Chelsea enter the Premier League’s final day with European qualification still possible but narrowed to two routes: the Europa League or the Europa Conference League. As 2024–25 Europa Conference League winners and 2025 Club World Cup champions, expectation was higher after another summer of heavy investment. The Blues sit on 52 points and are out of reach of Bournemouth in sixth, meaning the realistic fight is for seventh to 10th.

Newcastle United, Everton and Fulham occupy 11th, 12th and 13th and sit three points behind Chelsea, but would need a significant swing in goal difference to overtake the Blues. The direct contenders for the two European places are Brighton & Hove Albion, Brentford and Sunderland. Going into the final day two points separate the four sides. Seventh place secures Europa League football, eighth place the Conference League.

Table position and goal difference going into the last day are: Brighton +9 on 53 points; Chelsea +7 on 52 points; Brentford +3 on 52 points; Sunderland -7 on 51 points.

Chelsea cannot qualify for the Champions League. To reach the Europa League the Blues must better Brighton’s result. If Brighton beat Manchester United they will finish seventh and take at least Europa League qualification regardless of other outcomes. If Chelsea beat Sunderland they still require Brighton to drop points to move ahead of the Seagulls.

Brentford can overtake Chelsea only if they overturn the goal difference gap. That would require Brentford to beat Liverpool by a margin at Anfield at least four goals greater than Chelsea’s winning margin. A draw at the Stadium of Light still leaves seventh achievable for Chelsea only if Brentford fail to win and Brighton lose to Manchester United by at least two goals.

If Brighton take a point while Brentford do not win, Chelsea would finish eighth. A Brentford victory would see them overtake Chelsea and drop the Blues to ninth. If Chelsea lose to Sunderland, their European hopes end, with both Brighton and Sunderland finishing above them.

Michael Carrick’s contract through the end of the 2027–28 season formalises what the club quietly signalled: he is the manager tasked with delivering ‘Project 150’. That responsibility arrives after a turbulent period in which United fell to 15th in the Premier League last season, yet the board retained the original ambition. When questioned about the plan in the summer of 2025, Berrada told the fanzine United We Stand: “Why not aim for it?” and added, “Why not do everything in our power? I firmly believe we can do it.” He later reminded supporters that there would be “two or three summer transfer windows” available to execute the plan.

Carrick’s first run as permanent manager offers evidence that the project is not merely aspirational. With the same squad that struggled for consistency under Ruben Amorim, United have taken more points from their first 16 matches in charge than any other Premier League team across the equivalent period. That run has produced an average of 2.25 points per game, a rate that projects to 85.5 over a full season. For context, champion Arsenal’s maximum tally will be 85.

There are clear reasons for optimism: the squad has improved markedly from a 51-year low recorded 12 months earlier, and recent signings brought in for Amorim — Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Šeško and Senne Lammens — have all “made a substantially positive difference working to Carrick’s instruction.”

Carrick’s profile is rooted in long association with the club. Born and raised in suburban Newcastle and first established in east London, he arrived at Old Trafford in 2006 and said he “felt the magic of Manchester United” from his first visit. He featured in teams that won back-to-back-to-back Premier League titles, won the Champions League and reached two other finals. He won the club Players’ Player of the Year in the ‘Van Persie’ season, became captain, completed 464 appearances, joined the staff and, by December 2021, after a three-match spell as caretaker boss, left to begin his managerial career having spent more than 15 years at the club.

On his appointment he said, “I know what it takes and hopefully I can give that experience a little bit to the players and they can feed off it, and we can keep pushing for more.” The comparison with other managerial trajectories in the game underlines the view that internal knowledge can matter when executing a long-term project.

Florian Wirtz moved to calm a growing story around Mohamed Salah’s social media criticism of Liverpool’s style by explaining why he and several teammates felt comfortable publicly supporting the post. His remarks underline a dressing-room view at odds with how the episode was played up outside the club.

Salah wrote: “I want to see Liverpool go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear and back to being a team that wins trophies,” Salah wrote. “That is the football I know how to play and that is the identity that needs to be recovered and kept for good. It cannot be negotiable and everyone that joins this club should adapt to it.”

Slot declined to comment on the post and would not confirm whether Salah would be involved in the season finale against Brentford on Sunday. Wirtz, though, offered a softer reading.

“Mo has known the club for a long time now,” Wirtz told The Athletic. “He’s just an honest guy. He says what he thinks. This should be O.K. If you want to speak, you should be able to speak. Of course, it was a bit of a difficult season for all of us, including Mo. In my opinion, it got made bigger than it was. I don’t think he attacked anyone.”

Pressed on why so many players had ‘liked’ Salah’s Instagram post, Wirtz said: “With the ‘likes’ players gave, I think it was made too big. For me, it was just a thing that he wanted to say because he’s leaving. He wanted to make everyone in the club alert that we have to work more and do better.

“We are all anything but happy with this season. I think we can still make a little bit out of it by qualifying for the Champions League on Sunday. We have to do that. Then in the summer, we need to clear our heads and attack next season, because we have a very good squad and we can do much better.”

Wirtz also rejected the idea of internal division: “The outside world is always trying to create something between the team and the manager,” Wirtz added. “But it’s totally different in this building. We are working well every day with this manager and his staff. There is no thought about not being behind the manager. This is just something [talked about] on the outside.”

Reports in the media have repeatedly debated Arne Slot’s future, but substantial coverage has concluded he will remain. Liverpool are reportedly set to reunite Slot with his former set-piece coach Etiënne Reijnen, who has told colleagues at Feyenoord he will join ahead of the 2026–27 season. Reijnen, who played alongside Slot at PEC Zwolle and later coached at Feyenoord, helped his side concede just 17 goals from dead balls across three seasons, the best record in the division. Only PSV have scored more from set pieces over the same period.