Aston

United finish with their lowest standing in the Premier League era as Newcastle confirm Champions League spot.

Manchester United have ended their disappointing 2024-25 season with a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa on the final day of the Premier League campaign, denying the visitors a Champions League qualification spot in the process.

United surprisingly dominated the first half of Sunday’s game against a side chasing a top-five finish.

Against the run of play, Morgan Rogers appeared to have netted Villa a crucial goal 18 minutes from time, but referee Thomas Bramall ruled that he had fouled United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir before slotting home.

The hosts’ cause was aided as Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was sent off just before the break.

Furious Villa’s mood worsened after Amad Diallo immediately headed the hosts in front down the other end, before Christian Eriksen’s penalty ensured United finished 15th and sixth-placed Villa had to settle for a place in the Europa League next term.

Newcastle United breathed a sigh of relief as their 1-0 defeat by Everton could have opened the door for Villa to climb above them with a win over United.

Villa manager Unai Emery confronted Bramall after the final whistle, unhappy at what he believed was a “big mistake” by the match official.

“The TV is clear with the move but of course we have to accept it,” Emery said. “It was a mistake. A big mistake.”

At the final whistle, Emery stood motionless on the touchline and stared at Bramall for a long time. After confronting the official as he came off the field, Emery continued his discussions with him as they went down the tunnel.

Protest songs against Manchester United’s ownership greeted the final whistle, even if supporters had been treated to a rare home success.

This season’s final standings 🤝 pic.twitter.com/lRWyvmvkXQ

— Premier League (@premierleague) May 25, 2025

Meanwhile, Manchester City’s disappointing season ended with the consolation of a place in the Champions League after a 2-0 victory at Fulham, earned by Ilkay Gundogan’s overhead kick and an Erling Haaland penalty.

The victory ensured City finish third in the table with 71 points from 38 games, the first time they have ended outside the top two since the 2016-17 season. Fulham finished 11th with 54 points.

City opened the scoring at 21 minutes when Matheus Nunes’s chipped shot on the angle was clawed away by Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno and into the path of Gundogan, whose acrobatic effort steered the ball into the net off the crossbar.

The visitors doubled their advantage when Sasa Lukic fouled Gundogan in the box and Haaland converted the spot kick to score his 22nd league goal of the campaign, while Kevin De Bruyne came off the bench for the final five minutes in his farewell to City.

City left Jack Grealish out of their match-day squad amid talk he could leave the club, while De Bruyne spent time with the City fans at the final whistle, many of them holding up signs of thanks to the Belgian for his decade at the club.

City ended up with 71 points, Chelsea on 69 and Villa on 66, but with an inferior goal difference to Newcastle on the same points.

Forest, who still had hopes of a top-five finish going into the last day, will go into the UEFA Conference League.

Champions Liverpool ended their campaign with a 1-1 home draw against Crystal Palace in a party atmosphere at Anfield.

Runners-up Arsenal, who ended 10 points behind Liverpool, beat bottom club Southampton 2-1 away.

Brighton and Hove Albion brought Europa Cup winners Tottenham Hotspur down to earth with a bump as they won 4-1 in north London to finish eighth, but that will not be good enough to secure a European berth for the south coast side next season.

Tottenham finished a woeful league season in 17th place, their worst performance since being relegated in 1977.

THE final day of the Premier League is here, and there is so much still to be decided!

Manchester City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest are the FIVE teams in the mix for the remaining three Champions League spots.

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Two and a half months into his time with the team, Newey said: “There’s a lot of individually very, very good people. We just need to try to get them working together, perhaps in a slightly better organised way.

“That’s simply a result of the roots of the team at Jordan, that became Force India, that became Racing Point, and was as such always a small but slightly over-performing team, to now in a very short space of time a very big team that the truth is has been underperforming this year.”

Newey, who joins the team after an illustrious career with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, said one of the factors he was looking forward to in Monaco was working for the first time at a live event with 2005 and 2006 world champion Fernando Alonso.

“Fernando, he’s such a cool character,” Newey said. “He’s been an enemy for many years, along with Lewis (Hamilton), and I think I’ve said before that you can only work with so many drivers, but two drivers I always wanted that I felt I would enjoy working with, were Lewis and Fernando, and I couldn’t work with both, so at least I got one of them.

“It’s only when you get to the racetrack that you really start to develop that relationship, so I’m looking forward to that developing a little bit this season, but particularly next season.”

He added that he felt that Lance Stroll, the son of team owner Lawrence, “has an unfairly bad rap, on average”, adding: “Any driver who gets to Formula 1 is clearly very good, but I think Lance is much better than people who’ve been very poor.”

EMI MARTINEZ is wanted by Manchester United and Barcelona after he hinted at an Aston Villa exit, reports in Argentina say.

Martinez joined Villa from Arsenal in 2020 – following eight years in North London where he was loaned six times.

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And he emerged as one of the best keepers in the league, also cementing his place as Argentina No1 before their 2022 World Cup win.

But Martinez – whose contract expires in 2029 after extending it in the summer of 2024 – appeared to hint that he is leaving the club.

He was seen tearfully waving to fans following Villa’s 2-0 home win against Tottenham – suggesting he is preparing for an exit.

And according to Argentine TV channel DSports, United and Barca are both interested in signing Martinez and the keeper has offers from both.

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Aston Villa boss Unai Emery said “we will see” about Emiliano Martinez’s future after the goalkeeper’s tears at the end of their win over Tottenham.

The 32-year-old looked emotional at full-time after Champions League-chasing Villa’s 2-0 win in their last home game of the season.

Martinez, a two-time winner of the Best Fifa Men’s Goalkeeper award, has played 211 times for Villa since a 2020 move from Arsenal.

Asked about Martinez’s future, Emery was non-committal, saying: “We will see.

“Of course, it is the last match here [this season], and I don’t know.

“We will see about the team, the players, but of course, they are responding on the field.”

Aston Villa moved into the top five with the win over Spurs, but with Manchester City having a game in hand they most likely need to beat Manchester United next Sunday and hope for other results to go their way to secure back-to-back seasons in the Champions League.

“Of course, then we will see about everything, how we are going to try to get better for the next season,” Emery said.