As the Premier League season edges toward its conclusion, Sunday’s blockbuster between Arsenal and Newcastle United is set to add heat to the race for Champions League qualification and determine the final twists in a tightly packed top-six battle.

Arsenal, sitting second on 68 points, remain mathematically in the title hunt but must overcome high-flying Newcastle (66 points) at the Emirates to keep their faint hopes alive.

With two games remaining for both teams, the match could be decisive in determining final European positions.

Chelsea, who have played a game more, also sit on 66 points after 37 games and remain in the mix following recent form under manager Enzo Maresca. They will closely monitor results as they prepare for their final league match.

Manchester City (65 points), with two matches remaining, complete a tense cluster jostling for European qualification spots.

Aston Villa (66 points) has one match left. Results from other fixtures will add more twists to their fate.

Liverpool, who have won the title, remain clear at the summit with 83 points.

Elsewhere, Nottingham Forest (62 points) travel to West Ham aiming to secure a top-seven finish, while Brentford and Fulham—both tied on 55 and 51 points respectively—face off in a mid-table London derby.

Everton host Southampton in the early kick-off, while Leicester take on Ipswich Town and Arsenal’s showdown with Newcastle wraps up the day.

[Punch]

Favour Ofili set a new women’s world record following victory in the 150m event at the Adidas Atlanta City Games on Saturday.

Ofili clocked 15.85 seconds to break a seven-year world record set by Shaunae Miller in 2018, smashing it by almost four seconds, to the admiration of spectators.

The Port Harcourt-born sprint star lived up to her star billing in a race that she won last year in record time, outdoing expectations by shattering the world record.

The 22-year-old had a good start and took the lead after 50m before powering away to victory, leaving a wide gap between herself and second-placed Tamari Davis, who posted her personal best.

Ofili also became the first woman ever to finish the race in sub-16 seconds

In an interview after the race, the 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist revealed the feat was possible through hard work and trust.

“The Lord is good, and is marvellous in my sight. Honestly, I’m surprised with the time,” she said.

“But I know I put in the work, I trust my coach, I trust his program, and I know at the right time the Lord would do it.

“When asked how she was able to finish the race strongly, Ofili said she got advice to relax and treat the race “like it is 100[metres].”

Ofili previously set an African record of 22.36 seconds in the 200m event at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 2023.

Title-winners Paris Saint-Germain still have the Champions League final to look forward to later this month but the Ligue 1 season reaches its climax on Saturday with European places still up for grabs and a quartet of clubs scrapping to avoid relegation.

PSG secured a fourth consecutive domestic title more than a month ago and will collect their trophy following Saturday’s match at home to Auxerre.

Luis Enrique’s side will then turn their thoughts to the French Cup final against Reims on May 24 and the Champions League final against Inter Milan in Munich a week later.

Behind them, Marseille and Monaco clinched podium places, and guaranteed access to next season’s Champions League, with victories last weekend combined with favourable results elsewhere.

That leaves one spot in Europe’s elite club competition to be decided, with four teams — Nice, Lille, Strasbourg and Lyon — still in contention for a place in the third qualifying round of the Champions League.

Nice, who fell short in the Champions League play-offs in 2017, are best-placed to take the remaining spot as they come into their final match at home to Brest in fourth place and with the best goal difference.

A 1-0 win for the Ineos-owned outfit would leave Lille needing to win by six goals, or Strasbourg requiring an eight-goal margin of victory for them to go above Nice.

“I prefer to be slightly above the others in the table than slightly below them,” admitted Nice coach Franck Haise, who took Lens into the Champions League two years ago.

“To get fourth place, which would not be trivial, first of all we need to win. We know that.”

A slip-up would give a real chance to Lille, who finished fourth last season and then came through the qualifying rounds of the Champions League before going on to reach the last 16.

Strasbourg also retain hope of a first campaign in Europe’s elite competition since 1979/80, despite the frustration of seeing a 12-game unbeaten run ended in a 2-1 loss at Angers last weekend.

– Saint-Etienne to survive? –

Lille and Strasbourg are both at home to relegation-threatened opponents, in the shape of Reims and Le Havre respectively.

Lyon, meanwhile, know their chances of taking fourth are extremely slim. They must win at home to Angers and hope the three teams above them all lose, with the consequences of missing out on the huge prize money on offer in the Champions League likely very serious for them.

“First of all, we need to focus on ourselves,” said Lyon coach Paulo Fonseca. “We know it’s going to be very difficult for all the other teams to lose, but we must go out looking to win our match without thinking about the rest.”

The team finishing fifth will go into the Europa League with sixth entering the Conference League, although seventh place will be enough to qualify for Europe provided PSG win the French Cup.

At the bottom, Saint-Etienne gave themselves a lifeline last weekend in their bid to avoid an immediate return to the second tier.

A win at home to Toulouse will see them grab the lifeline of a two-legged play-off against either Dunkerque or Metz to stay in the top flight — provided Le Havre do not win.

Reims and Nantes are also not yet safe from the danger of finishing in the bottom three.

Key stats

4 – Four teams go into the last night of the season with a chance of taking France’s fourth and final qualifying spot for the Champions League

21 – PSG’s Ousmane Dembele has 21 goals and is on course to end the season as Ligue 1’s leading scorer, although Marseille’s Mason Greenwood is just two behind on 19

9- The number of PSG players named in the Ligue 1 team of the season — Lille goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier and Lyon forward Rayan Cherki were the only two from elsewhere to make the select XI

Fixtures on Saturday (kick-offs 1900 GMT)

Lens v Monaco, Lille v Reims, Lyon v Angers, Marseille v Rennes, Nantes v Montpellier, Nice v Brest, Paris Saint-Germain v Auxerre, Saint-Etienne v Toulouse, Strasbourg v Le Havre

[Guardian]

Nottingham Forest defender Ola Aina has said that the injury suffered by his compatriot and teammate, Taiwo Awoniyi, would have been prevented had the assistant referee raised his flag earlier.

Awoniyi, 27, was woken from an induced coma on Wednesday after surgery to repair a serious abdominal injury.

The Nigerian international was taken to hospital on Monday, having collided with a post while attempting to get on the end of a cross from winger Anthony Elanga in the closing stages of Sunday’s 2-2 Premier League draw against Leicester City on Sunday.

Elanga was offside in the build-up to the incident, but the assistant referee did not raise his flag until the play was completed because of an offside protocol introduced in 2020.

“Anthony was miles offside. The whole world could see and so could I from where I was,” defender Aina told the Mail newspaper.

“You think ‘offside’ straight away. Surely you could just lift the flag up?

“None of this would have happened to ‘T’ if the flag had just gone up, would it?”

BBC Sport reports that Awoniyi sustained a ruptured intestine.

Having had the first part of the surgery on Monday, he spent Tuesday in an induced coma as medical staff monitored his progress.

Awoniyi had the second stage of the operation, including closing the wound, on Wednesday. He was woken from the induced coma in the early evening.

“It’s horrible seeing someone you are close with go through something like this, but I pray to God everything goes to plan and goes well and that we will be hearing from him soon,” Aina said.

Awoniyi received lengthy medical attention on the pitch after the collision and appeared to inform medics that he could continue.

It soon became clear that he was still feeling the effects of the collision, but manager Nuno Espirito Santo had used all his substitutes.

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis came on to the pitch after the game to express his concern to Nuno over how Awoniyi’s injury was handled.

Forest are set to open an internal review into the episode and establish why Awoniyi was allowed to continue playing.

A statement released by Forest on Tuesday referred to a “shared frustration between all of us that the medical team should never have allowed the player to continue.”

A new protocol on offsides was introduced by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) for the 2020-21 Premier League season following the introduction of the video assistant referee (VAR).

While the law did not change, assistant referees were told to keep their flag down if they felt there was an immediate scoring opportunity.

[Leadership]