothing to play for, could surprise favourites.

[SmartCharpa]

Man City 2-1 Aston Villa

Big win by Man City. The winning goal was scored in the stoppage time, but the City fully deserved that win.
This was the only match of round 34, the rest to be played tomorrow. The pressure is on for Nottm Forest, Newcastle, and most of all, for Chelsea, who are now outside of the top 5 (the Champions League zone) with two points behind.

Chelsea is playing Everton at home and are a clear favourite, but Everton have proven they are capable of stealing points from better teams, so nothing is certain.

It was a crucial win for Manchester City against Aston Villa, though I was sure that the match would not end in a draw since I wasn't expecting the home team to win due to how Aston Villa has been performing recently. Manchester City secured key points to maintain their position among the Premier League's top four clubs. I believe Manchester City's form is getting to improve compared with their middle of the season performance.

However, the Premier League battle is getting more interesting at this point, and Chelsea must be careful due to their performance, otherwise, they risk losing their chance to compete in the next Champions League. The last time Chelsea visited Everton, it ended in a draw, and we are familiar with what Everton is good at this season, they can defend well enough to steal a point. Perhaps we can see some changes from Maresca since the boys have struggled to score goals in recent matches.

[SensitiveEyes]

The run in games chart shows Man City have it easy. Chelsea have it tough because they have to play Liverpool, Newcastle, Man Utd and Forest. Forest play Chelsea on the last day and Aston Villa travel to Man Utd. It is impossible to say which teams will play in the UCL.

[Issa56]

City have gone through a difficult crisis and are now gradually starting to get better

Manchester City are currently having a terrible season, I never expected Manchester city performance to drop so bad this season, the only trophy which is left for Manchester city this season is the FA cup, they are out of the remaining competition. They are currently struggling to qualify for the champions league, but if they can continue with their good performance, then they will be able to qualify for the champions league next season, but any mistake from Manchester City, there are other teams behind them which will be taking over their position, but am sure Guardiola will keep on working on the team’s performance.