1 hour ago
10
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
In the Premier League, Bournemouth will play Crystal Palace at 2pm. The two teams sit eight and 14th in the table respectively, with both managers consistently overachieving. Read Jonathan Wilson’s piece about Andoni Iraola and Oliver Glasner.
Here’s the League Two table.
In League Two, Bromley finished the season as champions for the first time after 3-1 win over Walsall on the final day of the season. MK Dons narrowly missed out on the championship trophy after a 1-1 draw with Fleetwood while Cambridge also earned promotion to the third tier of English football thanks to a goalless draw with Crewe.
Meanwhile, Barrow and Harrogate were relegated. Late goals from Thomas Davies and Bobby Kamwa gave Newport a 2-1 victory over Barrow. Barnet beat Harrogate by the same scoreline after a late Philip Chinedu winner.
Salford, Notts County, Chesterfield and Grimsby Town qualified for the playoffs. The fixtures are as follows:
-
Salford v Grimsby (10th May)
-
Chesterfield v Notts County (10th May)
-
Grimsby v Salford (15th May)
-
Notts County v Chesterfield (15th May)
Thank you, Emillia. Stick with me for updates on today’s big games along with reaction from yesterday’s EFL finale.
With that, I’m handing this live blog over to Xaymaca Awoyungbo, who will continue guiding you through all the latest updates.
In League One, Lincoln City finished the season as champions, with Cardiff City earning the second automatic promotion spot.
Stockport County, Bradford City, Bolton Wanderers and Stevenage made the play-off spots while Exeter City, Port Vale, Rotherham United and Northampton Town suffered relegation.
Championship roundup
Head coach Sergej Jakirovic reflected upon an “unbelievable” achievement after his Hull side earned a spot in the playoffs with a 2-1 comeback win at home to Norwich. Goals in either half from Oli McBurnie saw the Tigers nudge clear of Wrexham and Derby to land a place in the top six.
Jakirovic, who has had to operate all season under a transfer embargo, said: “It’s a big success. To achieve this is my first season at the club is unbelievable, it’s massive for me and club – especially in these circumstances. This is a sweet feeling.”
At the other end of the table Sheffield Wednesday claimed their first Championship home win of the season in front of their new owner, David Storch, as they beat West Brom 2-1 to finally wipe out their 18-point deduction. Arise Capital Partners, which is led by Storch, has completed the acquisition of the Owls and the American was on the pitch before kick-off to address the fans of his new club. He confirmed that the Owls would be starting life in League One without a points deduction, much to the delight of the sold-out home crowd.
Southampton made it 19 Championship matches without defeat as they finished the season fourth with a 3-1 win against Preston at Deepdale. Taylor Harwood-Bellis’s superb 12th-minute header opened the scoring and Ross Stewart doubled the lead with a well-taken second after 47 minutes. Lewis Dobbin capitalised on a Daniel Peretz howler to halve the arrears on the hour, but substitute Cyle Larin tapped home to seal the win in stoppage time.
Stephy Mavididi gave League One-bound Leicester something to cheer about at the end of a miserable campaign as his late goal secured a 1-0 win at Blackburn. Afterwards, Gary Rowett made clear he wants to stay on as Leicester’s manager next season, saying: “I think there’s going to be some big decisions and it’s going to need someone, in my opinion, brave enough to make those decisions. The team needs to look very different. The culture needs to look very different. But it’s a great opportunity so of course I’d like that opportunity.”
An Ellis Simms hat-trick and a Viktor Torp piledriver ensured Coventry signed off on their Championship title-winning season in style with a one-sided 4-0 victory over a sorry Watford side at Vicarage Road. Cheered on by around 2,000 fans, Frank Lampard’s side ended a memorable season with 95 points and 97 goals. Afterwards, the manager told fans to “stay excited” about the summer plans for squad building: “The club has to do the hard work and the owner has said that he wants to talk about that from next week. It’s a special story this year and this is right up there in the amount of pleasure I have had in football.”
Adam Idah came off the bench to score twice as Swansea ended their season with a 3-1 win at home to Charlton.
Sheffield United staged a second half comeback to win 2-1 at Pride Park and end Derby Championship playoff hopes. Derby were in control at the break through Sam Szmodics early goal but the visitors came back strongly to dash the home side’s dream of a top-six finish. A mistake by Joe Ward allowed Tom Cannon to level before a strike from Sydie Peck turned the game on its head.
Adrian Segecic’s excellent end-of-season form continued as Portsmouth played out an entertaining 1-1 draw with Birmingham at Fratton Park.
Goals from Delano Burgzorg and substitute Sam Bell saw Roy Hodgson end his short spell as Bristol City interim head coach with a 2-0 victory over Stoke at Ashton Gate. Hodgson said later it could have been his last game as a manager – but didn’t rule anything out: “If someone says ‘we need you to do a job’ and I think I can then maybe, but it’s a long shot. I am certainly not going to be putting my name out there because there are lots of managers and coaches needing jobs. The game has been very kind to me and I don’t need the work anymore. It’s nice to go out on a win.”
In the Championship, Ipswich Town sealed promotion back to the Premier League with a 3-0 win over QPR at Portman Road. They will join Coventry City in the top division next season.
One of Millwall, Southampton, Middlesbrough and Hull will also earn promotion through the play-offs.
As for the teams relegated, Oxford United, Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday will drop to League One.
Now, it’s time to talk about the drama that took place across the Championship and EFL yesterday…
Following Arsenal’s semi-final defeat, head coach Renée Slegers admitted: “Lyon raised their levels today. They came out really strong. They had Selma Bacha and Melchie Dumornay back in the side, who are world class players. They were really effective in certain moments. It was a very tight game, small margins, it’s a semi-final in the Champions League. It was tight, very disappointing for us of course. They were the better team.”
Yesterday was one to forget for Arsenal Women, who suffered a Champions League semi-final second-leg defeat to Lyon. The Gunners went into the match leading 2-1 but lost out following a 4-3 loss on aggregate.
Lyon will now face either Barcelona or Bayern Munich in the final later this month.
Question of the day – which direction do we think this title race will go?
Can Arsenal see it out? Or will they struggle under pressure and allow City to take it?
As a Chelsea supporter pains me to say it, but well done Arsenal. They have shown great character and resilience this last week or so and now must be favourites for the Premiership title. All of the pressure is now back on City.
And finally, Sunderland were held to a 1-1 draw by Wolves at Molineux…
The main talking point was Dan Ballard’s red card for a hair pull on Tolu Arokodare.
Elsewhere, Newcastle managed a 3-1 win against Brighton thanks to goals from Will Osula, Dan Burn and Harvey Barnes to ease the pressure on Eddie Howe.
How things stand at the bottom of the table…
A huge performance is needed from Spurs today. They need to capitalise on that West Ham stumble.
oh West Ham, just one job to do, and even that wasn't necessarily a must-win as even a draw would put more pressure on Spurs, and you failed; ok Brentford away isn't easy but from comments there seemed to be a lack of fight and that is unforgivable, only good news is that Villa away is slightly tougher than Brentford away so maybe GD could be improved but really, when it's in your hands you can't afford to drop it
looking forward to the United match, can't see which way it's likely to go, Liverpool could be in 5th or 3rd later this evening, neither's a disaster but just being above United would be nice
At the other end of the table, West Ham lost ground in the race for survival following a 3-0 loss to Brentford. The Hammers will find themselves in the relegation zone by the end of the day if Tottenham beat Aston Villa this evening.
How the top of the Premier League table looks following Arsenal’s huge win against Fulham…
Mikel Arteta said his Arsenal team had played some of their best football of the season in Saturday’s 3-0 home win over Fulham and demanded that they take the positive feelings into the return leg of their Champions League semi-final against Atlético Madrid on Tuesday.
He said: “It says to us and toward our dressing room that we keep the dream alive. hat what these guys have done, not now, but throughout the season to win that many games is remarkable. Because I think it’s going to help on Tuesday. What we want now is to use that momentum, energy and belief towards Tuesday.
“This was a critical game. We know the importance of the win and the manner that we’ve done it and the goal difference in the Premier League and because this game was going to carry a lot of energy towards the next game, which is one of the biggest in the history of this stadium. We’re going to try to make it happen.”
Asked if the first-half performance against Fulham was Arsenal’s best of the season, Arteta responded: “It certainly was one of the best. We talked about hunger, about having the ability to focus and be so determined on what we had to do.”
Arsenal cruised past Fulham yesterday to move six points clear at the top of the Premier League table. The Gunners had not won a game by more than a two-goal margin since their 2-0 Champions League win over Bayer Leverkusen on March 17. However, a double from Viktor Gyökeres and a strike from Bukayo Saka eased any nerves.
Manchester City, who have two games in hand, must now beat Everton away tomorrow to keep pace with their title rivals.
Preamble
Hello, good morning and welcome to another Matchday live! We have three Premier League fixtures to look forward to this afternoon, including a huge meeting between rivals Manchester United and Liverpool and a must-win match for Tottenham against Aston Villa. Bournemouth also play host to Crystal Palace at the Vitality Stadium.
We also have plenty to recap from yesterday as the Championship, League One and League Two reached a conclusion.
All that and more will be covered this morning and throughout the day – so join us!
