A truncated Premier League weekend, but one with a little added spice after Manchester City won the FA Cup and confirmed that eighth place will qualify for Europe. That made Sunderland the big winners of the weekend, who really could qualify for Europe as a promoted club.

The other major interest was West Ham having a chance to push their noses out of the earth and put extra pressure on Tottenham. Unfortunately for them, they can’t defend and the attack isn’t really working either. Relegation will be sorted if Spurs take one more point.

Here is one piece of analysis on each of the top flight clubs who played this weekend (in reverse table order)…

This weekend’s results

  • Aston Villa 4-2 Liverpool
  • Man Utd 3-2 Nott’m Forest
  • Brentford 2-2 Crystal Palace
  • Everton 1-3 Sunderland
  • Leeds 1-0 Brighton
  • Wolves 1-1 Fulham
  • Newcastle 3-1 West Ham

Wolves’ ray of positivity

There’s not much to hang your hat on with this Wolves squad for next season. The players Rob Edwards would like to keep are probably going to leave and the ones he would like to lose will probably be the hardest to shift.

But Mateus Mane has likely enjoyed this season; so few others can have. He is still 18 years old, has started 18 Premier League matches and on Sunday scored his second goal with a cracking finish from the edge of the box.

Raw wide forwards with pace and directness typically do well in the Championship. If Wolves can persuade Mane to give them one more season and a shot at promotion, it could be the making of his career.

Burnley

Play Arsenal on Monday night.

West Ham’s defending is why they’re going down

Nuno Espirito Santo got the team shape wrong, sticking with the three-man central defence when they needed to get at Newcastle and stop them settling. But there are passages of play that define entire seasons and West Ham’s defending for the opening goal was one of them.

Mads Hermansen plays a rotten pass between two players. Jean-Clair Todibo is late to react but also makes a criminal mistake in not stopping play by any means necessary and allowing Harvey Barnes to jump past him. The collective inability not to spot the absolutely massive frame of Nick Woltemade on the edge of the six-yard box and thus giving him time and space to wait for a pass.

The defending for goals two and three were little better. This was the West Ham of Molineux in January, when they looked doomed. All the progress since has been wasted.

Tottenham

Play Chelsea on Tuesday night.

Nottingham Forest have every right to be annoyed

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of “I have no idea what the handball law is anymore”. This week, we have a bloke almost catching the ball and then playing a five-yard pass to someone who scores.

Firstly, the VAR officials clearly considered it to be a handball because they sent the referee to the screen. I can also understand in some cases why a deflection off a body part can negate the offence, which was the explanation given.

But when a player literally stops the ball between his arm and body and it then drops to his feet, how on earth is that not gaining an advantage and how on earth can it matter that it is accidental? Lots of handballs are accidental!

Wharton’s Crystal Palace milestone

Palace may not have much to play for in the league, but Sunday still produced one of the moments of their season when Adam Wharton, who had waited 94 matches to score his first Palace goal, finally broke that duck.

Firstly, Wharton doesn’t look like a natural back-flipper but he did that celebration when he scored his first Blackburn Rovers goal in 2022 and he did it again on Sunday.

Even better than that, Wharton’s mum was in the crowd, celebrated her son’s goal like mad and then joined in with a chant sung in her honour. Lovely stuff.

Calvert Lewin’s astonishing Leeds record

In a 26-man squad, it is quite possible that Thomas Tuchel only takes two strikers: Kane and Watkins. With Marcus Rashford likely going and capable of playing through the middle, England’s manager might consider that sufficient backup for Kane.

Which would be an enormous shame for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, because I reckon he is third in the queue. No English player has scored more goals in the Premier League this season, astonishing given we suspected that Calvert-Lewin was done at the top level. It is more than he has scored in all but one season in his career.

Here is a final fun fact: the goal that Calvert-Lewin scored on Sunday was his first winner in any match for more than two years. If three strikers go, he could be one.

Fulham’s attack must be rebuilt this summer

If you take out a 3-1 win over a rotten Burnley team at home, Fulham have now scored two goals in their last nine matches: Ryan Sessegnon against Aston Villa and the penalty against Wolves on Sunday. That is why Fulham have fallen away from the top eight and their shot at Europe.

As such, the attack must be rebuilt over the summer whether Marco Silva leaves or not.

Harry Wilson is the top scorer and is out of contract. Raul Jimenez is 35, looks weary and will be playing at the World Cup this summer. Rodrigo Muniz has endured a rotten season and scored one league goal. The next highest scorer after Jimenez and Wilson is Alex Iwobi on four.

Everton’s perfect Moyes season

It’s something we said fairly recently, but after boos met the final whistle of Everton’s final home game of the season and European football was taken off the table, it’s worth reflecting on just how perfect a David Moyes season this has been.

There has been good progress, because he is a good manager. There has been overachievement, a couple of really good runs and some fine results against the bigger boys: two away wins against teams that will finish in the top four.

And then just when you think something is building, there are just enough flaws and foibles to persuade you that none of the excitement was worth it. This isn’t a brilliant squad but nor is it one that should have taken three points from their last 18 available. Everything collapsed just when Everton had sight of something special.

Newcastle’s tricky dilemma

Last summer, William Osula looked certain to leave Newcastle United on a permanent deal for Eintracht Frankfurt.

If Newcastle had kept hold of Alexander Isak or signed their replacements earlier, the deal would surely have been done. With Osula scoring one league goal before the start of March, his value dropped.

Since then, Osula has scored six Premier League goals after jumping both Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa in the striker queue. Now the question is not whether Newcastle would still get the £30m from a Bundesliga club, but whether he might be worth keeping if Woltemade is now a No 10 and Yoane Wissa will be sold this summer.

Chelsea

Play Tottenham on Tuesday night.

Sunderland are the biggest winners of the weekend

Sunderland have been flying a little under the radar recently after a fast start and tricky spring. Because of the results around them and their own supreme result at Everton, they still have a shot at European football despite taking 15 points from their last 13 games. It really has been an odd Premier League season.

To put Sunderland’s achievement into context, whether they qualify for Europe or not, they were the shortest odds of any Premier League team to be relegated before a ball was kicked.

If they beat Chelsea at home on the final day, they will enter the top ten of points totals from promoted clubs in the Premier League era. We had assumed that was no longer possible.

Brentford’s classic long throw goal

This has been the season of set-piece goals and, on the penultimate weekend, Brentford produced the most aesthetically pleasing example of a supposedly ugly practice.

Michael Kayode was the architect, the man with the best long throw in the country given the power and flat delivery he is able to execute. Next comes a gorgeous flick-on header from Sepp van den Berg, who rises about a foot higher than everybody else because he’s absolutely massive.

Van den Berg cannot spot Dango Ouattara, but he knows where the ball must go and Ouattara knows where he’s meant to be. There’s an overload at the back post and Ouattara is able to head home. Three touches – hand, head, head – over 40 yards, all performed so well that stopping it felt like an impossibility.

Are Brighton too predictable?

One of Brighton supporters’ criticisms of Fabian Hurzeler is that his substitutions are a little predictable, particularly in matches that are tight and when his side are coming under some pressure.

“Gomez probably comes on for Veltman around the 65th minute, at which point Kadioglu shifts over to RB,” posted @FPL_Instinctive (a tactics account that focuses on Brighton) at 1.51pm on Sunday. After 64 minutes and 30 seconds, Hurzeler brought on Diego Gomez for Joel Veltman and Ferdi Kadioglu shifted over to right-back.

This isn’t always a problem, but when Brighton then lose the game late on you do wonder whether opposition analysts are able to plan for eventualities with some certainty. It might have cost Brighton their tiny chance of Champions League qualification.

Bournemouth

Play Manchester City on Tuesday night.

Liverpool’s massive gamble

I’m not saying that Xabi Alonso isn’t entirely happy to be Chelsea’s new manager, but the last few weeks have very much felt like he was waiting to see if Liverpool would give him a call. And Liverpool have clearly chosen not to.

That must mean that Arne Slot is staying, because you wouldn’t wait until Alonso – probably the best coach they could hope to get and a good fit for the club given his own history – was off the market and then make the move, would you? Would you?

But this can’t carry on if Slot carries on losing. Liverpool have taken 44 points from their last 32 league matches. In recent weeks they look entirely shambolic defensively and are offering little in attack. And now you have a departing hero intimating that the manager is betraying the club’s attacking ideals and having his post liked by teammates.

Opportunity beckons for Aston Villa

Unai Emery has done a magnificent job this season, foolishly omitted from the Manager of the Year shortlist. Whatever happens in Istanbul – and Villa are favourites to win the Europa League – Emery has taken them back into the Champions League.

That means everything for their future because Villa do need a rebuild. The average age of the starting XI against Liverpool on Friday was 29.9 – it was the oldest team they have picked in more than 30 years. Emery has been able to rely upon dependable, experienced players who have delivered spectacularly.

Champions League football will make greater demands of an ageing squad. This season was a snapshot in time. It was also a triumph of coaching and man management. Next must come the squad building. Villa have been less good at that.

Man Utd’s chief beneficiary

Luke Shaw has just had one of the best seasons of his career, and he owes Ruben Amorim a thank you for it. Had Manchester United qualified for Europe last season, or not been absolutely dreadful in the domestic cups this season, Shaw would likely have had to play 50 matches and the injury issues may well have returned.

Instead, Shaw has played 40 times, been one of United’s highest performers and scored a lovely goal on Sunday lunchtime. I don’t think it will be enough to squeeze into the England squad, because I think Tuchel wants more of an attacking option and Shaw wasn’t in the last squad.

But if United buy Shaw a decent backup option for next season, he can continue to have a lovely old time in the biggest matches.

Man City

Play Bournemouth on Tuesday night.

Arsenal

Play Burnley on Monday night.

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