The final day of the Premier League season does not leave us with many unresolved issues but there is at least something to fight for as the campaign reaches its climax. That being who will finish in the top four and return to the Champions League next season.
Tottenham have already booked their place after a narrow win over Newcastle on Wednesday and with that they have moved up to third in the table, a result that means that it is down to Liverpool and Chelsea to fight it out over the scraps that are remaining.
The only reason there is something to fight for between these two teams is down to Chelsea’s win over Liverpool last weekend, however that could be something that was almost for nothing after the Blues failure to beat Huddersfield on Wednesday night.
Going into the final day, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp knows that just a draw will be enough to secure a top four finish. While a win for them and a failure for Liverpool to do so will see them take back third place.
The Merseyside outfit are two points clear of last season’s title winners Chelsea but have such a greater goal difference that it would take an almost farcical win for the Blues for them to leapfrog Liverpool and snatch fourth.
That means all Liverpool have to do is avoid defeat against Brighton on Sunday and they will be in the Champions league again next season. That said even if they did slip out of the top quartet of clubs they do at least have the back up plan of the final itself in Kyiv later this month.
If truth be told, Jurgen Klopp would have liked to have a top four place sewn up by now especially with Real Madrid on the horizon. The visit of Brighton would have been the perfect opportunity in which to rest and rotate his squad for the showpiece fixture which lies ahead.
However this Brighton outfit may provide little threat regardless, the reason being that they have already secured their top flight status for a second consecutive campaign after a hugely impressive win over Manchester United last night.
Unfortunately for them they could not match those heroics against champions Manchester City on Wednesday night as they fell to a 3-1 defeat at the Etihad. At the same time there will be very few complaints from manager Chris Hughton.
At the same time though he is a man of integrity and will still demand that his players give their all for the last 90 minutes of the season, not only that though but the higher they can finish up the table then the more prize money they will receive from the game’s governing body.
Liverpool will have to make sure they don’t have one eye on matters in Kyiv as they could well be caught out, they certainly deserve a top four finish after a very impressive season and they will confirm that with a comfortable home win on Sunday.