Chelsea, Liverpool clinch top four on the final day

Chelsea, Liverpool clinch top four on the final day

It was a dramatic final day of Premier League action that saw both Chelsea and Liverpool seal Champions League football for next season while Leicester City slipped to 5th after their defeat to Tottenham. 

Liverpool raced to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace thanks to a fine brace from Sadio Mane. After losing 6 home league games in a row in 2021, the Reds have produced a stunning comeback to win 8 of their last 10 games and salvage their season by finishing in 3rd.

While Liverpool comfortably secured the three points in front of their home fans, it was far from plain sailing for Chelsea away to Aston Villa. After dominating majority of the possession, the Blues found themselves trailing at half-time after a well-worked set-piece from Villa was finished off by former Chelsea player Bertrand Traore. Things went from bad to worse for Chelsea in the second half after El Ghazi made it 2-0 from the penalty spot. The Blues pulled one goal back through Ben Chilwell but despite their best efforts, couldn’t claw themselves back to win the game.

Luckily for Tomas Tuchel and Chelsea, their blushes were spared by Leicester. Brendan Rodgers’ side failed to hang on to a 2-1 lead over Tottenham in the final 15 minutes and eventually succumbed to a crushing 4-2 defeat that knocked them out of the top four. Leicester took the lead through two Jamie Vardy penalties but the ever-dependent Kasper Schmeichel made a rare error from a corner to gift Spurs the equaliser to make it 2-2. In the final minutes, Leicester were caught out on the counter-attack after committing men forward in search of the winner and Gareth Bale wrapped up the three points for Spurs with a brace.

This was Leicester’s third defeat in the last four games of the season and for the second year in a row, defeat on the final day has bumped them out of the top four. 

Tottenham’s victory over Leicester also pushed them above North-London rivals Arsenal into 7th in the table and secures European football for the club for next season. It remains to be seen whether that qualification will be a poison chalice for the club as the 7th placed team in the Premier League qualifies for UEFA’s new Europa Conference League.

Elsewhere in the league, Manchester City celebrated their coronation with a 5-0 thumping over Everton. It was an emotional day at the Etihad as City bid goodbye to their top goal scorer, Sergio Aguero. Aguero came on in the second half to score two wonderful goals in his final appearance for the club to put the icing on the cake on a wonderful season for City and Pep Guardiola.