EPL: A Premier League final day where one kick could change everything

In order to try and ensure everything is at its optimum for Sunday, Pep Guardiola decided to have his players… do nothing. The Manchester City manager started the final week of the season by giving his squad two days off. Guardiola had sensed some frazzled minds after the 2-2 draw at West Ham United, so felt a psychological refresh was required.

His club arguably know better than anyone else the funny things that can happen on a final day, especially if the players are not as focused as they should be. It is not just that the modern City are now going through a fourth title race that goes the distance, or even a few chases for the Champions League. The club also know the other side of this. They’ve been involved in the most famous day at the top, as well as one of the most infamous at the bottom.

The image of Sergio Aguero running through on goal in 2011-12 was imbued with all the more emotion from memories of Niall Quinn running up the line to tell Steve Lomas that City couldn’t actually afford to waste time in 1995-96 and needed another goal to survive.

This season’s final day is at the very least set up for similar. It may even surpass all previous final days in terms of dramatic carnage.

The 2021-22 campaign is already the first in history to see all the major issues go the distance. City and Liverpool are going for the title. Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal are aiming for the last Champions League place. Manchester United and West Ham United are playing for the last Europa League place. Burnley and Leeds United are hoping for that final survival place. Such a combination has never been seen before.

Eight clubs still have something to play for, meaning eight of the 10 games have something at stake. Only the epic 1995-96 finale surpasses that, since there were nine fixtures of genuine consequence.

The usual quibble with such statements is to point out there was football history before 1992, but this is one time when it is genuinely only possible to really talk about the Premier League era. Derby County famously won the 1972 title on the beach, and Liverpool-Arsenal 1989 was a standalone fixture, because the idea of a full, synchronised complement of games was something only fixed upon in 1993-94.

It makes “the final day” a uniquely Premier League event in English football history, that has offered core elements and images of the competition’s lore.

Here is what the Title-chasing managers have to say ahead of their final day fixtures

Jurgen Klopp has this to say:

And Guardiola has this to say:

This is what comes to bear on the final day. Everything is made more acute, accentuating the intensity of every moment, every play, every interaction, meaning it can all build up to single moments.