Liverpool lift trophy as Villa hunt down "crazy" Hornets

	Premier League - top half	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
C	Liverpool	37	31	3	3	82	32	+50	96
2	Manchester City	37	25	3	9	97	35	+62	78
3	Manchester United	37	17	12	8	64	36	+28	63
4	Chelsea	37	19	6	12	67	54	+13	63
5	Leicester City	37	18	8	11	67	39	+28	62
6	Wolverhampton	37	15	14	8	49	38	+11	59
7	Tottenham Hotspur	37	16	10	11	60	46	+14	58
8	Sheffield United	37	14	12	11	38	36	+2	54
9	Burnley	37	15	9	13	42	48	-6	54
10	Arsenal	37	13	14	10	53	46	+7	53

LIVERPOOL produced an exhibition display at Anfield last night as they lifted the Premier League trophy for the first time ever following a 5-3 win over Chelsea.

There were some sublime finishes from the now 19-time English league champions as Nabi Keita, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Gini Wijnaldum, Robert Firmino and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored the Reds' goals ahead of their on-pitch celebrations.

Jurgen Klopp's men led 3-0 - and 4-1 with most of the second half to go - and, just as Chelsea threatened to act as party poopers by dragging it back to 4-3, ran the ball from one end of the pitch to the other for Oxlade-Chamberlain to slot home emphatically.

By the time captain Jordan Henderson held the trophy aloft, darkness had fallen on a slightly eerie Anfield which was empty except for the players, staff, and their families. 

But, considering that coronavirus - at its worst - threatened the possibility of a null-and-void season while Liverpool were sitting 25 points clear, the Merseysiders will have still settled for the party which was had inside and outside the stadium - despite police warnings about the latter. 

Outgoing champions Manchester City can still earn the consolation of hitting 100+ league goals for the third time in the last seven years with three against bottom-placed Norwich City. 

Meanwhile, on an individual level, Kevin De Bruyne needs one more assist to equal Thierry Henry's record of 20 set in the 2002-03 season. 

Overall, though, this has been a disappointing league campaign from a distracted Man City with perhaps their biggest victory coming in the courts. 

At one stage, Pep Guardiola's men had been banned by UEFA from European football for two seasons after alleged breaches of Financial Fair Play rules surrounding the brokering of inflated sponsorship deals.

But Man City overturned the ban after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland - although even that judgement did not entirely exonerate them. 

Nevertheless, in football terms, it has left only two Champions League places available with three teams still battling it out for them. 

Leicester City had a fantastic start to the season with a top-flight club record eight wins in a row in the autumn including a 9-0 away thrashing of Southampton. 

But indifferent form from Brendan Rodgers' team in 2020 has allowed Manchester United and Chelsea to catch up with the Red Devils going third with a point in their draw against West Ham United, following the Foxes' latest defeat which came at Tottenham Hotspur. 

Ahead of their final day fixture against each other in what is effectively a playoff game for a Champions League spot, Man United lead Leicester by a point. 

Meanwhile, Chelsea - level on 63 points with Ole Gunnar Solksjaer's men - also have matters in their own hands as the Blues know even just a point against Wolverhampton Wanderers will suffice for a top four place, regardless of events at the King Power Stadium. 

Wolves, of course, have their own designs on a place in the top six - and lead Tottenham by a single point heading into the final day. 

And it means that, despite finishing above their North London rivals for a fourth season in a row, seventh-placed Spurs could yet be denied a Europa League spot by Arsenal if the Gunners win a record 14th FA Cup in the Final against Chelsea on 1 August. 

At the bottom, Trézéguet scored as Aston Villa earned a crucial home win against Arsenal to overtake Watford on goal difference and clamber out of the bottom three ahead of the final day on Sunday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Watford had suffered their third battering by Manchester City in just over 12 months as Raheem Sterling scored twice in a 4-0 win at Vicarage Road.

The defeat damaged Watford's goal difference to the extent that it now stands at -27, which is level with Bournemouth and one goal worse off than Villa.

In terms of goals scored, which is the next tiebreaker after goal difference, Villa also lead the way with 40 netted compared to Watford (34) and Bournemouth (37).

And so that leaves the permutations ahead of the final day as follows:

▪️ Aston Villa will stay up with any equal or better result than Watford, even an equal or lesser defeat to West Ham, unless Bournemouth beat Everton.

▪️ Watford need a better result than Villa, or a win against Arsenal by two goals better than Villa manage if both teams win.

▪️ Bournemouth need to win at Everton while both Villa and Watford lose.

Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster has admitted the Hornets' confidence is "crazy low" at the end of a mad week in which the Hornets sacked manager Nigel Pearson, their third such sacking of the season.

For the record, the winless Javi Gracia lasted until 7 September before the bizarre reappointment of Quique Sanchez Flores - who won just once before being fired on 1 December. 

Pearson took Watford from seven points adrift of safety to a position where they had more than a fighting chance - but he lost his temper in a fiery post-match interview on Friday following the woeful 3-1 defeat to West Ham.

Nevertheless, the 56-year-old remains the only man to have won a league match at home all season.

Finally, the fate of record-breaking rock-bottom Norwich was sealed more than a week ago as the Canaries became the first team in the Premier League era to be relegated from the top flight five times. 

With only 21 points ahead of their final day fixture against Man City, this occasion has been, statistically at least, the worst of the lot - and it has culminated in an ongoing nine-match losing streak during which they have scored just once. 

Their somewhat promising start - which actually included a 3-2 success over Man City in September as one of their only five league wins - now seems an extremely long time ago indeed. 

	Premier League - bottom
15	West Ham United	37	10	8	19	48	61	-13	38
16	Brighton & Hove Albion	37	8	14	15	37	53	-16	38
17	Aston Villa	37	9	7	21	40	66	-26	34
18	Watford	37	8	10	19	34	61	-27	34
19	AFC Bournemouth	37	8	7	22	37	64	-27	31
R	Norwich City	37	5	6	26	26	70	-44	21

⚽️

	Championship - top	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
C	Leeds United	46	28	9	9	77	35	+42	93
P	West Bromwich Albion	46	22	17	7	77	45	+32	83
3	Brentford	46	24	9	13	80	38	+42	81
4	Fulham	46	23	12	11	64	48	+16	81
5	Cardiff City	46	19	16	11	68	58	+10	73
6	Swansea City	46	18	16	12	62	53	+9	70
7	Nottingham Forest	46	18	16	12	58	50	+8	70
8	Millwall	46	17	17	12	57	51	+6	68

LEEDS UNITED celebrated their long-awaited Premier League return with a 4-0 thumping of Charlton Athletic who suffered relegation on an incredible final night of the Championship season.

The Whites were one of the few clubs not living on their nerves last night having been promoted as champions before they kicked a ball at the weekend after defeats for West Bromwich Albion and Brentford.

Marco Bielsa's thrilling team then went to Derby County on Sunday and enjoyed an extremely satisfying 3-1 win for good measure. 

Pride Park was the ground on which Leeds' promotion dreams had been shattered at the end of the previous campaign amid an acrimonious spying feud when it came to light that a member of Leeds staff had been found watching Derby train from a public footpath.

But, this time, the Yorkshire club marched to victory in the East Midlands before thumping the Addicks to finish the season on a sequence of six successive wins.

While Leeds eventually strolled over the line, the second automatic promotion place was one of several issues decided on a breathtaking night of action in the second tier.

Nerves had already been in evidence at the weekend when Brentford blew the chance to overtake West Brom despite the Baggies' 2-1 defeat to Huddersfield Town on Friday night.

Instead, the Bees were beaten 1-0 by Stoke City in a Saturday early kick-off while Fulham beat Sheffield Wednesday 5-3 to give themselves an outside chance of second place.

The first twist on the final night went in the favour of Brentford who were suddenly doing enough at 0-0 against Barnsley when West Brom fell behind to Queens Park Rangers.

But Slaven Bilic's men turned their match around with goals either side of half time while, at the same time, Brentford fell behind to Barnsley.

Still, there threatened to be another twist as QPR and Brentford both scored equalisers in their respective games to leave West Brom's promotion hopes vulnerable to a single goal in either game.

Another goal in the Brentford match almost inevitably came. Just as dramatically, though, it went to Barnsley who made it six points in four days to secure an unlikely position of safety - for now - after having propped up the division as recently as Saturday night.

The Tykes began what appears to be a great escape with a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Sunday as the Tricky Trees gave up their first chance of securing a place in the playoffs.

And therein lies another story from last night. 

With Cardiff City cruising against a wretched Hull City side in the final round of games, Welsh rivals Swansea City could only catch Forest in their own bid to finish in the top six.

Forest were duly behind at home to Stoke at half time - but such a scenario seemed unlikely to say the least with the Swans only managing to be level with Reading. 

The Royals had been reduced to 10 men just before the break, however - and Swansea took advantage to run up a 4-1 win. 

Still, it would not have been enough for Swansea if Forest had got anything out of their match against Stoke - and, on the hour, Sabri Lamouchi's men drew level. 

From that point onwards, though, Forest imploded disastrously, conceding three goals in the last quarter of the 90 minutes to drop out of the top six for the first time since before Christmas. 

The Championship surely is a cruel mistress - though only crueller still for the clubs at the bottom with no fewer than eight clubs fearing relegation and none down before last night. 

Middlesbrough took control of matters for themselves as a 2-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday ensured even the most unlikely combination of results could not trouble them. 

Boro's recent form justified the trust imparted in the post-lockdown appointment of 71-year-old Neil Warnock following the sacking of local lad Jonathan Woodgate. 

Meanwhile, managerless Huddersfield always had enough in hand following their aforementioned win over West Brom last Friday in what was surprisingly the last match of the Cowley brothers' tenure. 

Birmingham City limped their way to safety on 50 points while Luton Town turned things around dramatically following the return of Nathan Jones to Kenilworth Road.

Jones returned to the Bedfordshire club during lockdown with the Hatters six points adrift of safety - but four wins and 16 points from the last nine matches has proven to be enough. 

By contrast, Hull have only themselves to blame after taking just six points out of their last 60 to drop from eighth to bottom and relegation to the third tier for the first time since 2004-05. 

Undoubtedly, the Tigers nadir came nine days ago when they were completely embarrassed by Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium last Tuesday. 

The Latics were 7-0 up at half time and eventually won 8-0 - and, with 87 goals conceded, it is clear from where the Humberside club needs a complete rebuild. 

Charlton - to a lesser extent than Hull, of course - also let themselves down in the run-in and will make an immediate return to League One after their last-minute playoff win over Sunderland last year. 

However, the last relegation place looks like being decided in the courts. 

Wigan, in spite of that 8-0 win over Hull, fell into the bottom three on the final day after their 12-point deduction for going into administration was applied to the table at the end of the season. 

Even then, Wigan had almost saved themselves by taking the lead against Fulham before an equaliser - and the deduction - left the Latics two points short of the safety mark. 

"We're hurting as you can imagine," said manager Paul Cook in his post-match interview. "We've just got to keep hold of our dignity at the minute because it's painful.

"The support staff around the stadium who've kept coming in and working and keeping us going - I feel physically sick for everyone." 

However, it may not yet be over. The Football League has made it clear, the sanction against Wigan is "subject to appeal" and the Latics have appointed leading barrister David Phillips QC for the hearing on 31 July.

Of course, the Wigan situation is not the usual administration story of a club simply overstretching on the wage bill. 

Instead, the club was placed in administration on 1 July, just weeks after the club changed Hong Kong-based owners. 

The argument is that no-one - neither at Wigan nor the Football League - could have foreseen what Au Yeung Wai Kay was going to do and therefore the punishment should be withdrawn.

Incredibly, the Wigan conundrum is not the only issue in the Championship which remains outstanding with all of the games played. 

Back on 14 November, Sheffield Wednesday were charged with misconduct by the EFL over the £60m sale of their Hillsborough stadium to owner Dejphon Chansiri, without which the Owls would have made a substantial loss. 

Wednesday denied they had done anything wrong and were heard before an independent panel in June.

But, infuriatingly, the overdue verdict is still yet to be announced, and it means Garry Monk's men do not know if they could be facing their own points deduction.

For the record, the Owls finished 16th on 56 points, eight clear of the bottom three as it stands so the determination could easily be crucial. 

Finally, Derby face a similar charge to Sheffield Wednesday - although their hearing only began on 13 July. 

The Rams finished in 10th place at the close of the season on 64 points, a full 16 clear of the drop.

 

	Championship - bottom
17	Middlesbrough	46	13	14	19	48	61	-13	53
18	Huddersfield Town	46	13	12	21	52	70	-18	51
19	Luton Town	46	14	9	23	54	82	-28	51
20	Birmingham City	46	12	14	20	54	75	-21	50
21	Barnsley	46	12	13	21	49	69	-29	49
R	Charlton Athletic	46	12	12	22	50	65	-15	48
R	* Wigan Athletic	46	15	14	17	57	56	+1	47
R	Hull City	46	12	9	25	57	87	-30	45

* Wigan Athletic were deducted 12 points for entering administration, subject to appeal

⚽️

	League One - top	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	PPG
C	Coventry City	34	18	13	3	48	30	+18	67	1.97
P	Rotherham United	35	18	8	9	61	38	+33	62	1.77
3	Wycombe Wanderers	34	17	8	9	45	40	+5	59	1.74
4	Oxford United	35	17	9	9	61	37	+24	60	1.71
5	Portsmouth	35	17	9	9	53	36	+17	60	1.71
6	Fleetwood Town	35	16	12	7	51	38	+13	60	1.71
7	Peterborough United	35	17	8	10	68	40	+28	59	1.69
8	Sunderland	36	16	11	9	48	32	+16	59	1.64

	League One - bottom
18	Rochdale	34	10	6	18	39	57	-18	36	1.06
19	Milton Keynes Dons	35	10	7	18	36	47	-11	37	1.06
20	AFC Wimbledon	35	8	11	16	39	52	-13	35	1.00
R	Tranmere Rovers	34	8	8	18	36	60	-24	32	0.94
R	Southend United	35	4	7	24	39	85	-46	19	0.54
R	* Bolton Wanderers	34	5	11	18	27	66	-39	14	0.41
E	** Bury	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

* Bolton Wanderers were deducted 12 points for entering administration
** Bury were expelled from the EFL on 27 August 2019. At the time of their expulsion, they had played no matches.

⚽️

	League Two - top	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	PPG
C	Swindon Town	36	21	6	9	62	39	+23	69	1.92
P	Crewe Alexandra	37	20	9	8	67	43	+24	69	1.86
P	Plymouth Argyle	37	20	8	9	61	39	+22	68	1.84
4	Cheltenham Town	36	17	13	6	52	27	+25	64	1.78
5	Exeter City	37	18	11	8	53	43	+10	65	1.76
6	Colchester United	37	15	13	9	52	37	+15	58	1.57
7	Northampton Town	37	17	7	13	54	40	+24	58	1.57
8	Port Vale	37	14	15	8	50	44	+6	57	1.54

	League Two - bottom
22	Morecambe	37	7	11	19	35	60	-25	32	0.86
23	* Macclesfield Town	37	7	15	15	32	47	-15	23	0.62
R	Stevenage	36	3	13	20	24	50	-26	22	0.61

* Macclesfield Town deducted four points for failing to both pay their players' wages and to fulfil a fixture, reduced from six points after appeal. A further seven-point deduction was given for failing to play December's match against Plymouth Argyle. A further two-point deduction was given for breaches of regulations over non-payment of wages.

WYCOMBE WANDERERS reached the second tier of English football for the first time in their history after narrowly beating Oxford United in the League One playoff final. 

Joe Jacobson scored a penalty in the closing stages as the Chairboys joined Rotherham United and title winners Coventry City in securing Championship football next season.

Of course, the regular season in this oddest of campaigns ended prematurely due to the coronavirus when the majority of League One clubs voted to base the final standings on a points-per-game basis.

The decision was not unanimous, however - and several members were left aggrieved by the outcome with Peterborough United and Sunderland both missing out on a place in the top six.

By contrast, Wycombe moved up from eighth to third after gaining the same number of points (59) as Posh and the Black Cats in fewer games. 

And, with no perfect solution forthcoming, points-per-game was probably the fairest way to sort out an increasingly chaotic situation. 

Indeed, the whole season in League One has been chaotic after the division was left with an uneven number of teams following the sad demise of Bury. 

The Shakers became the first club to be expelled from the Football League since Maidstone United in 1992 - and the woes in the third tier did not end there. 

Bolton Wanderers - who, as recently as 2011 were at Wembley in an FA Cup semi final, went into administration last summer and so began the season on -12 points. 

Then, after fielding a team with an average age of 19 in their first starting line-up against Coventry, the Trotters risked further censure when opting to postpone their home match against Doncaster Rovers without Football League authorisation due to concerns over welfare to their young playing staff.

The resultant suspended five-point deduction at least had no immediate effect on Bolton's predicament. 

But the situation was already hopeless, and it took Wanderers until mid-November just to wipe out their initial deficit.

Southend United had no such handicap - but their own inexperienced defence was regularly torn apart as the Shrimpers leaked 85 goals in just 35 games to finish well short of safety on just 19 points.

By contrast, Tranmere Rovers were only three points short of AFC Wimbledon - and safety - with a game in hand when football was brought to its dramatic halt.

The Merseysiders were not best pleased with the cancellation of the campaign, to say the least.

Rovers owner Mark Palios - a former FA chief executive - said: "I have lost count of the number of chairmen who have sympathised at the unfairness of our plight, whilst still voting for it.

"However, sympathy doesn't pay wages or assuage a deep sense of unfairness. It cannot be right that clubs are pitted against clubs, when nobody voting (including Tranmere) is able to take a purely dispassionate view.

"I have no doubt that we would have survived had we been able to play on. For Tranmere fans this will leave a burning sense of injustice."

At least, despite the controversy, the decisions of the Football League about League One have seemingly been accepted.

However, the same cannot be said about League Two where rage about the single relegation place continues.

On the pitch, Stevenage finished with just three wins and 22 points from 36 matches, a poor enough record usually to guarantee any sort of relegation in normal circumstances. 

But - even before the coronavirus crisis took hold - Macclesfield Town had so many points deductions for failing to pay wages, that it was starting to become difficult to keep count. 

Altogether, Macc have had 13 points taken off them, enough to leave them just a point clear of Stevenage and 0.01 points clear on a per-game average. 

That is not the end of the matter, though - with the Football League in the bizarre position of appealing against the penalty meted out to one of its member clubs. 

Notably, Stevenage representatives will also be able to give their perspective at the appeal meeting, whenever it is eventually held. 

At least the top of the table has not been so controversial - although Swindon Town swapped places with pre-lockdown leaders Crewe Alexandra to win the League Two title on the points-per-game basis.

Plymouth Argyle were also promoted automatically in third place while Devon neighbours Exeter City narrowly missed out and - yet again - had to settle for the playoffs. 

The Grecians' subsequent defeat to Northampton Town made it a three heartbreaking final defeats in the last four years at Wembley as the Cobblers sped to a 4-0 success under the arch.

So, while Northampton head to the likes of Portsmouth and Sunderland in League One, Exeter will entertain Cumbrian outfit Barrow who regained their place in the Football League after a 48-year exile by winning the National League.