theScore examines the most important developments and biggest talking points from the weekend’s slate of action in England’s top flight.
Man City assert their dominance
The dynasty continues.
Before even kicking a ball on the weekend, Manchester City were officially crowned Premier League champions for the third successive season, further solidifying their status as English football’s domineering force.
Here are some of the most eye-popping numbers in the wake of City’s fifth league title in six seasons:
2 – Pep Guardiola joins Sir Alex Ferguson as the only managers in the history of English top-flight football to capture three consecutive league titles. They’re breathing rarefied air and likely drinking some decent bottles of wine.
5 – Phil Foden, who doesn’t turn 23 until next week, already has five Premier League medals to his name. That’s more than some of the league’s most notable players, including the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Patrick Vieira, Eric Cantona, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, and City alum Yaya Toure.
10 – In just seven seasons with Manchester City, Guardiola has won 10 major honors. He’ll be hoping to add two more – including the most desirable trophy of all – between now and the end of the season.
14 – It’s not how you start but how you finish. Manchester City went on a tear to overtake Arsenal and eventually capture the title. Sunday’s victory over Chelsea was City’s 14th win in their last 15 league matches; the lone blemish was a draw against Nottingham Forest. Guardiola’s juggernaut hasn’t tasted defeat in the league since the first week of February.
52 – Since the calendar flipped to 2023, City have collected 52 of a possible 60 points in the Premier League. The freight train couldn’t be stopped.
A tale of 2 seasons for Arsenal
Arsenal’s rip-roaring start to the Premier League season was unsustainable. No one would’ve thought they’d have 50 points through the first 19 matches – a feat not even the famous Invincibles side of 2003-04 could manage. There’s just no way a team as young and inexperienced as the Gunners could replicate such form over the final 19 fixtures.
But they didn’t just suffer a minor dip in form; they became a different team entirely. Gone was the swagger that drove so many of Arsenal’s match-winning performances in the opening half of the campaign. Gone was the belief that carried them to comeback wins over Manchester United, Aston Villa, and Bournemouth.
The identity crisis hit Arsenal just as Manchester City found their confidence. With 31 points from 18 games, Mikel Arteta’s side fell far of City’s standards and ceded the title in relatively meek fashion. As much as the title run exceeded expectations – Champions League qualification was Arsenal’s primary objective – the feeling was one of emptiness.
For the second straight season, Arsenal couldn’t perform to their abilities in the business end of the campaign. A similar loss of conviction cost them Champions League qualification last season, with late-season defeats to Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United keeping Arsenal out of the top four.
Now that they’ve shown they can compete with the best England has to offer, expectations around Arsenal will increase tenfold. Recruitment is necessary, as is rotation, to prevent another catastrophic loss of form.
But the club should still celebrate what it has achieved. Arsenal will play in the Champions League for the first time in six seasons, and they have a solid foundation, with William Saliba, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, and Martin Odegaard yet to enter their primes.
Leeds deserve to be relegated
Let’s be clear: Sam Allardyce isn’t the reason Leeds United are on the verge of being relegated. The damage was done long before the 68-year-old came out of quasi-retirement to take the job.
Leeds’ tailspin truly started when majority owner Andrea Radrizzani sacked Marcelo Bielsa in February 2022. Bielsa paid the price for a downturn in form largely caused by injuries to key players Liam Cooper, Kalvin Phillips, and Patrick Bamford. Though they saved themselves from the drop last season, Leeds’ lack of depth was laid bare.
The squad became even thinner with the sale of match-winner Raphinha to Barcelona and Phillips to City. Radrizzani sanctioned their departures without securing suitable replacements, and the ones who arrived didn’t really fit in. Bielsa’s replacement, Jesse Marsch, couldn’t put his stamp on the team even with fellow Americans in the squad, and like Marsch’s successor, Javi Gracia, Allardyce has been unable to stop the bleeding.
But few managers could have made significant change at Elland Road, even less so Allardyce, who built a reputation as a survival specialist by keeping the ball out of his goal. Leeds’ squad wasn’t built to play defensively, and it has too many significant holes to compensate for such seepage at the back. Bamford’s health has been questionable for some time, and forward Georginio Rutter, signed for a club-record fee in January, has yet to score a single goal in 12 total appearances for Leeds.
The club’s scattergun approach to signings, coupled with Radrizzani’s poor succession planning, torpedoed the entire project. Now, Leeds have to beat Tottenham next weekend and hope Everton and Leicester City both lose their remaining games to stay up.
Quick free-kicks
Too little, too late for Liverpool
It’s a shame that one final moment of Roberto Firmino magic at Anfield will end up being just a footnote for Liverpool. The Brazilian, playing in his final home match for the club, salvaged a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa with a dramatic late goal on Saturday. Ultimately, though, the result all but confirmed that the Reds’ late-season push for an unlikely Champions League berth will fall short. A seven-match winning streak gave Liverpool hope of nabbing a top-four spot. But on the evidence of the entire season, in which Jurgen Klopp’s team was erratic and defensively frail, a Europa League place is a more appropriate reward. “We were for too long not good enough or ourselves,” Klopp admitted. Liverpool are no strangers to remarkable comebacks, but the hole was too deep for even them to climb out.
Forest’s faith in Cooper rewarded
Nottingham Forest could’ve fired Steve Cooper at any point, and the viewing public would’ve understood why. Even with significant reinforcements – 30 signings, to be exact – Cooper struggled to keep the specter of relegation at bay. But larger-than-life owner Evangelos Marinakis stuck with the man who steered Forest to the Premier League in the first place. The Greek media mogul’s faith in Cooper was eventually rewarded Saturday when Forest confirmed their top-flight status with a momentous 1-0 win over Arsenal. As all the teams below them in the standings changed managers, Forest showed that stability can deliver even better results.
Brighton’s momentous achievement
For the first time in their 121-year history, European football beckons for Brighton & Hove Albion. The Seagulls ensured a top-seven finish on Sunday and, in all likelihood, will finish sixth once the final whistle blows on the campaign next weekend. It’s a truly remarkable achievement for a club that lost its celebrated manager during the year – Graham Potter likely wants a mulligan on that one – and consistently has its top players poached by “bigger” teams each year; star midfielder Moises Caicedo nearly left in January, and Alexis Mac Allister is likely on his way out in the summer. No matter, Brighton just keep reloading. It’s a testament not only to the incredible job Roberto De Zerbi has done since his arrival on the south coast but also to the club’s continued ability to unearth young talent and keep the squad stocked with rising stars at all times. This is the model other teams of a similar stature should be trying to replicate.
Hey, look, it’s Kalvin Phillips!
Manchester City signed Phillips for £45 million last summer. He only made his full Premier League debut for the club on Sunday, the penultimate weekend of the season. Between being unveiled by City and then finally starting against Chelsea, the England international played a measly 113 league minutes, was called “overweight” by his manager, and experienced what he described as one of the “lowest” points of his career in terms of self-confidence. And, ultimately, it didn’t make a lick of difference for City. That’s a luxury afforded to few other clubs, if any; City can spend first and ask questions later. And if it never works out for Phillips or any other high-priced signing, they can wipe their hands of the situation and try again. The unlimited riches of the club’s majority owners in Abu Dhabi have been a huge factor in City’s rise. So, too, has Guardiola’s on-pitch genius. Both can be true. Acknowledging City’s vast financial resources isn’t meant to diminish their accomplishments, but not doing so would be disingenuous.
Chelsea’s miserable, no-good season
The end of the season can’t come soon enough for Chelsea. Sunday’s loss to Manchester City confirmed that Frank Lampard’s beleaguered team will finish the campaign in the bottom half of the Premier League table for the first time since 1996 – that’s five years before midfielder Enzo Fernandez was even born. It’s been a while since the situation was so bleak for the west London outfit, which will surely continue to spend lavishly in the coming months to reverse course. Mauricio Pochettino, reportedly on his way to try to right the ship, has an enormous task on his hands to deliver a tangible return on Todd Boehly and the ownership group’s massive investment.
Stat of the weekend
When Guardiola gets his hands on a trophy, he tends to not let go of it.
Tweet of the weekend
The streets of Manchester will be rocking for City’s title party.
Breaking down thrilling EPL title race with 10 games left
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One of the most intoxicating title races in Premier League history is, mercifully, ready to resume.
The quirks of the calendar – an FA Cup weekend succeeded by an agonizing international window – means the titanic tussle between Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester City will have been on hiatus for a full three weeks before it gets back underway on Sunday.
But there are no more impending interruptions. With 10 matches remaining for each title contender, we’re barreling toward a resolution to the type of three-way battle that’s exceedingly rare in England’s top flight. There’s never been a season in the Premier League era where three teams went into the final day with a chance to hoist the trophy. This could be it. The last time it happened was the 1971-72 campaign, when Derby County won an incredible four-team fight, narrowly beating Leeds United and, ominously, Liverpool and Man City to the crown. We’re overdue for that kind of drama.
That three sides have converged this way at all is, frankly, remarkable.
These are the three best teams in the country by an enormous margin. They’re the only ones with an expected goal difference per game of plus-1.0 or greater this season. The next best mark, surprisingly, belongs to Mauricio Pochettino’s erratic Chelsea team at plus-0.36. So, yeah, it’s not close.
The three of them are also on a tear and show no signs of slowing down. Arsenal have won all eight of their league games in 2024, scoring 33 goals in the process; Liverpool have collected 22 of a possible 27 points in that time; reigning champions Manchester City have racked up 23 of 27 points. They’ve combined for just one loss since the calendar flipped – Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat against Arsenal in early February.
The only sides that look capable of halting their progress are each other, which makes this weekend’s clash between Manchester City and Arsenal at the Etihad all the more significant.
Euro 2024 playoffs: Miraculous Ukraine comeback, big result for Wales
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Wales, Greece, and Poland registered statement wins Thursday, joining three other teams in next Tuesday’s playoff finals for the three remaining places at Euro 2024.
Ukraine staged an incredible late comeback against Bosnia and Herzegovina in its semifinal to keep its Euro dream alive.
The highest-placed team in FIFA’s rankings that’s no longer in contention to reach the tournament in Germany is 60th-placed Finland.
Here’s how the playoff semifinals across Path A, B, and C played out.
Path A
Mateusz Slodkowski / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Poland 5-1 Estonia
Estonia barely stood a chance. Down to 10 men as early as the 27th minute, the northern Europeans could only muster a consolation goal in a 5-1 loss to Poland. The Polish achieved the rout without Robert Lewandowski getting on the scoresheet and remain unbeaten in 21 Euro qualifiers at home, a magnificent run dating back to September 2006. Poland is trying to make up for a poor qualifying campaign in which it finished third in Group E, four points behind the Czech Republic and Albania. The country hasn’t missed the Euros since 2004.
Wales 4-1 Finland
The Red Wall might descend on Germany this summer. Wales’ raucous supporters have legitimate hopes of traveling to another major tournament after the Dragons scorched Finland without the retired Gareth Bale and with Aaron Ramsey, 33, on the bench after more injury problems. Teemu Pukki gave the visiting team some hope just before halftime following well-taken finishes from David Brooks and Neco Williams. But Wales needed just 73 seconds of the second period to restore its two-goal cushion via Brennan Johnson’s tap-in. Daniel James took advantage of a defensive error before rounding the goalkeeper in the 86th minute to give the host a resounding victory.
Playoff final: Wales vs. Poland, Tuesday 3:45 p.m. ET
Path B
David Balogh – UEFA / UEFA / Getty
Israel 1-4 Iceland
Iceland’s Albert Gudmundsson stole the show with an emphatic hat-trick against Israel on Thursday. His stunning free-kick into the top right corner canceled out Eran Zahavi’s opening goal for Israel, and he created a nice cushion for his country with a pair of markers in the final 10 minutes. Just before that, Zahavi blew an incredible opportunity to equalize the match at 2-2, missing a penalty awarded for handball against Iceland’s Gudmundur Thorarinsson. A red card to Israel’s Haim Revivo didn’t help the trailing side. Iceland is now a game away from making only its second-ever appearance at the Euros following its quarterfinal run in 2016.
Bosnia and Herzegovina 1-2 Ukraine
Ukraine scored twice with just minutes remaining in regulation to snatch what seemed to be a sure victory from Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday. Bosnia controlled play for most of the match and took the lead in the 56th minute when Mykola Matviyenko turned in Amar Dedic’s shot into his own net. But a colossal defensive lapse cost the Bosnians a chance to make it a record four countries from the former Yugoslavia at Euro 2024. Roman Yaremchuk came off the bench to equalize in the 85th minute and teed up Artem Dovbyk’s sensational winning header three minutes later to turn the playoff semifinal on its head. Ukraine now faces Iceland with a third consecutive Euro appearance at stake.
Playoff final: Ukraine vs. Iceland, Tuesday 3:45 p.m. ET
Path C
GIORGI ARJEVANIDZE / AFP / Getty
Georgia 2-0 Luxembourg
Two clever finishes from Budu Zivzivadze in Tbilisi assured Georgia of a place in Path C’s final – and all without the help of suspended talisman Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. But it wasn’t that simple for the host. Luxembourg thought it equalized during the second half, only for the goal to be eventually snatched away due to Maxime Chanot’s apparent foul 45 seconds earlier. Luxembourg’s Chanot was controversially sent off for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity, and Zivzivadze effectively ended the match six minutes later with his second strike. Kvaratskhelia is available for the final.
Greece 5-0 Kazakhstan
Anastasios Bakasetas lashed home a penalty, Dimitrios Pelkas headed into the net’s roof, Fotis Ioannidis tapped in from close range, and Dimitrios Kourbelis added another header. And that was all before halftime. Kazakhstan’s impressive 2022-23 Nations League campaign and notable Euro 2024 qualifying wins over Denmark, Northern Ireland (twice), and Finland suddenly seemed ages ago, as Greece recorded its biggest halftime lead since October 1978 (5-0 against Finland). Aleksandr Marochkin’s embarrassing own goal in the 85th minute made Kazakhstan’s day even worse.
Playoff final: Georgia vs. Greece, Tuesday 1:00 p.m. ET
Look: Nike unveils beautiful kit selection for Euro 2024, Copa America
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Nike released a stunning batch of threads ahead of Euro 2024 and Copa America on Monday.
Days after Adidas launched its lineup for the summer’s top two tournaments, Nike followed suit with an array of colorful designs.
The U.S. manufacturer also announced redesigns for Canada and Poland, even though they’ve yet to qualify for their respective tournaments. The Canucks face Trinidad and Tobago in a one-off Copa America qualifier on Saturday, while Poland must navigate a four-team playoff to reach Euro 2024.
(All images courtesy of Nike)
Euro 2024
Croatia
Home
The square-shaped design that gives Croatia its unique look gets a slight upgrade. The home shirt features larger squares than ever before.
Away
Croatia’s away shirt plays on the national flag, with the traditional checkered pattern now on a slant.
England
Home
Influenced by England’s 1966 training gear, the home shirt has a classic feel with a rich blue collar and gorgeous trim along the cuffs.
Away
England embraces a deep purple hue for its away selection. The crest stands out with a contrasting off-white tint that makes the three lions pop.
France
Home
France’s home shirt may have the biggest crest of all of Nike’s offerings. The oversized rooster defines this shirt as much as the royal blue that’s made France’s kits a crowd-pleaser.
Away
The pinstripes mirror the colors of France’s national flag and span the width of the shirt in a simple, yet elegant design.
Netherlands
Home
Nike could’ve offered anything orange here, and it would’ve been perfect. But the Netherlands has something bolder and better to wear. The zig-zag pattern adds edge.
Away
The orange collar and cuffs pop alongside the three shades of blue Nike has chosen to create the abstract design on this work of art.
Poland
Home
Poland dedicates premium real estate on the country’s home shirt to its imposing crest.
Away
Poland’s away shirt is a daring choice. The graphic treatment adds texture, giving it a rugged feel while separating from the red tones of years past.
Portugal
Home
With possibly the best home shirt in Nike’s collection, Portugal leans heavily into its traditional red-and-green motif with a polo collar and thick cuffs. The logo sits prominently as well. A smash hit.
Away
Here’s another winner. Portugal’s away strip has a stunning textile imprint that gives off a cool summer vibe.
Turkey
Home
This is a menacing look. Turkey will look like a whirring red army with these imposing shirts.
Away
The classic red band returns to Turkey’s away uniform. Like the others, it features an oversized crest in the middle of the shirt.
Copa America
Brazil
Home
Nike goes big with Brazil’s crest and adds an intricate design to the same yellow hue the Selecao have used for decades.
Away
Brazil’s secondary strip feels like the beach. A horizontal wavy pattern covering the entire shirt mimics the country’s picturesque coastline.
Canada
Home
The only blemish in Nike’s lineup. Why is there a circle around the swoosh? And why are the shoulders so much darker than the body? None of it makes sense.
Away
The 13 pinstripes are supposed to represent the 10 provinces and three territories that make up Canada. Unfortunately, the rest of the shirt looks incomplete.
United States
Home
The United States men’s national team gets a classic home shirt with patriotic detailing along the color and sleeves.
Away
The gradient works perfectly with the red shorts the U.S. will wear at the Copa America.