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Arsenal
The mood around Arsenal is still tinged with disappointment at how the season has ended. There’s pride in the progress and flashes of resilience. The draw at Anfield showed that, but also a lingering sense of what might have been. Mikel Arteta’s call for “action rather than reaction” highlights the mentality shift he’s trying to drive. He wants a ruthless, dominant team, but that edge isn’t quite there yet. This group is evolving, but not yet the finished article. A win today would secure Champions League football, a clear marker of progress, but it won’t erase the frustration of falling short. Still, it offers a chance to reset, move forward, and begin shaping a summer that could be pivotal for turning ambition into trophies next season.
Akhil Vyas
Arsenal Supporters Trust Board Member
Aston Villa
When the fixtures were released last summer, it should have been clear from the outset that our fate would have to be sealed at Old Trafford. For decades it has been the venue of relentless punishment and yet next week Unai Emery takes his Villa side to Manchester with a crucial consecutive campaign in the Champions League up for grabs.
The win against Tottenham was comfortable but Emery won’t know exactly what kind of animal his side will face next week as it will largely depend on the midweek result in Europe.
Nonetheless, this Villa side has systematically won game after game since March and next week should be no different. After a disappointing ‘no show’ performance at Wembley, the players have a chance to put it right
Armen Mirzoian
Bournemouth
We’ve had a spectacular season, the like of which no Cherries fan has experienced before. The familiar media narrative arising from our unexpectedly record-breaking PL campaign is dominated by the number of star players we will lose to other clubs. Yes, it’s true that players will move on. But, the flipside to this conversation, ignored by the media, but exciting for all Bournemouth fans, is this: if we can bring in and develop young players of the quality of Dean Huijsen – next stop, Real Madrid – then which amazing talent will be next into the club? There are proven opportunities for ambitious, young players to accelerate their career with the Cherries, enhanced by our new, world class Performance Centre. We fully expect AFC Bournemouth to be a sought-after destination in the transfer window and for very good reason.
Jeff Hayward
Back of the Net, the AFC Bournemouth Fan’s podcast
Brentford
“That was a wonderful piece of mutual holding by Jonah Lomu on Jonny Wilkinson to bring him down.” ‘Mutual holding’ is a phrase you’ll never hear in any sport to describe a rugby tackle. Even rugby. Unless, of course, you are at Stockley Park. A week on, Jarred Gillett’s call that Alex Tuanzebe’s wrestling to the ground of Brentford’s Nathan Collins, arms wrapped around his waist, was nothing more than ‘mutual holding’ still rankles. It was too big a decision to get wrong yet somehow, after considered VAR review, Gillett did. How? Genuinely, how? A million monkeys using a million typewriters could have written the complete works of Shakespeare yet none would have come up with the phrase ‘mutual holding’. Thankfully, The Bees kept their slender lead and went eighth. No thanks to inept officialdom.
Nick Bruzon
Brighton & Hove Albion
The conversation no fan wants to have. When will it be Lewis Dunk’s time? The natural decline of our captain is upon us, and it’s an uncomfortable thought for all of us. Our captain has been a mainstay in our match-day squads for over a decade. He emerged as an extremely important player for us back in 2014-2015, a season in which he somehow finished top goalscorer. Whilst it may nearly be time for him to hand over the captain’s armband on a match-day, there is no doubt in my mind that he will still be playing with us until his body physically won’t let him. Until that time comes, he will always be worthy of club captaincy. The question on everyone’s lips though, is who will be his natural successor? I think the obvious choice is Jan Paul van Hecke.
Joe Sayers
Co-Host of the Albion Obsessed podcast
Chelsea
Marc Cucurella’s sublime header against Manchester United on Friday kept Chelsea’s Champions League hopes alive heading into the final day. Many fans online and at the ground would have felt a sense of justification to their takes on Reece James being deployed further forward on the pitch from his performance, while Moises Caicedo continues to be the standout star with another sublime all action display. Off the pitch, more details have emerged over new sponsor DAMAC’s Chelsea residencies project in Dubai.
Once fully built, which is expected to take some years, fans and interested buyers / visitors can expect 1,400 sea facing homes starting from £445k, a rooftop football pitch, an infinity pool surrounded by blue sand and an athlete performance centre, special sports bars and Chelsea events, as well as surprises to be announced in the near future.
Max Fretwell
Crystal Palace
Dear Reader, you already know the result of the Cup final, but I’m not sure I envy you that.
Writing this the night before the final I am still in a world filled with nerves, excitement and everything in between.
I live in a world that sees Crystal Palace sitting on the precipice of greatness.
In your world, Manchester City may have cruised to an expected victory and while this will fill Palace fans with pain, it will be a feeling that we are all familiar with… but maybe, just maybe, Glasner’s men have pulled it off!
I don’t know that feeling, nor what to expect. I can’t even fathom it. Hopefully you do and you have been basking in its glory ever since.
All I know is this hope and it is intoxicating.
Terence Ford
Everton
The second row of the Family Enclosure, FE 2, Row B, Seat 21. That has been my seat at Goodison for 16 years.
So close to the pitch it feels like you are about to receive a pass.
There with my Dad and my little sister, we saw all our favourites from Cahill to Fellaini, from Baines and Pienaar, from Lukaku to Richarlison. Coleman is always Mr Everton.
Strangers sitting around us turned into friends who you would grab to celebrate with the second the ball hit the net.
Applauding the Everton substitutes in front of us and booing any opposition coming toward us.
The massive hotdogs, The scalding hot pies,
The cold winter nights under the lights. Thank you for the memories, seat 21.
John Barlow
Fulham
In the last three years, Fulham’s reputation as a yo-yo club has been replaced by a frustrating habit of fading out early. Our seasons start strongly and end poorly. This one might have been different – in April, Fulham were battling for a European spot. But it’s another season which promised so much but ultimately hasn’t delivered. We’re back where we started, a mid-table Premier League team. But fans have to remind themselves that in the yo-yo years, we aspired to be just that. To keep us competitive next season we need to supplement our threadbare squad with good summer signings. And with one of the oldest sides in the Premier League, we’d like some young blood too to feature alongside our exciting homegrown talent, like Josh King and Martial Godo.
Jack and Loz
Ipswich
With two transfer windows to look forward to this summer, Town fans have been writing up their shopping lists ahead of what is hoped (and expected) to be a promotion push in 2025/26.
The squad is in dire need of surgery in central midfield and the striking department will need sharpening too, which will come at a premium for a club with parachute payments and loftier aspirations than most of the Championship.
As Ipswich rose through the leagues to reach the Premier League, CEO Mark Ashton was clear that “what got us here won’t get us there”.
This mantra will remain and Town may need to lose cult heroes (and hide away the likes of Liam Delap and Omari Hutchinson) to level-up the squad and help secure a quick return to the Premier League.
Tom James
Listens to Blue Monday
Leicester
And now, the end is near, and so he faces the final curtain… and more, much more than this, he did it his way.
If ever a song sums a person up, My Way sums up Jamie Vardy, and he is going to be missed.
If Carlsberg did football players, i’d imagine they would be modelled on the mischevious former Fleetwood Town man.
The weekend match v Ipswich Town will be his last. Having signed for the club on 18 May 2012 he leaves us on 18 May 2025 having played exactly 500 games.
But, and there always has to be a but, what if he doesn’t score a goal against Ipswich. The club, it seems, are willing to let Leicester City’s greatest ever modern age player leave on 199 goals.
Finally, will Jamie Vardy himself be happy to do that?
Chris Forryan
Liverpool
You have to admire Arne Slot’s unrelenting desire to win football games. But let’s be honest: subbing Trent Alexander-Arnold on against Arsenal was only ever going to make Liverpool more likely to win... on paper. A rare oversight from our Dutch head coach, who blanked on the emotional side of the equation.
Slam the booing fans all you want, but Trent’s arrival was always going to make things at least slightly awkward. Lo and behold, the party atmosphere inside Anfield evaporated quicker than you could say, “Real Madrid”.
Let’s be clear here: Alexander-Arnold has no business being on the pitch for Liverpool. Shove him in a cupboard at the AXA training centre until June 30. Extend his stay in Dubai. Whatever. Just play it safe, Arne.
Farrell Keeling,
Deputy Editor at Empire of the Kop
Man City
Prior to today, you certainly couldn’t have classed City’s season as a success. And despite how deflated I am, I don’t think yesterday’s defeat is completely definitive either. After our almost incomprehensible collapse in November/December. Securing Champions League football was always our #1 objective. And a seemingly unlikely one at that. I can’t pretend I’m not worried about that after how yesterday unfolded. Particularly with another game within 72 hours. But equally, I genuinely feel like we couldn’t have lost to a more worthy and likeable opponent. Congrats to Palace. Anyway, I can’t not mention Tuesday night: Kevin De Bruyne’s final game at the Etihad. The end of an era. Hopefully it will be a special atmosphere. To celebrate in my opinion, the greatest midfielder ever to grace the Premier League. King Kev.
Lloyd Scragg
Man United
It would be foolhardy to disregard the damage caused by a domestic campaign of torment for the Manchester United faithful. For Ruben Amorim, acknowledgement of the continuous unacceptable Premier League results is a matter of weekly conversation.
A defeat at Stamford Bridge extended his side’s winless run to eight in the league. Furthermore, an 18th loss of the most forgettable of campaigns solidifies a 16th-place position for the one-time perennial powerhouse of English football. It seems absurd to ignore this, but that is the strange world for a Manchester United supporter in 2025, with all thoughts fixated on the Europa League final against Spurs in Bilbao on Wednesday. Win, and there is something to grasp. However, a loss would return the most extreme backlash. This truly is Theatre for Manchester United
Shaun Connolly
Editor-in-chief at Theatre of Red
Newcastle United
Beating Chelsea in the glorious sunshine last weekend was another magnificent addition to a tremendous season, as the Champions League (and its PSR-busting riches) is within touching distance.
We need one win to be certain, and while the visit of Everton next week is a more likely source, the prospect of leapfrogging Arsenal into runners-up spot is tantalising to say the least.
United have had Arsenal’s number in recent times, and go in search of a fourth win of the season against today’s opponent after dominating the league cup semi final. The fact their manager seems incapable of taking these defeats with anything approaching good grace will hopefully add incentive to complete that seasonal quadruple.
Jamie Smith
Senior writer, The Mag (independent Newcastle Fans website)
Nottingham Forest
A terrible week for the football club that could have been so much worse as all focus should be on Taiwo Awoniyi. Thankfully the striker appears to be on the mend after what has been widely reported as a life-threatening injury suffered against Leicester City. Questions will now be asked about when the flag should go up for marginal offsides as well as the role of the club medical team, although a Forest statement has already pointed the finger of blame at their own staff amid extensive praise of Evangelos Marinakis’ leadership as he went on the pitch. Football seemed secondary a couple of days ago but Forest do have a slim chance to make the top five still, if they can beat West Ham, which will require an immediate upturn in results and performances, a repeat of November’s 3-0 would work nicely.
Matt Davies
Southampton
Considering our own Le Tiss inspired emotional goodbye to The Dell, I could hardly begrudge Everton a fond farewell to their beloved ground, especially given that we
won’t now play a meaningful game until the next Championship season kicks off. As is generally the case at Southampton, hope lies in our legendary academy. Our U21s are through to the final of the Premier League 2, where they will play Man City U21s. Striker Dom Ballard has scored four hat-tricks in his last seven games at that level. Nick Oyekunle picked up a golden boot after becoming the U18 Premier League’s all-time leading goalscorer. It’s a shame that the PL made us shut down our satellite academy in Bath – which produced Gareth Bale (no longer accepting our reasoning that under the EPPP’s 90 minute rule,half our catchment area is in the sea), and that wealthy clubs 300 miles away are now allowed to basically turn up at Staplewood and sign all our best kids, but we can’t expect modern football to be fair to clubs like ours now, can we?
Tom Williams
Co-host of the Pro Revolution Soccer podcast
Tottenham Hotspur
There are no truly pointless games in football, but Spurs’s limp defeat by Palace and their Friday night defeat at Aston Villa are doing their best to prove otherwise. In the same week Ollie Watkins overtook Gabby Agbonlahor as Villa’s all-time Premier League top scorer, they could have thrown the now-talkSPORT pundit up top and still coasted past us.
As European Cup final prep goes, losing our last standing creative midfielder to patella surgery is about as far from ideal as it gets. With Dejan Kulusevski, Lucas Bergvall, and James Maddison all sidelined, Spurs’ midfield options are looking slimmer than a title push in mid-April.
The only question now is whether Ange has my number on speed dial – I’ll be keeping my phone charged, just in case.
Sean Cook
West Ham
West Ham shocked the world – or at least us lot – by winning two-nil at Old Trafford, a result so unexpected it briefly knocked Ruben Amorim’s BBQ toque off. Jarrod Bowen and Tomas Souček scored in the sun, VAR behaved, and Hammers fans rubbed their eyes in disbelief. But with the celebrations so the tears kicked in. We said farewell to some club legends: Vladimir Coufal, who tackled anything that moved; Aaron Cresswell, who’s been here since the Romans; Lukasz Fabianski, the only man who could catch both crosses and the last train home; and potentially Souček, who headed more balls than the rest of the squad combined.
All four of these lads could have been born in Plaistow! It’s the end of an era. Gentlemen, we salute you… with pints, chants and probably badly spelt banners.
Andy Payne
Co-chair West Ham FAB and joint secretary of Hammers United
Wolves
One of the best things about Wolves over recent years has been our transfer policy, with the vast majority of players being young whippets, with no Premier League experience, and lots of room to evolve.
It’s exciting: players like Joao Gomes, Rayan Ait-Nouri, and Toti Gomes arrive with little known about them, and start to take on the world and grow up in an old gold and black shirt.
However, I was chatting to Dave Edwards on the Wolves Unpacked podcast this week, and we agreed it would be great to see a couple of ‘older-head’ style signings this summer to nurture the lads. João Moutinho, still playing at 38 for Braga, was probably our last successful one. I’d love to see who Vitor Pereira could convince to head over.
James Bird, editor-in-chief at Mundial Magazine
Photograph by Michael Steele/Getty Images
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