Gameweek 32 of this season of the English Premier League came to an end last night with Bournemouth's 1-0 victory over Fulham. With 6 gameweeks left to play, the final state of the table is beginning to come into focus. Here are a few thoughts from the weekend's games.

Liverpool Stroll To The Title

It's done and dusted now. Honestly, I thought there wasn't much of a title race to begin with, and that it was over the moment Saka got injured, but I suppose there was always some chance of an upset. But not anymore. It's just about mathematically done now, Liverpool are champions of the 2024/2025 English Premier League season.

This week has been great for Liverpool. Salah has signed a contract extension after months of uncertainty, Van Dijk looks set to sign one too. And both Salah and Van Dijk were involved in the goals that helped them win against West Ham, proving why it's so important for Liverpool to hold on to them still. Salah is now on 18 assists for the season, just 2 away from equalling the assists record held by Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry. Surely. Surely he's going to break that record with 6 games to go.

YNWA!

The European Scramble Continues

At the beginning of the gameweek, I made a cast about the race for the top 4 and how tight it is. With the race for the title pretty much done and dusted, it's been fascinating to watch the jockeying for European football places. Especially given that the performance of English teams in Europe this year means that there might be as many as eight teams in Europe next season.

Chukwuka Osakwe on Warpcast

the top 4 race is so crazy rn. by the time this gameweek is done newcastle could be 3rd and Aston Villa could be 8th on the table. on the flip side, Aston Villa could be 4th and Newcastle 7th when it's all done. so many possibilities. i'm finding that a bit hard to process. https://imagedelivery.net/BXluQx4ige9GuW0Ia56BHw/0bc5f5b5-5910-4773-ae9d-3344b9c86300/original

Farcaster

This is what the table looks like right now in the aftermath of the gameweek.

Newcastle have a game in hand against Crystal Palace, which they play tomorrow. A win would see them move to third, but the race for European spots remains as heated as ever. Bournemouth absolutely needed to win against Fulham yesterday to stop them from further pulling away and cementing the 8th position, which might be the final European spot. But the real struggle is between the 3rd and 7th places. Only 3 points separate the five teams in those positions. Any of those teams could end up in the top 4 when all this is done, and it will be fun to see who ends up there.

The De Bruyne Testimonial Show On The Road

I don't like that the end has come for perhaps my favourite player of the modern era. But it was inevitable, absolutely inevitable. His physical decline was so obvious last season that I didn't even expect him to still be playing this season.

It's over.

And so the next few games are going to be the Kevin De Bruyne testimonial show. Thankfully, it began in style with a De Bruyne-inspired comeback against Crystal Palace. That free kick is proof of something, he might be declining physically, but Kevin De Bruyne has still got it.

The Seagulls Stutter

Every time I look at the league table and see Brighton in 10th, I'm surprised. They have been having a pretty good season all things considered, and I expected them to be higher up at this point. It's proof that the Premier League is tougher than it has ever been. But it's also proof that Fabian Hurzeler hasn't got them playing as well as they could be yet.

Granted, injuries have been a problem. Baleba started at centerback against Leicester. However, when you are playing a Leicester team that has not only been winless in 8 games but also failed to score in those games, you should win. It's that simple. But Brighton needed two João Pedro penalties on the day to come away with a point. It's not a good look, and how they bounce back over the last few games of the season will decide whether they remember this season as a good one or a barely average one.

Error Galore For Spurs

This was a pretty strange game. On paper, it looks like Wolves blew Tottenham away, but in reality, all their goals came from individual errors by the Spurs players. 4 errors, 4 goals. I have no idea what to make of that.

I feel sorry for Ange Postecoglou, people will use this performance as further ammunition to label him a failure in his time at Spurs. Now, Tottenham have been having a really bad season, no doubt about that. But this game is not proof of that. There's nothing Ange could have done more than he did to set up his team, and individual errors should never be blamed on a manager. Everybody remembers Gerrard's slip, but nobody thinks about who the manager was at the time, as it should be. It was Gerrard's mistake.

Unfortunately for Spurs, it doesn't matter whether they lost due to errors or due to tactical problems. The fact of the matter is that they lost in embarrassing fashion. They will now head into the second leg of their Europa League clash against Eintracht Frankfurt with no wind in their sails. They will need to forget about this performance as quickly as possible and look forward to the task ahead with a fresh perspective if they are to progress.