Chelsea and Newcastle the big winners on dramatic final day in top-five race

Related Articles

Football writer Alex Keble assesses how the race for UEFA Champions League places was dramatically decided on the final day.

In the end it was all surprisingly simple.

A day that was predicted to have chaotic ups and downs saw Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle United stay in the UEFA Champions League spots on a tense final day of Premier League action.

There were just six goals in the four matches that mattered in the race for the top five, three of the five clubs lost, and in the end it was Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest left crestfallen.

Villa will play UEFA Europa League football next season while Forest will have to make do with the UEFA Conference League, completing a set of nine clubs in Europe; Chelsea’s final placement in the top five means eighth-placed Brighton & Hove Albion miss out.

All the drama seemed to happen at Old Trafford, where VAR was unable to intervene on a legitimate Morgan Rogers goal at 0-0 because the referee blew his whistle seconds before the shot was taken.

Man Utd took the lead four minutes later and on that decision, the Champions League places swung, allowing Newcastle, despite losing at home to Everton, to sneak in on goal difference alone.

Here’s how the race for the top five went, and what it means for all five clubs involved.

Chelsea muscle past Forest to mark a turning point

Forest arguably edged an even match that was understandably low on quality given the stakes, but amid all that nervous tension Levi Colwill (below) stretched at the back post to score just after half-time and secure Chelsea’s spot in the Champions League.

With that, Enzo Maresca is vindicated. A single goal stood between a strong campaign that aligned with pre-season demands and a poor campaign that could have put the Chelsea head coach under pressure.

Instead they are back in the Champions League for the first time under BlueCo ownership and the first time since 2022/23, marking a significant turning point for a project that has seen reported £1billion spent in transfers.

They don’t need to worry about that any more. Champions League money, plus the FIFA Club World Cup windfall this summer, ought to leave Chelsea in a strong position to go to the next level under Maresca.

“What I got taught in the academy is you have to fight,” Colwill said after. “We try to get these clean sheets to win and that's what we did today.

“This club deserves to be in the Champions League.”

Quite simply, this was mission accomplished for Maresca and Chelsea. Win the Conference League, and it will be pretty much a perfect debut campaign.

Newcastle's great relief after surprise defeat

The most relieved supporters in the country were at St James' Park, where the most unlikely scenario played out: losing on the final day and somehow still finishing in the top five.

The players could scarcely believe it when the final whistle blew. Eddie Howe’s side had fallen short, had done just as poorly as Villa and Nottingham Forest, and yet thanks to superior goal difference over Villa (+21 to Villa’s +9), they are back in the Champions League.

Qualifying for Europe’s premier competition in two of the last three seasons indicates Newcastle are establishing themselves as mainstays, and certainly the financial boom of qualifying again will help Howe move this team to the next level.

Their hope, over the summer, is to build a squad more able to compete than the one that finished bottom of their Champions League group in 2023/24. The new format ought to help with that.

Man City get the job done as Guardiola preps for Club World Cup

Ilkay Gundogan’s early goal settled the nerves, and from then on it seemed inevitable Man City, so calm and experienced in these moments, would get the job done.

Supporters who travelled to Craven Cottage will just want to draw a line under 2024/25 now. They have qualified for the Champions League and now they must forget all about it and move on.

The Club World Cup comes into view and offers the chance for Pep Guardiola to begin the rebuild, and indeed with that in mind the 2-0 win at Fulham was good preparation.

Erling Haaland’s penalty in the second half was his first goal since returning to injury, and, significantly, put to bed concerns about him giving a penalty to Omar Marmoush in the FA Cup final.

It helped City extend their unbeaten run to 10 in the Premier League. If they can get the Wembley defeat out of their minds, Man City suddenly look in a good position to go far on the world stage this summer.

“It’s like a title,” Guardiola said of a top-five finish, speaking on Match of the Day. That is perhaps an exaggeration, reflecting that this is his first trophyless season since 2016/17.

There is a chance to change that next month.

Villa stumble although Europa League should excite fans

Much will be made of the moment when Rogers capitalised on an Altay Bayindir fumble.

It turns out Villa only needed a point to qualify for the Champions League. That goal would have seen them lead at Old Trafford with 20 minutes to go.

But in truth, Villa did not put in a performance worthy of victory and it was a goalkeeping error at the other end that should linger for fans, not Rogers’ disallowed goal.

“I don't think anyone in the dressing room or anyone watching the game felt we deserved to win,” as captain John McGinn put it to TNT Sports.

Emiliano Martinez’s decision to take out Rasmus Hojlund, reducing Villa to 10 men just before the break, had as big an impact as the disallowed goal.

Even before then, Villa looked nervous and dishevelled, their lines decompressed as Man Utd tore through them repeatedly. Better finishing from the hosts and Villa could have been 4-0 down long before the red card or disallowed goal.

If that doesn’t provide any comfort to Villa fans, then Europa League qualification ought to.

Unai Emery has won the Europa League four times as a manager and was runner-up with Arsenal in 2018/19, while Tottenham Hotspur’s ecstatic celebrations this week should inspire Villa fans – and players – for the 2025/26 season.

Nevertheless, failure to make the Champions League means a leaner summer for the club.

But it does not take away from a good season: balancing a Champions League quarter-final appearance with just three points fewer in the Premier League is well above par.

And a third consecutive European adventure - in three different competitions, no less – isn’t bad either.

Forest fall short but can celebrate Conference League place

They huffed and puffed for 90 minutes but Forest just couldn’t find a way through a sturdy and resilient Chelsea defence at the City Ground.

It was a performance and result in keeping with their second half of the season, when tiredness began to catch up with them and the goals dried up.

Forest won just two of their final eight Premier League matches of the campaign, scoring eight goals in the process.

Chris Wood’s big miss in stoppage time, skying a shot from 12 yards out, was again indicative of recent matches. It would have been enough to edge Villa into sixth and a Europa League spot.

It wasn’t to be, but when the dust settles, Nuno Espirito Santo and supporters will be very proud of their team and delighted to be in European competition for the first time since 1995/96.

Forest are the first team in Premier League history to double their points tally from one season to the next. That statistic alone tells you what an extraordinary campaign they’ve had.

They will relish their European adventure.

Click here to read article