Can Newcastle United get a place in the Champions League?
All will be revealed on Sunday.
Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Manchester City are also in contention.
So it is a case of any three from five to take the remaining Champions League places that are available via the Premier League.
The final round of Premier League matches on Sunday, all kicking off at 4pm.
The remaining matches for the Champions League chasing clubs:
Sunday 25 May
Fulham v Man City (4pm)
Man U v Villa (4pm)
Newcastle v Everton (4pm)
Forest v Chelsea (4pm)
The this is how the Premier League table now currently looks on Wednesday 21 May 2025:
Premier League Table 21 May 2025
Now it is perfectly understandable that at this point, Newcastle United fans should be feeling some anxiety, some nerves. The same with the fans of the other four clubs.
As a football fan, if you don’t have any nerves ahead of such important matches, then you are simply arrogant.
The same with the players ahead of these games, a little bit of nerves is definitely preferable, compared to none at all.
However, too much in the way of nerves, call it panic, is definitely not a good thing. For both Newcastle United players and fans.
So just to calm some of you down, the following is why Newcastle United are massive favourites to fill one of the Champions League places, from the people in the know.
Who are the impartial experts we can call on ahead of Sunday’s matches, where emotion and nerves is totally taken out of the decision making?
I am talking about the bookies.
They don’t care who wins any football match, they only care about making money from any/every match. So they price it up, decide on the odds, based on cold hard facts.
Here are the general odds you can get from the various bookies on each of the five clubs, on finishing top five and getting a Champions League place:
1/25 Manchester City
1/5 Newcastle United
4/6 Chelsea
6/4 Aston Villa
4/1 Nottingham Forest
For anybody unsure on how betting odds work, Newcastle’s odds of 1/5 on getting a Champions League place, means that you would have to risk £5 to win £1. So if you bet on NUFC finishing top five and it happens, you get your £5 stake back and the £1 winnings. This is called probability in mathematics, so Newcastle’s chances are seen as the equivalent of when rolling a dice, getting to choose five options between one and six when it rolls, with only a chance of one of the six numbers it lands on being a loser.
So now have a look again at the four matches coming up on Sunday, these are the general odds you can get from the various bookies for the outcomes of each match, but first of all the odds for each:
Fulham win 4/1 Draw 10/3 Man City win 4/7
Man U win 7/2 Draw 3/1 Villa win 7/2
Newcastle win 4/11 Draw 9/2 Everton win 7/1
Forest win 5/2 Draw 9/4 Chelsea 11/10
I am the last person in the world to be claiming that Newcastle winning on Sunday is a sure thing.
However, I do think some Newcastle fans need to calm down a bit, some of who appear to have convinced themselves it is almost certain United will fail to get Champions League. Some NUFC fans wanting to build up Everton into some sort of brilliant team, whilst at the same time wanting to see all kinds of negatives with Newcastle going into this final match of the season.
As the bookies make clear, everything points to Newcastle winning (odds of 4/11) and not Everton (7/1).
Newcastle United are far bigger favourites to win against Everton than any of their rivals are to beat their opponents.
Put it another way, imagine if Newcastle were playing Forest or Chelsea on Sunday? Or away at Fulham?
That really puts home against Everton into perspective, as surely all Newcastle United fans would agree that they look far tougher matches in advance of Sunday.
Man U have been shocking this season but especially if they win the Europa League tonight, would you honestly rather be going to Old Trafford needing a win, or facing Everton at St James’ Park?
I have had a look and in the 13 matches Everton have played this season against the seven top clubs in the Premier League this season, they have won only one of the thirteen. That was a 1-0 against Forest and thanks to a 94th minute goal.
Newcastle United have won their last six home Premier League matches at St James’ Park, whilst Everton have won three of their last 12 (home and away) Premier League matches.
It is these kind of ‘minor’ details that the bookies tend to look at, when deciding what the chances are of each team winning any particular match.
United have scored 20 goals in those last six Premier League home (winning) matches.
As I say, this isn’t about being arrogant and thinking Sunday will be easy, BUT every reason to be confident that Eddie Howe and his team can beat Everton.