Race for Europe will stoke unique final day drama

It is all to play for on the last day of the season as five Premier League teams will fight for three Champions League places

- MIGUEL DELANEY

If the 2024-25 season won't exactly stand out in history, it will finish with one genuinely unique element. There have never been so many clubs going for Champions League qualification on the final day. It has admittedly become a bit more than "the battle for fifth", as it has occasionally been derided. Instead, five clubs are going for three places, with two of them - Nottingham Forest and Chelsea - directly facing off.

The elements are there for an exciting last day, if not quite an epic one.

The Champions League is obviously hugely important for clubs and the mere chance to win that great trophy is inspiring, but it isn't quite what pushes players to the very limits of their will.

Improved revenue projections don't bring the emotional abandon that characterises title races or survival battles. You're unlikely to see the most vintage vignettes matching those iconic days, where players intensely sprint for a throw-in, while pushing a teammate out of the way to try and get anything going.

These aren't the extreme ends of the table, so they don't quite cause anyone to go to extremes.

The Champions League chase has even been a little tempered by the primary theme of this season, which has been the ending of trophy droughts. The euphoric victories of Crystal Palace, Newcastle United and now Tottenham Hotspur were timely reminders of what the sport is supposed to be about, as well as grand ripostes to the "financialisation" that the Champions League itself has most directly caused.