Southampton and Leicester City would roll in the top five of the top five for Manchester City and Nottingham Forest. That was the expectation.
But this fierce European race is full of surprises and they were completely visible during the weekend when both Newcastle United and Aston Villa came away and the big winners with the degraded duo who disturbed the chances against the city and forest.
On the other side of the table, the miserable seasons of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur fell to even deeper lows with the upcoming Europa League final in Bilbao that weigh heavily.
The Arsenal season continues to run the risk of bubbling after their 2-2 draw to Liverpool, while Bryan Mbeumo van Brentford only raised his price tag with another beautiful display when the bees won in Ipswich.
In the latest episode of this weekly column, Mail Sports Five of the most interesting points from the last matches of the Premier League.
Top five race is not over yet for Bos
There is no doubt that drawing the already degraded Leicester City was far from ideal in Nottingham Forest's offer to land Land Champions League – but everything is not lost.
Frustrated forest owner Evangelos Marinakis stormed the field at the end to have words with boss Nuno Espirito Santo about a mix-up that meant that wounded striker Taiwo Awoniyi was not replaced.
But when the dust covers that Bos will realize that the top five is not a lost business with to deal with West Ham and against Chelsea. Forest is four points behind Newcastle United (3rd), three points behind Manchester City (4th) and only one point behind Chelsea (5th) and Aston Villa (6th).
It is absolutely necessary that forest on the road in West Ham wins to take the race until the last day, but despite the clear frustrations of the Leicester -similar game, the top five race is still as alive as before the competition in the city area even started.
Newcastle still has to play Arsenal, while Chelsea and Aston Villa are dealing with the unpredictable (albeit mostly predictably bad) Manchester United. Bournemouth and Fulham are also not the simplest assignments for Manchester City. Everything can already happen.
Recovery, re -grouping and canal struggle in a victory at West Ham. There is another turn in the top five race …
Mainoo looks lost in the Amorim system
If it concerns problems at Manchester United at the moment, you could devote a whole column and something to try to get it just a few. There are essentially loads.
But one that was obvious in the gloomy 2-0 defeat of West Ham was the influence – or a great lack of – of Kobbie Mainoo.
Mainoo is a fantastic football player, but he looks more and more lost to fit into a system that is not in his strengths.
Amorim does not believe that he can play in one of the two pivot positions for the back three, while the lack of awareness if no. 10 is obvious because he is lost in games like him on Sunday.
Too often against West Ham he was swallowed and large spells of the game took place without being able to put a stamp on the game.
It has been a stop-start campaign for Mainoo because of an injury that did not help. But a lack of trust from Amorim to play in a deeper role – he was returned there on Sunday after West Ham went 2-0, but it was too little, too late – means that he tried to harm him at number 10.
The chase of people like Matheus Cunha in Wolves, Bryan Mbeumo in Brentford and Antoine Semenyo in Bournemouth is also far from ideal news, from Mainoo's point of view.
If Manchester United cannot settle in the best position of Mainoo and puts him in position to learn the inside out and return to his best, his long -term perspectives look increasingly worrying.
This summer is vital for Amorim and Manchester United to reverse things. It is also huge for Mainoo.
Newcastle thrive against top 7
The side of Eddie Howe, on paper, seemed to have the most difficult route to secure a top five finish with Chelsea, Arsenal and Everton their last three games.
But what seemed to be the most lost is that Newcastle is the best in class this season when it comes to games against the top seven of the competition.
After a 2-0 victory over Chelsea, in which they got a helping hand by Blues striker Nicolas Jackson after his idiotic red card, Newcastle improved their record to nine wins of 16 games against the top seven in all competitions in 2024-25. They also lost four of that run.
What we have seen lately is teams that stumble against a lower -ranked opposition in competitions. Both Manchester City and Nottingham Forest tied up against banished opponents last weekend.
So with Arsenal afterwards, Newcastle will feel encouraged that they can go to the Emirates Stadium and get a result to move second in the table.
This season Arsenal has only four wins of 13 games against top seven opponents and was lucky to get a draw in Liverpool on Sunday.
“I think we got used to the big games,” said Howe after Chelsea's victory. 'I don't think that was the case when we arrived for the first time, but we slowly built our competition position.
'Having two cup final and the Champions League experience certainly helped us in that respect. I think there is now a much better response on the larger occasions, and no bigger than today.
“The pressure on us was huge, with the expectation and the crowd, and you have to try to use all those things to your advantage.”
The greater the opportunity, the larger Newcastle becomes, it seems. Arsenal, you have been warned.
Top 7 results (all competitions)
Newcastle United – P16 | W9 | D3 | L4 = 56.3 Win %
Manchester City – P13 | W6 | D2 | L5 = 42.2%
Liverpool – P13 | W5 | D5 | L3 = 38.5%
Aston Villa – P12 | W4 | D2 | L6 = 33.3%
Arsenal – P13 | W4 | D6 | L3 = 30.8%
Chelsea – P12 | W3 | D2 | L7 = 25%
Nottingham Forest – P13 | W3 | D4 | L6 = 23.1%
Ready to take the next step
Looking at Michael Olise lifted the Bundesliga title on Sunday and then saw Ebereechi Eze play with Tottenham while Crystal Palace tore them apart, was to think it feels time for Eze to take that next step.
That is not a knock on the palace. If everything goes according to plan, Eze will lift the FA Cup during the weekend with a victory over Manchester City in Wembley.
At the age of 26, Eze comes into the bloom of his career and now feels the right time for him to take that next step to continue and play Champions League football.
Nieuwcastle United will keep an eye on him, while Manchester United has conducted a study about his availability, because they offer to win the Europa League in Europe Premier competition. Tottenham, the other Europa League finalist, is also a well -known admirer of Eze.
Arsenal and Aston Villa, two other clubs for a top five berth and Champions League football, would both be immediately improved with the addition of Eze.
He has 12 goals and 11 assists this season after his brace in the 2-0 victory in Tottenham and although Eze did not publicly explain the palace, the club where he was part of reading in 2020, seeing Olise at the top of the competition was to wonder if it is time for Eze to get his shot.
When he left the Tottenham Hotspur stage on Sunday, Eze agreed to sign some signatures for fans when he was asked if he wanted to become a member of Ange Postecoglou. It was confronted with a brutal grin and caused a wrinkle of laughter.
Come in the summer, the future of Eze will not be a laugh. The decision time is on the horizon …
Complaints from the city were clearly wrong
One of the most annoying moments of the weekend was to whine Ruben Dias about how Southampton played in their 0-0 draw with Manchester City.
This idea that it would have been more honorable for Southampton to go gung-ho, is hammered in the process and remain on track to be the worst Premier League side ever, is complete nonsense.
“It is clearly frustrating to play against a team like this,” Dias moaned. “They don't even try something, they just sit and don't even want to play or win the game, they just want to be there.”
It was not Southampton's fault that City managed to get only five of their 26 shots on goal. Or that their 72 percent all owned on the last whistle.
According to Stats Boffins, City has not made any 'great chance', while their open game expected goals (XG) was only 1.03.
So, save me the sour grapes that you have picked your lines to take a huge step in the direction of securing Champions League football for next season, Ruben.
Southampton has had a historically miserable season that they want to hurry. They desperately wanted to avoid getting fewer points than the 11 Van Derby County and their best way of acting against Manchester City was to dig in and make it as difficult as possible.
It spoke volumes that Southampton fans were proud of such a brave display at the end, even if it wasn't 90 minutes for football purists such as Dias.