It was an anxious final day in the Premier League, more nervous, in the end, at the bottom than at the top. Manchester United and Chelsea secured the final places in the Champions League, leaving Leicester City in the Europa League, where Tottenham, who is in sixth place, will join. Bournemouth defeated Everton and Watford mounted a vain late return at Arsenal, but both were relegated to Norwich, as Aston Villa lured West Ham to ensure remarkable survival.
For Leicester there is a strange feeling of not knowing if this is a season to celebrate or not. In addition to the 2015-16 title-winning season, the fifth represents his best finish since 1963. He improved last season, qualified for Europe, reached the semifinal of one Cup and the quarterfinals of the other. But given how things started, how could it not look like a disappointment? At the time of closing in March, Leicester led United’s fifth place by eight points. He has won just three of his last 14 games, and that allowed not only Chelsea but also United to advance in the race for the top four.
To regain a place in the top four on Sunday, Leicester needed to beat United, or draw and Chelsea to lose to the Wolves. But Chelsea was a comfortable winner over Wolves, thanks to two goals in injury time in the first half.
Frank Lampard sidelined the most expensive goalkeeper in history, Kepa Arrizabalaga, who has allowed a higher shooting percentage in the Premier League this season than any other goalkeeper since Opta began collecting the data in 2003. It’s hard to say. But Chelsea was much less chaotic on defense than in recent games. It was tight until just before halftime, when Mason Mount hit with a brilliant free kick. Olivier Giroud added a second three minutes later, his sixth in his last seven games.
Having to win, Leicester opened in the second half, making him vulnerable to the counter. Sure enough, finally Anthony Martial broke into the box, where he was combined by Jonny Evans and Wes Morgan. Bruno Fernandes converted and Jesse Lingard sealed the points in injury time after Kasper Schmeichel gifted him the ball.
Tottenham’s 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace meant they ranked sixth and the Europa League qualification, but all is not lost for Wolves by finishing seventh. They can still qualify for Europe, be it the Champions League by winning the Europa League or the Europa League if Chelsea beat Arsenal in the FA Cup final next Saturday.
For a time, it was possible to argue that there was something almost admirable about Watford’s willingness to go against conventional wisdom and fire managers as soon as results began to fail. But over the past year, politics collapsed into chaos, and the four managers’ season ended in recrimination and relegation and a late rally that was not enough. The two games after Nigel Pearson’s dismissal brought two losses and the award of seven goals.
Having lagged behind an early penalty from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Watford defended himself, but then relented again, against the play, to a goal by Kieran Tierney in the 24th minute, the first for the club. Aubameyang added a third with a spectacular finish as Watford couldn’t deal with a simple long serve. But where David Luiz is, there’s always hope for the opposition, and he awarded a record-breaking fifth penalty of the season, more than 10 of the Premier League clubs this season. Troy Deeney converted and Watford recovered. Danny Welbeck withdrew another, but it was too little, too late.
Bournemouth had to win for a chance to survive, and they did it with a little flair. A pity from Josh King put it. Forward after 13 minutes and although Moise Kean equalized in 41 minutes, Dominic Solanke had restored Bournemouth’s lead before halftime. Junior Stanislas made it 3-1 with 10 minutes to go.
That meant Bournemouth would stay awake if Aston Villa lost to West Ham. He remained 0-0 at London Stadium until the 84th minute, when Jack Grealish put the away side ahead. But the celebrations barely stopped when Andriy Yarmolenko entered and fired a shot that deflected Grealish and entered cruelly, denying Villa his first clean sheet of the season and leading to a final charge of five minutes plus injury time.
But Villa held on, meaning he had taken 10 notable points from his last four games of the season to achieve a biting escape and relegate Bournemouth after five years in the Premier League.
And with that, the longest and most unusual season came to an end.
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