Leeds United's final-day trip to West Ham will be of huge significance to the Premier League relegation fight.
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Leeds United’s final-day trip to West Ham could decide Premier League relegation but not quite how many expected earlier this season.
Ever since the 2025/26 fixtures were released in June last year, fans of Leeds and West Ham had a nervous eye on matchweek 38. Daniel Farke’s side would finish their campaign at the London Stadium in a game quickly billed as a potential relegation decider.
As a newly-promoted side, Leeds were widely expected to be mired in relegation trouble right until the final day. Should their trip to West Ham end up a dead-rubber, it was felt, then surely their Championship return had already been sealed.
Leeds will have been safe for a fortnight by Sunday. They’ve taken four points from two games since and will finish the campaign between 15th and 11th. They are now fuelled by the pride of extending an unbeaten run to nine and the financial boost that comes with climbing up the table.
Sunday threatened to be a dead-rubber for West Ham too, following a miserable three-game losing streak in which they defended like a team with no place in the Premier League. The Hammers are still strong favourites to go down but have one final chance to pull off a miracle.
Tottenham Hotspur’s four-game unbeaten run - which included a 1-1 draw at home to Leeds last week - ended on Tuesday night when they lost 2-1 at Chelsea. A point would have virtually guaranteed safety on goal difference but they now go into a final-day home game against Everton two points clear.
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Spurs have the joint-worst home record in the Premier League alongside Burnley, with two wins and six draws yielding just 12 points. Everton are the sixth-best away team. It’s not inconceivable the Toffees go to North London and win. Equally, it would be easy to envisage Leeds getting something at West Ham.
Leeds United role in final-day drama with West Ham need simple
For Nuno Espirito Santo’s side it is simple, they must beat Leeds on Sunday while Tottenham must lose. Any other results would see them down. They are likely to face a Whites side ravaged by injury but one that beat Champions League-chasing Brighton regardless last time out.
Farke can add Anton Stach to his growing absentee list, the midfielder stretchered off with an ankle injury on Sunday. Gabriel Gudmundsson, Jayden Bogle, Pascal Struijk, Ilia Gruev, Facundo Buonanotte and Noah Okafor might all be unavailable.
But Leeds will not be on the beach, as Brighton and relegation candidates Tottenham can both attest. They have shown no sign of slowing down whatsoever, with neither Farke nor club captain Ethan Ampadu allowing professionalism to slip even on this relatively meaningless final day.
Leeds fans will enjoy their stress-free trip and deservedly so. They’ve followed Farke’s side across the country come rain or shine, victory or defeat. They’ve also been on either end of final-day relegation drama, beating Brentford to survive in 2022 before a 4-1 thumping at home to Tottenham 12 months later. This time it won’t matter so much.
With Arsenal wrapping up their Premier League title ahead of schedule, the major final-day story becomes relegation. Leeds were tipped to be part of that story right until the wire. And they are, just not how many expected.