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- 25/26 Match Week 34 Full Recap
25/26 Match Week 34 Full Recap
The Drama of Sport
nick lochner
April 29, 2026
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In Today’s CleanSheet:
Results 🏟️
Current Situation📈📉
Quick Kicks ⚽
Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- Ultimate Drama
Off Island 🏝️ - Champions League
World Cup Corner 🌎🍵🏪
Best Bets 💰
Results 🏟️
TOP Story Lines
See last Friday’s CS for BHA 3-0 Chelsea, Burnley 0-1 City, Bournemouth 2-2 Leeds.
For a moment Spurs moved ahead of West Ham in the race away from relegation. With about 5 minutes remaining in each match looked like Spurs were going to win and West Ham draw, but a 90+2’ Callum Wilson goal got the Hammers all three points and maintained their 2 point lead on Spurs.
Arsenal keep doing just enough and put the pressure back on City.
Mo Salah exited the Liverpool match with an injury, it’s possible he has played his last match for The Reds.
Relegation Impacts
Forest go 8 points ahead with 4 to play.
West Ham & Spurs keep pace.
 | Statement Made. Just. Wow. The Black Cat’s owned the best defensive record in the league at home this season, but this 1H dismantled that narrative. This was was all Forest, adn early, scoring 4 1H goals. HUGE points for the Nottingham side who go 8 points clear of the drop zone. |
 | Much Needed. This one looked like a 1-1 draw. West Ham scored at 51’ and Spurs at 88’. The result would put Everton in Europe and West Ham in Relegation yet West Ham scored in extra time to take all three points. |
 | Finally, A Win. Yet 2 losses. Spurs get their first win in 2026, and a much needed 3 points. A Joao Palhinha goal at 82’ was enough however Spurs took TWO more significant injuries - Dominic Solanke and Xavi Simons are out for the season. They have 19 goal involvements between them this season. |
Big European Points
Liverpool win but lose Mo Salah to injury and sit 8 points ahead of Champions League drop line. Very possible he now focusses on getting healthy for Egypt’s run in the World Cup.
Man United all but secure Champions League.
Villa can’t find the net and FFC stay in the Europe race.
 🎥LOOK AT THIS SPEED. 14 seconds from save to goal for Liverpool. | Win & Loss. The Red’s scored twice just before HT and while Palace won the stat sheet with 7 shots on goal to 3 and 14 shots overall, they didn’t score until the 71’. Yet the Anfield crowd knew all three points were theirs on a 90+6’ goal by Wirtz shutting the door officially. |
 | CL all but Secured. United took control of the 1H going up 2-0 at HT. Things got a little tight late as Mathias Jensen scored for the Bee’s at 87’ but United took all three points and are all but secured into the CL. GREAT JOB by manager Michael Carrick who just keeps winning as the interim manager. |
 | Home cookin’. Craven Cottage has been good to FFC this season and the Cottagers played well again at home getting a big 3 points that keep them in the Europe race. Ryan Sessegnon at 43’ taking a rebound and pounding it home for a goal just before HT that held up. |
Arsenal Back On Top
 🎥Big time goal by Eze. Gunners need more of this. | Top of Table. Gunners do enough to take down Newcastle at The Emirates and move 3 points clear of City in the title race. (City do have a game in hand). The Gunners relied on their League leading 16th clean sheet of the season. Eze scored at 9’ and that was enough. Just feels like Arsenal are hanging on by a thread. |
Current Situation 📈📉
MONEY MONEY MONEY -
Qualifying for European League’s means big money to a club. There are TWELVE clubs in play for the top 8-10 European spots.
7 clubs are within 4 points in the table fighting for the spots.
Relegation
2 clubs going down.
1 spot remains - and while 6 clubs are in play it sure seems like it will come down to the final day between West Ham and Spurs and looking ahead they play home to Leeds and home to Everton respectively.
Standings
Current Table (Arrows represent a team that moved up or down 2+ spots or into/out of Europe/Relegation) 
| Season Clean Sheets by Team  |
Goals & Clean Sheets
How does the current 25/26 season compare to EPL averages for goals and clean sheets.
Goals 26 Match Week 34 27.1 25/26 Season Average (G/MW)
| Clean Sheets 6 Match Week 34 5.2 25/26 Season Average (G/MW)
|
Quick Kicks ⚽
The Drama of a Final Match Day
The Championship (level 2) final match day is Saturday with all matches at 630a cst.
The title is decided, Coventry City is promoted to the PL next season.
The second automatic promotion is up for grabs
Ipswich Town has a 1-point lead, they host QPR
Middlesbrough sit 1 point back and go to Wrexham
Southampton sit 2 points back and go to Preston North End.
Positions 3-6 will enter a playoff for the final promotion spot.
Wrexham are tied at 70 points with Hull City but currently own the tie breaker by 1 goal.
Hull City host Norwich.
Derby County are 2 points back and host Sheffield United.
You can watch these matches on Paramount+. Should be a GREAT finish.
Looking ahead at the Premier League Schedule.
MW35 - May 1-4
MW36 - May 9-11
MW37 - May 17-19
MW38 - May 24 - ALL matches kick at the same time, 10a cst
Game in hand.
Man City host Palace on Wednesday, May 13.
Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥
Ultimate Drama
The “professional” English Football League is comprised of the TOP FOUR leagues - Premier, Championship, League One, League Two.
Levels 5-11 are considered “Semi-Pro”.
The leagues below level 11 should be considered “Pub Leagues”.
To get promoted from Level 5 TO Level 4 is very difficult. Just 2 teams get promoted. The winner of Level 5 (called the National League) is automatic, second-fifth place have a playoff.
Why are we talking National League promotions - the FINAL Match of the regular season was between the top two sides and had a result that were a movie script. UNBELIEVEABLE DRAMA.
Here is what happened.
York City led Rochdale by 2 points in the table.
York City traveled to Rochdale and needed to get a result, a win or draw, to win the title.
The match went to extra time tied 0-0.
At 90+5’ Rochdale scored what looked to be the match winner, and a league title. The fans stormed the field, but the match wasn’t over…..watch this, it’s worth the time.
Off Island 🏝️
Semi-Finals Across Europe
Champions League
Hey US sports fans - here is the best way to understand the difference between the two CL matches.
Tuesday - Lakers-Celtics, up and down, showtime.  PSG v Bayern Munich | Wednesday - Iowa Football.  Arsenal v Atletico Madrid |
INSTANT CLASSIC.
PSG 5-4 Bayern Munich in 1 of 2 aggregate matches. If you didn’t watch the match, watch the highlights. Long time manager of PSG Luis Enrique said this of the match…. “This has been the BEST MATCH I've been at as a coach. Without a doubt….I've never seen such intensity and physical level….We deserved to win, we deserved to draw, and we deserved to lose. It was a fantastic match.” Expect more of this on the return May 6. |  |
Bayern has a great goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, but he set a dubious record becoming the first GK in the last 16 CL seasons to concede 5+ goals WITHOUT a save.
Bayern Munich’s league matches have averaged 4.68 combined goals per match in the Bundesliga, this is the highest by a European “big five” league since Chelsea in 1960-61 when they averaged 4.71.
Coming up Wednesday 2p cst from Madrid - Atletico Madrid v Arsenal.
Europa League
Both Semi-final matches 2p cst Thursday
Sporting Braga (Portugal) v Freiburg (Germany)
Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa
UEFA Conference League
Both Semi-final matches 2p cst Thursday
Vallecano (Spain) v Strasbourg (France)
Shakhtar (Ukraine) v Crystal Palace (Played in Poland)
🌎🍵🏪CS World Cup Corner 🌎🍵🏪
World Cup Countdown 44 Days
Lot’s of talk this week of player injuries late in the season and the number of games players are involved in across leagues, European leagues and national team responsibilities. With the WC coming up it shines a brighter light on the issue. According to DAZN BET UK, here are key players injured and what it may mean to the WC.
Not on the list below, Yamin Lamal of Spain and Mo Salah of Egypt, both recently taking hamstring injuries.
Add to the list
Juan Foyth - Argentina
Joaquin Panichelli - Argentina
Mohammed Salisu - Ghana
Takuni Endo - Japan
Serge Gnabry - Germany
Betting Impact
The latest odds to win the World Cup as of Monday, May 27 via Opta Analysts. Thanks World of Statistics!
Best Bets 💰
Looking for some Big Cat mojo
MW 32 UP $87
MW 33 ($6)
MW 34 ($20)
Match Week 34 Results
MW 34 Down $20
L ($20) - Man City to Win v Brentford by 2.5+ goals +105. $20
L ($20) - Bournemouth to Win v Leeds +103. $20
W ($30) - BHA to Win v Chelsea+148. $20
L ($20) - Sunderland to Win v Forest+182. $20 (deserve to lose more than $20)
W ($20) - Man United to Win v Brentford -121. $24
L ($10) - Bournemouth, BHA, Sunderland to win +1189. $10
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