The world’s most lucrative match is set for Wembley on Sunday, with a spot in the Premier League on the line
Leeds United and Southampton will take the pitch at Wembley in the EFL Championship promotion playoff final on Sunday.
The winner will claim a place in the Premier League for 2024-25, making this one-off clash a massive game in terms of both prestige for players, and revenue for clubs.
Leeds, buoyed by Crysencio Summerville’s 19 goals, will be looking to bounce straight back up after being relegated at the end of the 2022-23 season. The Whites had spent three seasons in the top flight, and during a 15-game unbeaten that ran from January to April looked at one point like a candidate to finish atop the Championship table.
However, a poor end to the season — including a 2-1 home loss to Southampton — sent Daniel Farke’s side into the playoff places. However, a 4-0 aggregate win over Norwich City in the semifinals may have helped stabilize Leeds just in time.
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Like Leeds, Southampton wants back into the Premier League after one season in the second tier. The Saints recovered from a poor start to the season that at one point included four straight losses to spend much of the last six months in the top four.
A combined 37 goals between forwards Adam Armstrong and Ché Adams has paced Russell Martin’s side, who are intent on returning to the top flight after its prior stay lasted 12 years.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the match.
Leeds United vs. Southampton (EFL Championship playoff final)
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Some teams are having a blast, while others are going through it
The Premier League is getting down to the nitty-gritty.
The end of the season is approaching, with most teams having five or six games left to secure a trophy, a spot in Europe, or just keep themselves in the top flight for another year.
For some teams, the end of the season was expected to be a pressure-cooker, but has instead been something of a celebration. For others, it’s one last chance to fight their way to safety, or at least salvage some pride in an otherwise disappointing season.
Here’s where everyone stands heading into the last month of the 2022-23 season.
The Gunners produced a fantastic comeback, but dropping two points at home was a huge missed opportunity
There has been a suggestion fromsomecorners recently that Arsenal’s recent dip in form did not represent the Gunners “bottling” the Premier League title.
The argument, which is not without its merits, goes something like this: Even if the Gunners are dropping points at the worst possible time, the fact that they are in the title race at all is a minor miracle — and a second-place finish would still be worth celebrating.
Arsenal let a two-goal slip to draw 2-2 with Liverpool two weeks ago, but that was Liverpool, right? It happens.
Then, Arsenal did the exact same thing last week against West Ham. OK, slightly less defensible but we’re not in full-blown bottle territory or anything.
And then came Friday.
A home match against last-place Southampton was an ideal — and necessary — opportunity to get on the right track.
And then 20 seconds into the game, Aaron Ramsdale did this.
Things wouldn’t get much better from there, particularly when ex-Gunners star Theo Walcott doubled Southampton’s lead on 14 minutes.
Gabriel Martinelli would pull one back for Arsenal four minutes later, but Duje Ćaleta-Car’s header midway through the second half looked to have sealed an improbable win for Southampton.
However, Arsenal sprung into life late on. Martin Ødegaard found a goal in the 88th minute and two minutes later, the Gunners were level through Bukayo Saka.
ARSENAL SCORE TWICE TWO MINUTES TO TIE THE MATCH AT 3-3 JUST BEFORE STOPPAGE TIME!
Stirring as the comeback was, a 3-3 home draw with the Premier League’s worst team is decidedly not the result Arsenal needed on Friday.
Arsenal is now just five points ahead of Manchester City, which crucially has two games in hand.
Wednesday’s game between the two teams is looking like a possible title decider. Facing City is a massive opportunity for Arsenal, but it’s also a treacherous fixture for a team that may be seeing its confidence ebbing away at the worst time.
Tottenham’s latest disappointment triggered a furious response from Antonio Conte unlike just about anything we’ve seen in this Premier League season.
A bizarre 3-3 draw at Southampton in which Spurs — for the second time this year — threw away a two-goal lead offered plenty of discussion points.
Four first-half substitutions for injuries (two for each side), Harry Kane’s 204th Premier League goal, and the baffling sequence of events that ended with James Ward-Prowse’s stoppage-time penalty kick delighting home supporters at St. Mary’s…the raw material for a story about a deeply weird game was all there.
But it all paled next to Conte’s disgust with just about everything at the club, which came through in a nearly 10-minute diatribe that functioned as his post-game remarks to reporters at St. Mary’s.
Conte was predictably asked for his thoughts on referee David Coote’s decision to award Southampton a stoppage-time penalty despite a seeming lack of contact between Pape Sarr and Ashley Maitland-Ward.
Conte may not have liked the call, but as he quickly made clear, that wasn’t why he was seething on Saturday.
“If we are going to discuss about the penalty, to me it means that we don’t want to [discuss the] other situation, okay?” said Conte. “The penalty, I repeat, for me was no penalty. And stop, we close the situation. There was a worse situation, it’s what happened, what’s happening [on] the pitch, what’s happening in the last few months.
“I think that there is a moment to speak, because I think after this performance…for me, this is unacceptable. You’re winning 3-1 and you are in control [of] the game, and you are able to concede two goals, and to risk two [more], because also Fraser [Forster] made a fantastic save in one situation.”
Conte then moved away from a single game problem and began tearing into just about everyone at Spurs.
“It’s much better now to go into the problem,” started Conte. “The problem is that for another time we show that we are not a team. We are 11 players that go onto the pitch. And I see selfish players. I see players that don’t want to help each other, don’t put their heart [into it].
“I prefer to hide the situation, and…try to improve the spirit, the situation, with words, with a lot about tactical or technical aspects. This one situation, the most important thing: if you want to become a strong team, if you want to become competitive, you want to fight to win? It’s the desire, the fight that you need to have in your eyes, your heart and you have to show this in every moment.”
Conte said that he’s been thinking about this problem as far back as Tottenham’s FA Cup lost to a rotated Sheffield United, saying that his Spurs side have not been up to the task from a desire perspective for some time.
Conte rejected any other angles as “finding an alibi” for his squad, accusing one reporter of “only [doing] this excuse for the players.”
“Yeah, ‘but the players,’ maybe ‘my future,’ and then okay, ‘they lost confidence, they lost spirit,” ranted Conte, who slapped the podium before continuing. “Excuse. Excuse. Excuse. Try to plot every time and the situation. Come on. Come on. Come on. We are professional. The club paid us a lot of money, the players receive money. Me? Received money. You understand? And not to find excuses, and [not] have spirit, or don’t show the sense of belonging, or don’t show a sense of responsibility.
“This is the first time in my career, to see a situation like this. Until now I wasn’t able to…compare seasons. So the situation went to become worse. Why? Bah, I don’t know. Because they are used to it here. They’re used it here. Don’t play for something important. They don’t play, or they don’t want to play, under pressure. They don’t want to play under stress. Yeah, it’s easy this way, at Tottenham. Tottenham’s story is this. 20 years that there is the owner, and they never won something.”
Conte wasn’t done, sarcastically dismissing Tottenham’s chances of climbing the table based on their lack of fight.
“We can fight for what? With this spirit, with this attitude, with this commitment? What? For the seventh, eighth place? Ninth place? I’m not used to this position. I’m really upset.”
The Javi Gracia era at Elland Road started with a vital win
It’s been 113 days, but Leeds has won a Premier League game.
With Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, and Brenden Aaronson all starting, Leeds — in new manager Javi Gracia’s first game in charge — notched a potentially vital 1-0 victory over Southampton on Saturday.
That ends a 10-game winless run in which Leeds had seen their offense absolutely dry up. Leeds fell 4-3 at Tottenham going into the World Cup break, but since then it’s been a real slog. Leeds has been shut out five times since the league resumed, and has scored just six total goals in nine league matches.
But for today at least, all is well as Junior Firpo’s 77th minute strike was decisive in a crunch relegation battle.
When Saturday’s matches kicked off, these were the two bottom teams in the Premier League, but Leeds’ win has lifted them — barring a Bournemouth win over Manchester City later on Saturday — out of the drop zone and into the fragile safety of 17th place.
On the day, Leeds had the better of Southampton, controlling most of the possession, dictating the terms and tempo, and carving out 14 shots to Southampton’s eight. However, Leeds has repeatedly found a way to let that kind of game slip away from them, and in fact that pattern more than any other is what cost Jesse Marsch his job.
So for Leeds fans, watching their side avoid an all-too-common defensive calamity and pairing that with an all-too-rare goal has to be a relief.
On the other hand, there is also an element of good luck to the winner, and given the way the season has gone, it might be karma balancing out for Leeds. An attacking move out on the left wing should have seen Crysencio Summerville — boxed into the corner by three Southampton defenders — lose possession.
Instead, the Dutch attacker’s hopeful pass — or possibly just an attempt to carve out a corner? — clipped a defender before bobbling along the endline to Jack Harrison, who used his first touch to fool Southampton with a backheel to Firpo.
Firpo, under a challenge from Ibrahima Diallo on his left and with James Ward-Prowse closing on his right, shot while falling, and as is often the case in that scenario, he didn’t hit it well.
However, the ball hopped and skipped along the Elland Road grass, while Jan Bednarek seemed to freeze in the expectation of being hit by a more powerful strike. Firpo’s effort shuffled along past him, and had just enough on it to sneak past Gavin Bazunu, who didn’t see where the ball actually was until it was already rolling by him.
Watch Firpo’s goal end Leeds winless run
Junior Firpo gets a PIVOTAL goal for Leeds United and they lead Southampton!
Marsch was set to take over just a week after he was sacked by Leeds
The Jesse Marsch era at Southampton is over before it even started.
The American manager was nearing a deal to take over the struggling Saints but talks have broken down, according to multiplereports on Wednesday.
At issue was the length of Marsch’s proposed contract: Southampton wanted to bring him in on a six-month deal with the option to extend, while the manager was looking to sign onto a more long-term contract.
Marsch traveled to Southampton on Tuesday to complete the deal, but the club’s managerial search will now continue.
Marsch was nearing the Saints job just over a week after he was sacked by Leeds amid a winless run that saw the club near the Premier League relegation zone.
The 49-year-old was seen as an ideal candidate to take over for Nathan Jones, who was sacked following the club’s 2-1 home loss to a 10-man Wolves.
Jones had won just once in eight Premier League games during his tenure, which lasted just barely more than four months. Jones himself had been appointed in November after Ralph Hasenhüttl’s four-year run at St. Mary’s came to an end with Southampton taking just 12 points from the club’s first 14 Premier League matches.
That situation never improved under Jones, and the Saints sit at the very bottom of the table, four points from safety.
Marsch’s high-octane style closely mirrors Hasenhüttl’s, with Southampton believing the American would have given them a chance for survival as he would have instilled a style that the club’s players were already familiar with.
But now it appears Southampton assistant Rubén Sellés will have a shot at leading the club on a caretaker basis, as the Saints face a daunting away trip to Chelsea on Saturday.
Leeds have mostly started the season well, with four points from two games a better pace than last season’s nervy last-gasp escape from the relegation zone.
On Saturday, they followed up a confident win in their opening game with a 2-2 draw at Southampton, ensuring that they’ll end the second round of Premier League fixtures in the top six. After losing Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips in the summer, it’s a very solid start.
It’s just the nature of how they got that 2-2 draw that might sting. Jesse Marsch’s side, with both U.S. men’s national team midfielders going the full 90 minutes, lead 2-0 thanks to a brace from Rodrigo, who scored both of his goals in the opening minutes of the second half.
For a few minutes, a Leeds team coached by an American, who replaced their biggest departures with Brenden Aaronson and Tyler Adams, were on course to be tied with Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the table.
Only for a few minutes though. Southampton substitute Joe Aribo pulled one back in the 72nd minute, and Kyle Walker-Peters pulled the home team level nine minutes later.
Marsch, while frustrated, did find a silver lining in seeing a road draw as a disappointing result.
Marsch: "It’s a terrible feeling to play well and walk away with what feels like less than one point. But that’s also progress for us, to be disappointed with a point. It's always in my mind how to be glass half-full. The group is making progress." #lufc
“It’s a terrible feeling to play well and walk away with what feels like less than one point,” Marsch told reporters following the match. “But that’s also progress for us, to be disappointed with a point.”
Marsch had to make an early substitution after striker Patrick Bamford had to come off with what was reportedly tightness in his adductor. According to the Yorkshire Evening Post, the move may have been simply precautionary, with Marsch saying they think he’ll be able to train this week.
Leeds will hope their performance during the first hour is what they can bring for a full match next weekend, as they host Chelsea at Elland Road on Sunday.
Check out the goals from Leeds vs. Southampton
Just 30 seconds into the second half, Rodrigo puts Leeds United into the lead! #LUFC
Jurgen Klopp’s side will hope to defeat Wolves on Sunday and get a favor from old friend Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa
The Premier League title race, fittingly, will go to down to the final day.
Liverpool came back to beat Southampton 2-1 on Tuesday, as goals from Takumi Minamino and Joel Matip erased an early goal from Nathan Redmond.
With the win, Liverpool closed to within one point of first-place Manchester City, which also has a +6 advantage on goal difference.
That makes City a big favorite to clinch a second straight title and fourth in five seasons.
But Jurgen Klopp’s men now, at least, have a chance for a dramatic final-day turnaround on Sunday.
Premier League title scenarios
Manchester City will clinch the league on Sunday with a win at home against Aston Villa – a team coached, of course, by Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard.
Should City draw or lose, then Liverpool would clinch the title with a win against Wolves.
A loss from City would theoretically mean Liverpool could clinch the title with a draw – but only in the extremely unlikely scenario that City loses by enough to allow Liverpool to overturn its goal difference disadvantage.
Manchester United will go for their fifth win in a row when they welcome Southampton to Old Trafford on Monday.
Manchester United will host Southampton on Monday at Old Trafford while looking to make it five wins in a row in Premier League action. Man U has been very impressive since the restart of the league while Southampton have been playing very well as well but are currently in 12th place.
Man United possible starting lineup:
De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw; Matic, Pogba; Greenwood, Fernandes, Rashford; Martial
Southampton possible starting lineup:
McCarthy; Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Stephens, Bertrand; Armstrong, Ward-Prowse, Hojbjerg, Redmond; Ings, Long
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Two of the Premier League’s most out of form teams will pit their records against one another when sixth-place Arsenal hosts Southampton at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday. The two teams boast a combined total of one win from each of their last six games, and Unai Emery is under extreme pressure to bag three points at home.
Tuesday evening brought the news that Mauricio Pochettino had been Tottenham Hotspur, perhaps the less expected dismissal in north London during this international break. Emery may count himself fortunate not to have been the first to go considering Arsenal has won once in its last seven games, still licking its wounds from a 2-0 loss at Leicester City in Week 12.
Saints chief Ralph Hasenhuttl doesn’t have the same weight of expectation on the south coast, but there’s a growing sense the Austrian is also riding the last of his luck at St. Mary’s Stadium.
Hasenhuttl’s first win as a manager in England was a 3-2 surprise result against Arsenal in December at home, though the Premier League appears more wise to his tactics now.
His side hasn’t won a match in its last seven outings and suffered defeat in six of those. A 1-1 draw away to the Wolverhampton Wanderers last month accounts for the only point Southampton has claimed from the last possible 21.
As fate would have it, the Gunners’ last Premier League point came following a 1-1 draw of their own against the Wolves on Nov. 2. Following a 2-2 result against Crystal Palace one week prior, this was the second home game in a row that Arsenal lost a lead to a draw.
The same happened again in its Europa League visit to Vitoria on Nov. 6 when Bruno Duarte scored late and canceled out Shkodran Mustafi’s 80th-minute opener.
There won’t be any excuses for Arsenal should it fail to clinch maximum spoils on Saturday. Dani Ceballos is the only injury concern after he suffered a hamstring injury before the international break, giving the manager an almost fully fit selection.
Southampton has a limited injury list, too, with the Republic of Ireland forward Michael Obafemi being its only concern before the trip to north London.
Hasenhuttl’s side surprised Arsenal on home soil in December, but the Saints haven’t beaten the Gunners away from home in league competition since November 1987.
Defeat at the Emirates could spell the end of either manager’s reign depending on the nature of the result, with both bosses feeling the heat approaching a tense winter schedule.
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