The 2025-26 Premier League season has entered its final week, and it has been the most exciting and unpredictable since the competition began in 1992-93.
It won’t give us the most outstanding champions or one player setting a new impossibly high benchmark, but if you want drama and storylines, 2025-26 has been the best ever.
With less than a week to go, Arsenal can win a first Premier League title since 2003-04, Tottenham Hotspur could still be relegated, Bournemouth, Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford could qualify for the Champions League, and Chelsea might go from winning the FIFA Club World Cup to finishing in the bottom half of the table inside 12 months.
Those are the things that could still happen this week, with every game on the final matchday on Sunday carrying some significance or jeopardy. Even Burnley vs. Wolverhampton Wanderers matters for the two relegated teams because winning that fixture at Turf Moor will ensure that the victors avoid the ignominy of finishing bottom of the pile.
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But leaving aside what the final week has in store, this season has already veered off script with unlikely outcomes.
Manchester United have fired a manager — Ruben Amorim — and gone from their worst-ever Premier League finish of 15th last season to qualifying for the Champions League in third position this time around. They did that with captain Bruno Fernandes, recently voted as the FWA Footballer of the Year, equaling the assist record jointly held by Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry with one more game left to claim it as his own by registering a 21st in the final fixture away to Brighton.
Last season’s champions Liverpool, after spending almost £450 million on new players last summer, have produced a dismal defense of their title and face Brentford at Anfield on Sunday at risk at missing out on Champions League qualification if they lose to Keith Andrews’ team.
Sunderland have confounded all expectations after being promoted via the Championship playoffs last season to go into their final game at home to Chelsea with Regis Le Bris’s team knowing a win could seal qualification for Europe in the Conference League.
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And Nottingham Forest have retained their top-flight status despite firing three managers — Nuno Espírito Santo, Ange Postecoglou and Sean Dyche — and hiring a fourth (Vitor Pereira) with the sole challenge of keeping the team in the Premier League.
Steve Nicol says that it is “sad” that Arsenal’s last game of the season will be “ruined” by a reserve Crystal Palace lineup.
If results go a certain way over the next 48 hours, starting with Arsenal’s home game against Burnley on Monday before Bournemouth face Manchester City and Chelsea host Spurs on Tuesday, Sunday’s final round of fixtures could be diluted in terms of potential drama.
But if the next 48 hours sees the Gunners crowned as champions and Spurs banish their relegation fears by avoiding defeat at Chelsea — West Ham United would then be three points adrift with a substantially worse goal difference — it would not detract from the epic nature of this season if we are denied a final-day scramble to resolve the key issues at the top and the bottom.
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If you look back over the history of the Premier League, a great season is largely defined by the quality of its champions.
Manchester United’s title win in 1995-96, after Newcastle United collapsed in the run-in, and their treble-winning season 1998-99 stand out, as does Arsenal’s 2003-04 “Invincible” season when Arsène Wenger’s side won the title without suffering a defeat.
City’s 2011-12 title win, delivered by Sergio Agüero’s stoppage-time winning goal in the final game against Queens Park Rangers, and Leicester City’s remarkable triumph in 2015-16 after starting the season as 5000-1 outsiders also created indelible memories. The same could be said of City’s domestic treble season in 2018-19, their Champions League treble four years later and Liverpool’s 2019-20 title under Jürgen Klopp.
The great United, Arsenal and City teams would lay claims to being the best of the Premier League era. That won’t apply to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal or Guardiola’s City this season, despite Arsenal still being on course for a Premier League-Champions League double and City capable of achieving another domestic treble.
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Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says he has told his players “they are not special” after their FA Cup win, as they target winning the Premier League.
Yet the quality of the champions should not define whether a season has been great or not.
The Premier League sells itself as the most exciting league in the world, where the unexpected happens more often than anywhere else.
Arsenal might end up as champions, but they couldn’t beat bottom club Wolves at Molineux, while Spurs are still fighting to avoid a first relegation since 1977 despite beating City 3-0 at the Etihad earlier this season.
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It is that unpredictability which means that the final day of the season could still be a cliffhanger at both ends of the table.
Crystal Palace could scupper Arsenal’s title bid by denying them victory at Selhurst Park on Sunday and if Spurs lose at Chelsea on Tuesday — Spurs have won just once in 38 years at Stamford Bridge and lost on seven of their last nine visits — then would it be a surprise if they lost again at home to Everton on the final day to allow West Ham to stay up with a win at home to Leeds United?
All of the above seem unlikely, but with the way the 2025-26 season has played, we really should expect the unexpected.
