Premier League Round-Up: Matchweek 38 Winners & Losers

Premier League Matchweek 38 crowned Arsenal champions, exposed Chelsea again, and sent West Ham down despite one final win.

Premier League Matchweek 38 did not give us a title twist. It gave Arsenal their parade rehearsal.

The Gunners beat Crystal Palace 2-1 at Selhurst Park and lifted their first Premier League title in 22 years.

Gabriel Jesus and Noni Madueke scored before Jean-Philippe Mateta pulled one back late, but the real story was simple: Arsenal finished the job. No collapse. 

No City miracle. No trauma theatre. Just a trophy and a lot of relieved North London lungs.

Winners of the week

Arsenal are the winners of the week, the month, and the whole season. 

Mikel Arteta finally turned “trust the process” into “carry the trophy”, and that matters because this was not a lucky title. 

Arsenal ended the season with another away win, another controlled performance, and a team that looked like it had grown out of its old panic habits.

Aston Villa also gained plenty. 

Beating Man City 2-1 at the Etihad on Pep Guardiola’s farewell day is rude football, and I respect it. 

City went ahead through Antoine Semenyo, but Villa came back and completed the double over them. 

Unai Emery’s team finished fourth, won the Europa League, and walked into the summer looking like a club with a plan instead of a mood board.

Man United deserve a nod too. A 3-0 win away at Brighton is not a small result, especially with Bruno Fernandes breaking the Premier League assists record and scoring in the same game. 

United finishing third after the noise around their season is one of those stats that will annoy rival fans because it forces them to admit the league table is real.

Losers of the week

Chelsea take the dustbin award. 

No debate. Losing 2-1 at Sunderland on the final day, finishing 10th, and having Wesley Fofana sent off is not a “project”. 

It is expensive confusion wearing a blue shirt. 

Cole Palmer scored, but Sunderland hit back through Trai Hume and a Malo Gusto own goal. 

When your season ends with your own player helping Sunderland into Europe, just turn off the lights.

Man City also had a strange kind of losing week. 

They finished second, said goodbye to Guardiola, watched Arsenal lift the title, and still lost at home to Villa. That is a lot of emotional damage for one afternoon. 

City are too good for pity, but even their fans know this was not the farewell script Pep deserved.

Newcastle quietly embarrassed themselves too. 

A 2-0 loss at Fulham, with Issa Diop and Tom Cairney scoring, wrapped up a season that never really caught fire. 

Newcastle used to feel like the next serious disruptor. 

This year, they felt like a team stuck between ambition and actual output.

The race update

The title race is over. Arsenal are champions. Man City finish second. 

Man United finish third. Aston Villa take fourth. 

Liverpool land fifth after a 1-1 draw with Brentford, which sums up their season nicely: not awful, not convincing, and definitely not what people expected from the defending champions.

The European race gave us the real twist. Bournemouth and Sunderland secured European football, while Brighton still got Conference League despite losing 3-0 to United. 

That is the stat that reframes the season: Sunderland came up and finished seventh. Not seventeenth. Seventh. 

Some clubs call that survival. Sunderland called it a launchpad.

At the bottom, West Ham beat Leeds 3-0 through Taty Castellanos, Jarrod Bowen and Callum Wilson, but still went down with Burnley and Wolves. 

That is proper pain.

Winning on the final day and still getting relegated is football patting you on the back while stealing your wallet.

One thing nobody is talking about

Spurs surviving with a 1-0 win over Everton should not be treated like a normal escape. 

Joao Palhinha scored the goal that kept them up, but finishing that close to the drop after the size, money and noise around that club is disgraceful. 

The table says survival. Common sense says audit the whole building.

Next week’s must-watch

Arsenal vs PSG in the Champions League final is the only place this story can go now. 

Arsenal have won the Premier League. PSG are waiting in Budapest. 

The game is on 30 May at the Puskas Arena, and this is where Arteta’s season moves from great to historic. 

Win it, and Arsenal fans become unbearable for a decade.

Lose it, and rival fans will pretend the league title was “cute”.

Be honest — are Arsenal about to complete the double, or is PSG about to humble the whole party?