Three Matches That Matter In The EPL's Final Weekend

The Premier League is king! All hail the Premier League! 

After this week’s Champions League semifinals, the EPL is riding pretty high, as it should be. (We’re writing this before we’ve seen the results of tonight’s Europa Cup semis, which could put anothertwo EPL teams in a European cup final.) But guess what, there’s still one more week of this now all-powerful league to play out and it’s going to be a wild ride. What can we look forward to?

• Man City and Liverpool are battling it out for the title. City have a one point lead and a +4 lead in goal differential. They travel to Brighton & Hove Albion, who just barely avoided regulation, while Liverpool host the surprise team of the season, Wolverhampton, at Anfield.
• West Ham and Watford go head-to-head in the fight for 10^thplace in the table. The Hammers can overtake the Hornets with a win, while Watford just needs a win or a tie.
• One of the best parts of the final EPL weekend is that all 10 matches kick-off at the same time, ensuring lots of scoreboard watching and hand-wringing.

With lots on the line, both in terms of hardware and pride, let’s break down the three matches that will have the most impact on who finishes where in the table.

Manchester City at Brighton & Hove Albion

As Al Davis so simply stated, “Just win baby.” A win gets you the title. Anything else and it gets complicated. 

• If Liverpool loses, Man City can win, lose, or draw and they’ll still win the title.
• If Man City ties and Liverpool wins, Liverpool wins the title.
• If Man City loses and Liverpool ties, they’d be equal on points. Man City would win on goal differential, unless of course, B&HA have some sort of revelation and win by 5 goals. If all that happens, then the world might end, so there’s no rea need to go into any more details.

Man City is heavily favored to win this game (-670) over BH&A (+1700)and subsequently, the league (-1000.) But then again, wasn’t Barcelona supposed to win as well? Liverpool hopes their luck continues

Wolverhampton at Liverpool

Unfortunately, Liverpool go from one hot seat to another, and while Wolves are no Barcelona, they’re still one of the scarier teams in the league. In their impressive run to 7^thplace in the table, they’ve earned 16 points against top 6 sides, with wins against Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea and Tottenham. Look for the flow of the game to be dictated by the scoreboard, as the second any changes happen to the Man City game, Anfield will either burst with optimism, or sink into silence. Don’t feel too bad for Reds fans if Man City pulls out the win and the title. They’ve had a week for the ages.

For the game, Liverpool is favored (-305) over Wolves (+900),while oddsmakers see their chance of taking the title as a longshot at +600. With those odds, Liverpool fans who’s prayers were answered on Wednesday may just want to continue their belief in miracles.

West Ham at Watford

The only other game that could flip places in the table is at Watford, where the maddeningly inconsistent Hammers take on the Hornets. Watford’s form has been poor as of late, picking up only 4 points from their last 5 games, while West Ham has only won once in their past 9 away games, and they’ll need to win outright in order to leapfrog Watford into 10th. One would hope that the glory of finishing in the top 10 of the table would be something worth playing for, but neither side has seemed too inspired as of late.

Since all they need is a win or tie, oddsmakers like Watford to retain 10^thplace (-275)but the Hammers can take solace in the fact that at +220, they’re not seen as huge underdogs. Why? Well, nobody ever knows what Hammers will show up.

It’s been an amazing season, and it’s only telling that it will all go down to the last weekend. Have fun watching and betting and good luck!