It has been a long, and hard, campaign for football fans up and down the country but with the calendar now in May, the business end of the year is beginning to close at all levels of the English pyramid and the Championship took centre stage on Saturday afternoon, and now we look to the Play Offs.
Plenty was riding on the final day of the Championship season as clubs at the second tier level brought the curtain down on 2025/26. Fans already knew that Frank Lampard’s Coventry City side were set for life back in the Premier League where Chelsea vs Arsenal tickets rarely stay widely available for long, and Coventry will now be expecting the same kind of demand as in taking a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Watford, the Sky Blues returned to the heights of the top flight in emphatic fashion.
The battle for the runners up spot remained wide open and that was a straight shoot out between favourites Ipswich Town and unexpected promotion challengers Millwall. Both teams secured victories, and the Tractor Boys secured second spot by a single point.
With Hull City picking up victory in their final match and the Play Off clash between Middlesbrough and the Hollywood lights of Wrexham fighting itself out to a 2-2 draw, the Riverside Stadium outfit secured another season extension with fifth spot, whilst the Welsh side missed out on the top six by two points to take seventh place.
At the end of 46 games of entertainment, action and controversy, Coventry take the title and Ipswich take the final automatic spot, with Millwall, Southampton, Middlesbrough and Hull City occupying the Play Off spots and now facing their own extra battles to secure this years trip to the National Stadium with hopes of lifting the Play Off Final trophy at the iconic home of football, Wembley.
The Play Off semi final ties are already set, third meets sixth with fourth meeting fifth and fans do not have to wait long for those matches to kick off as the first legs come this weekend, but until then it will be all eyes back to the top flight and the Premier League.
The intriguing top two battle between Arsenal and Manchester City continues, as back to back defeats for Mikel Arteta’s side had given Pep Guardiola’s charges a significant advantage once again in the race for the title. However, City now have two games in hand and back to back victories since for the Gunners have seen them establish a six point lead once more.
The remaining European qualification spots are still up for grabs unless you happen to be Michael Carrick and Manchester United, as their victory over Liverpool secured Champions League qualification. The remaining spots are still wide open and are not yet mathematically secure.
Fourth placed side Liverpool sit on 58 points alongside Aston Villa and both could still be caught by ninth place strugglers, Chelsea, as they have a game in hand. Bournemouth now sit in sixth spot, but with 52 points on the board anyone from 15th placed Crystal Palace could conceivably catch them – however unlikely that would actually be at this point.
Liverpool and Villa naturally remain favourites to complete the Champions League spots right now, but sixth place goes to the Europa League and seventh place to the Europa Conference League, and they are obviously far from decided with three games left for most top flight teams to play.
