Norwich relegated, Chelsea slumps
Norwich finally succumbed to relegation, a fate its own manager and many others expected at the start of the English Premier League.
Fewer, though, would have predicted Liverpool losing its perfect home record against Burnley.
With two weeks remaining in the longest ever English season, issues at both ends of the standings are close to being finalized.
Certainly, the relegation picture looked a lot clearer on Saturday, with Norwich guaranteed to return to the second-tier Championship after one season after losing to West Ham 4-0 at home.
“From the first day after promotion, our chances to survive were perhaps 5%,” Norwich manager Daniel Farke said, “so in 19 out of 20 cases you will go down.”
That win for West Ham — achieved thanks to four goals by makeshift striker Michail Antonio — and Watford’s come-frombehind 2-1 victory over Newcastle pushed those two victorious teams six points clear of the relegation zone with three games left.
Bournemouth and Aston Villa, the teams in 18th and 19th place respectively, will need three wins from their remaining four matches to survive. A tough ask, considering neither has won since the resumption of the Premier League last month.
At the other end of the table, Liverpool has just records to chase after clinching a first league title in 30 years, and one of them fell by the wayside on Saturday.
The Reds will not become the first team in the Premier League era (since 1992) to win all of its home games in a single campaign, after drawing with Burnley 1-1. They won their previous 17 games at Anfield, and had just Chelsea left to play there.
Given Chelsea lost at Sheffield United 3-0 on Saturday in a surprisingly one-side match, Liverpool likely wouldn’t have been too perturbed.
The heavy defeat meant thirdplaced Chelsea could get overtaken by both Leicester and Manchester United in the coming days in the race for Champions League qualification.
Fifth place will still secure a place in next season’s Champions League if second-placed Manchester City fails in its bid to get a two-year European ban overturned in the courts. City will discover the result of its appeal on Monday.
City won at Brighton 5-0 in the late game, with Raheem Sterling scoring a hat trick.
Players wore black armbands as games started with a minute’s silence in a tribute to England’s 1966 World Cup winner, Jack Charlton, who died on Friday aged 85.