Champions League race is officially rescuing boring Premier League season as Villa, Bournemouth lose
A Premier League season with no proper title race or relegation battle is being saved by what could turn out to be the greatest Champions League race of all time.
Aston Villa, Brighton, Bournemouth and Fulham all played on Tuesday night, kicking off 45 minutes before fellow Champions League qualification contender Chelsea, who hosted bottom-club Southampton.
The Saints and their fellow promoted clubs, Ipswich and Leicester, are destined for an immediate return to the Championship and they are going down without much of a fight.
Wolves might have lost against Fulham on Tuesday but they have too much quality and there is not enough about the bottom three for even one to put together a sustained run of form, like, say, ten points from a possible 15 to really shake things up down there.
The other team in action was Crystal Palace, who smashed Aston Villa in the game of the night.
England boss Thomas Tuchel was in attendance to watch Eberechi Eze, Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers, Adam Wharton, Dean Henderson, Marc Guehi, Tyrick Mitchell, Ezri Konsa, Jacob Ramsey, but most importantly, William James Hughes.
By half-time, Aston Villa’s front three of English talents averaged a 5.96 rating on WhoScored, with Watkins and Ramsey and then Watkins and Rogers combining for goals that were both ruled out for offside. Palace’s players were putting in a much better account of themselves as the 1-0 scoreline suggested.
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After the first disallowed goal and with Villa well on top, Palace scored against the run of play through Ismaila Sarr. It was all about Wharton’s delivery to Chris Richards, whose header was palmed by Emi Martinez straight into the path of Sarr to tap in from close range.
Palace were so much better after scoring and battered the Villans for the rest of the second half, even if Rogers scored an offside goal of his own.
It’s never ideal having to change goalkeeper during a match and that is what Unai Emery was forced to do, but against all odds, Robin Olsen helped create an equaliser that would stand this time.
His long pass was won by Watkins brilliantly and Rogers latched onto it to score. It was a lovely goal Sam Allardyce would be proud of as the visitors missed out their midfield to get the ball up the other end of the pitch as quickly as possible. It worked a charm and Villa kicked on just as Palace did after their goal.
But just like that and before the hour mark, in-form striker Jean-Philippe Mateta smashed the ball with his left foot past Olsen; assisted by Eze with a lovely lay-off under severe pressure from Axel Disasi.
Mateta’s 12th league goal of the season got us thinking: Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United could do a lot, lot worse.
Shortly after Emery called upon his heroes against Chelsea on Saturday, Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, Sarr made it 3-1 with 20 minutes left. It was a lovely volley past Olsen, set up by Daniel Munoz, who had a difficult evening before his assist. VAR threatened to disallow it again with some more annoying line drawing, but it was legal.
Eddie Nketiah’s injury-time goal put the cherry on the cake for the Eagles. He has finally scored a Premier League goal for his new club!
It was only Palace’s third home win of the season and their first since December 29 against Southampton. It is also a result that makes a Champions League return significantly more difficult for Villa.
You can sympathise with an off season after their heroics last term but at the same time, they would have hoped to kick on and become top four regulars. It is similar to Newcastle United but at least Villa have done well in Europe, unlike their counterparts in 2023/24.
It is hardly an impossible task to get in the top four – or top five, which could be enough to qualify for Europe’s premier competition.
Having come from behind to beat Chelsea over the weekend, they would have been confident of getting a positive result, but they were against an in-form Palace team, though their positive results have been coming away from Selhurst Park.
Fulham’s win at Wolves – courtesy of a lovely Rodrigo Muniz winner – made things worse for Villa. They are both on 42 points after Tuesday’s results and if the Cottagers were offered that after 27 games at the start of the season, they would have been more than happy to accept.
Wolves are the only side that can give us a relegation battle and losing here does keep that possibility open. Relegation battles are fun and tend to be more enjoyable than a title race. Though for the good of this website, we’d be asking for a topsy-turvy title race with the big guns bottling week in, week out.
We will not be blessed with that as Liverpool run away with the league title. The fight for Champions League football, however, could be the best we will ever see.
There is only two points separating Villa in tenth and Manchester City in fifth and everyone in between are either on 42, 43 or 44 points.
It is truly wild that at this stage of the season Villa have slipped down to tenth on a night they could have gone fifth. Their current league position is far from ideal but the pure chaos in the top half of the Premier League means there is no need to panic.
Also on Tuesday night, Brighton beating Bournemouth was, in our eyes, the best result for Emery and his players. Sure, Albion are now above them but the Cherries have been dragged down into the mire with two consecutive Premier League defeats.
It was Danny Welbeck with the winner for Brighton and they are firmly in the race along with a Chelsea side that gained three crucial points against Southampton on the same night.
With Brighton, Manchester City, Chelsea, Bournemouth, Newcastle, Fulham and Nottingham Forest all in contention, goal difference could be crucial. Getting thumped by three goals at Palace is unacceptable.
But such is the nature of the race, they are one matchday away from being in the top five. With the title race and relegation battle pretty much done and dusted already, we are not taking that for granted.
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