As well as a pair of intriguing looking FA Cup semifinals at Wembley, we focus this week’s newsletter on the relegation scrap back in the Premier League, and title races that are coming to a head elsewhere. There’s also a nod to this summer’s World Cup, which is now less than 50 days away.
Wolves vs. Spurs
With the title race on pause, all eyes will be on Tottenham Hotspur as they look to end a 15 game run without a win in the Premier League.
Two points adrift, and in the drop zone with five games to play, the Opta Supercomputer currently gives Spurs’ relegation a probability of 58.33%. There is obviously still time to change that, but Spurs are the only team in the league not to have won a game in 2026. Wolves, their already relegated opponents this weekend, have won three.
Roberto De Zerbi, the North Londoners’ third manager of the season, picked up his first point last time out, but anything less than three here would be considered a missed opportunity at Molineux.
Getting that win might be easier said than done, though, as Rob Edwards’ has Wolves battling to the very end. And the Old Gold have beaten Spurs on each of their last three visits to the Black Country.
Arsenal had to watch on as Manchester City won their midweek game in hand to go top of the Premier League, albeit only on goals scored! But with City otherwise distracted, the Gunners have the chance to reclaim top spot with a positive result, at home to Newcastle United on Saturday. The margins are so fine in this title race that every goal matters - Mikel Arteta needs his forwards to deliver.
FA Cup Final Four
That clichéd Cup magic could be in the air this weekend, with both semifinals full of potential storylines.
First up, Pep Guardiola-led, Erling Haaland-powered, domestic-treble chasing Manchester City face in-form Southampton. The Saints plucked manager Tonda Eckart from their U23 team mid-season, and the German has since taken them from 21st to fourth in the Championship table in just five months.
The South Coast club beat Arsenal in the last round and are currently unbeaten in 20 games (all comps). And if you’re looking for omens, Southampton’s only previous FA Cup final triumph came as a second tier club back in 1976!
On the other side of the bracket, Leeds United play Chelsea, who will be under the caretaker management of Calum McFarlane after the hasty sacking of Liam Rosenior on Wednesday. Leeds haven’t reached this stage of the competition since 1987 and their last final appearance came way back in 1973.
Chelsea have played in 13 finals in the intervening 53 years but it was the 1970 final, when Chelsea beat Leeds after a replay, that sparked a heated rivalry between the two that still resonates with supporters to this day.
The end is in sight. But should Derek McInnes and his Hearts side look in the metaphorical rearview mirror, they’ll also see Rangers and Celtic coming up fast behind them. The Old Firm’s duopoly on the Premiership title has lasted 40 years for a reason.
No one has dared to challenge the Glasgow clubs this late in to the season, and none of the three can afford to slip up from here on in. Every game is massive, but aside from their upcoming clashes with Rangers and Celtic, Hearts may be most worried about facing their hated rivals from across the Scottish capital on Sunday, Hibernian.
Hearts won both home games against Hibs this season, but did come unstuck on their last trip away to Easter Road, losing 3-2 back in December.
Barcelona closing in on LaLiga
We’re coming to the end of a double game week in Spain’s top flight, and while Real Madrid did get back to winning ways in the midweek round, Barcelona were able to restore their nine point lead at the top thanks to a home win over Celta Vigo.
That did come at some cost, though, with top scorer Lamine Yamal injured in the process of scoring the winning goal. He will now miss Saturday’s trip to Getafe and what’s left of the domestic season.
It would take an almighty collapse for Barca to lose the title from here. Real Madrid need to win all six of their remaining games, including El Clásico next month, and hope that the Catalans lose a further two matches.
While it’s hard to see where those defeats would come from, Hansi Flick’s side can’t afford to rest on their 100% home league record - should they win their next two away games (vs. Getafe and Osasuna), they could even be in a position to clinch the league at Camp Nou in that Clásico!
Current 2.Bundesliga leaders Schalke are not so much the sleeping giants of German football - there’s a lot of former Bundesliga winners currently in the second tier - they’re perhaps just a little sleepy. The seven-time national champions ended a previous one-year spell outside the top flight with promotion straight back to the Bundesliga in 2022, only to then get relegated again the following season.
Fast forward three years and Schalke are now looking good for another promotion, with a clash against title rivals Paderborn coming up on Sunday. The Miners are unbeaten in 10 and hold a three point lead, while Paderborn (also unbeaten in 10!) have another three point cushion between them, in the second automatic promotion spot, down to third placed Elversberg.
Having themselves bounced around the top three tiers in the past decade, Paderborn fans, along with their Schalke counterparts, might just be craving some mid-table obscurity once both safely make it back to the top flight.
England's fifth tier, the National League, is poised to end on an extraordinary climax, with the top two teams, York City and Rochdale, playing each other on the final day of the season to determine who will win automatic promotion to League Two. It’s an all-or-nothing encounter that leaves one team basking in title glory, while the runners-up will have to make do with the play-offs.
York travel to Rochdale’s sold-out Crown Oil Arena, knowing that if they avoid defeat, the golden ticket into the Football League will be theirs. Meanwhile, Rochdale’s task is just as clear: they must win.
As it stands, York sit top on 107 points, while Rochdale are narrowly behind them on 105. In recent weeks, Jimmy McNulty’s side have tantalisingly prolonged the title race in thrilling circumstances by netting dramatic late goals against Sutton United, Wealdstone and Braintree Town.
Last weekend, York cruised to a routine 3-0 victory over Yeovil Town at the LNER Community Stadium. They’d done their job, and attention instantly switched to Rochdale’s movements. John Akinde’s 91st-minute equaliser for already relegated Braintree looked to have handed the title to York, but Rochdale had other ideas, with striker Emmanuel Dieseruvwe finding a 99th-minute last-gasp winner to keep the race alive.
Amazingly, the one automatic promotion spot available in both the regional divisions directly below the National League will also be decided by the final round! Fylde sit two points ahead of South Shields in the National League North, while Worthing hold an even narrower one point advantage over Hornchurch in the South.
A selection of long reads published in the app over the last week…
In the last week, Frank Lampard has delivered promotion, and then confirmation of the Championship title, returning the Sky Blues to the top flight for the first time in a quarter of a century.
The Ivovrian was playing US college soccer barely 18 months ago. Now, after a breakout season at RB Leipzig, in which he has scored 12 goals from the wing and completed more dribbles than anyone, Europe’s biggest clubs are already circling.
With five rounds to play in the Ekstraklasa, seven teams are still mathematically able to win the title AND the country’s most successful club remain at risk of relegation. We asked the experts to explain what on earth is going on!?
FotMob Predict is playable weekly from the More tab, and now the tournament predictor that has just been launched for this summer’s main event!
Pick your results all through the 2026 World Cup and create your own mini leagues for the group chat, or the office. All our predictor games are free to play and super intuitive - use your regular FotMob sign in method and access the games via the link above, or via the app itself.
You get three points for a correct score, and two for the correct outcome, rack up more points than your mates and you’ll earn yourself some bragging rights for your ball knowledge.
Pro Tip: Click on any of the matches below, then tap the star in the right hand side of the match page to add them to your Following section.
Friday: Four days after finally winning their first game in the month of April, Real Madrid go to Real Betis looking for a similar result, anything that can keep the pressure on league leaders Barcelona. Likewise, in France, Lens continue their cat and mouse pursuit of title rivals PSG when they face Brest in Brittany. Marie-Louise Eta takes charge of her second game as interim manager of Union Berlin, at RB Leipzig, who should feature breakout star Yan Diomande - a player we profiled here. And in the battle to earn automatic promotion from the EFL Championship, Millwall play first this weekend - away at already relegated Leicester City.
Saturday: Liverpool vs. Crystal Palace at Anfield and Everton’s trip to West Ham are probably the biggest Premier League clashes not covered elsewhere in this newsletter. Bayern Munich have already claimed the Bundesliga title with a record number of goals scored, but they could still break their own points record of 91 set in 2013 - and they continue the chase against Mainz. Meanwhile, in the Women’s Champions League, Bayern’s women’s team face Barca Femení, with both sides having confirmed title wins in their respective leagues over the past few days. PSG play Angers in Ligue 1, and FC Thun can finally get the job done in Switzerland. The promoted side need just two points to claim a first ever league title.
Sunday: Türkiye’s Intercontinental Derby - Galatasaray vs. Fenerbaçhe - is even more important that usual, with just four points separating the two at the top of the table, and four games to play. In Serie A, it’s a Milan vs. Turin double header as runaway leaders Inter visit Torino before second takes on fourth as Milan host Juventus. It’s a big week in Denmark, where the top two, AGF and Midtjylland, are level on points, and meet for a second time in a matter of days after Midtjylland just beat their title rivals on Monday. In the second semifinal in the Women’s Champions League, defending champions Arsenal play record winners Lyon.
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