As Eddie Howe gave his post-match press conference following Newcastle’s draw with Brighton on Sunday, Chelsea, his club’s Champions League rivals, took an early lead over Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.
Howe gave a wry smile when asked if it bothered him that Liverpool had made six changes to their lineup since winning the league title against Tottenham last week.
Being Howe, and thus both unflappable and impossibly earnest, he responded that team selection was their responsibility: “Liverpool have to do what Liverpool have to do for them. I’m not involved in their football club, so I don’t have an opinion on that.”
And, of course, he was correct in saying so, both because it is true and because criticizing other managers’ team selections is a slippery slope. All clubs have their own priorities, and it is their responsibility to do what is best for them while maintaining the league’s integrity and satisfying those who have paid for tickets or broadcast rights.
Liverpool won the title early: giving fringe players a chance is a right they earned, and it isn’t their concern how it affects other teams. At the same time, Chelsea had an easier game than they would have had if they had played Liverpool a week or two earlier, before the league title was decided.
That is the nature of the season, and it occurs at this point every year. Clubs offer various incentives and motivations.
It’s not even as simple as claiming that a team with nothing to play for will be easier to beat. While some teams, having met their goals, are undoubtedly on the beach, others improve when the pressure is removed. But this season, the final weeks have felt particularly fractured.
Liverpool have accomplished everything they needed to achieve and have nothing left to prove. And Southampton, Leicester, and Ipswich are already down, playing solely for pride, which is becoming increasingly scarce.
Chelsea may have benefited from playing a demotivated Liverpool, but they must face two of their direct opponents for Champions League qualification in their final three games: Newcastle away next Sunday, possibly the most important league game of the season, and Nottingham Forest away on the final day. Those games, at the very least, promise combustion.
In the interim, they host Manchester United, whose league form, which was never good this season, has plummeted as their focus has shifted entirely to the Europa League, which offers the possibility of an unlikely Champions League qualification if United win it.
United, who face Villa on the final day, have lost their last six league games and were particularly shambolic in their 4-3 defeat to Brentford on Sunday.
Tottenham, too, has capitulated domestically as the Europa League has come to dominate their thoughts. Their only league victory in the last nine games came at home against Southampton, who are desperate to avoid matching the Premier League’s lowest points tally in history.
They travel to Aston Villa the following weekend before facing Brighton, who are still in contention for eighth place and possible Europa League qualification on the final day. This season has been complicated by the presence of two large teams in the lower half of the table whose primary focus is not on the league.
With title hopes dwindling, Europe is the clear priority for Arsenal. Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain will effectively end their season.
If they can become only the seventh team this century to overcome a first-leg Champions League semi-final deficit, they will be one game away from having one of their best seasons ever. If they don’t, everything will seem incredibly anticlimactic.
Although they still have Liverpool and Newcastle to play, a final-day home game against Southampton ensures their Champions League qualification.
Nottingham Forest, as is often the case with unexpected challengers for Champions League qualification, have lost their form. They’ve lost four of their last five games, which could be attributed to fatigue or regression to the mean. A win over Crystal Palace in their game in hand on Monday would bring them level with Newcastle and Chelsea, and their next two games are also against teams with nothing to play for, before the final day meeting with Chelsea.
Villa appear to have the easiest run-in of those vying for Champions League spots, facing the Europa League pair as well as Bournemouth, who are eighth and most likely competing with Brighton, Brentford, and Fulham for Conference League qualification.
The performances of those four sides this weekend – two wins, a hard-fought draw, and a battling defeat – indicate that they are taking that opportunity seriously, resulting in eight Premier League sides still focused on league position.
However, this accounts for less than half of the division’s clubs.
It’s bizarre and understandable, and no one is to blame, but the final month of the season has been unsettlingly dominated by games that mean very little.
On this day…
Middlesbrough centre-forward George Camsell set a new record in 1926-27, scoring 59 goals to help his team win the Second Division title. Even in the frenzy of goal-scoring that followed the 1925 change in the offside law, that appeared extraordinary, the kind of record that could last forever. However, it lasted only a year before being defeated by Everton’s Bill Dean, better known by his nickname, Dixie.
Dean joined Everton from Tranmere in 1925 and scored 32 goals in his debut season, helping Everton finish 11th. He missed four months the following season due to serious injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident, but returned fully recovered in 1927-28.
Dean scored 57 goals for Everton as they won the league with one game remaining. That meant the focus when they met Arsenal on May 5, 1928, was on whether he could score a hat-trick and set a new record for himself. He headed one in from a corner and converted a penalty just before halftime.
With only eight minutes remaining, he powered in another trademark header for his 60th goal of the season. The game ended 3-3, but Dean had set a record that still stands today.
