Football365

Premier League legend Alan Shearer is expecting Tottenham to stay up on goal difference on Sunday as he predicts the outcome of the relegation battle with West Ham.

Spurs have already sacked two managers this season with Roberto De Zerbi taking on the challenge of keeping Tottenham in the Premier League.

Thanks to getting eight points from their last five matches, Tottenham have given themselves a good chance of surviving on the final day of the season on Sunday.

West Ham, who occupy the final relegation spot, are two points adrift of Tottenham and Spurs know a win or draw against Everton will guarantee survival because of their far superior goal difference.

The Hammers need to beat Leeds United and hope Everton can beat Tottenham in north London – and Shearer reckons Spurs will survive but only on goal difference.

Giving his prediction for Tottenham’s clash against Everton, Shearer told The Metro: “It’s such a tough one to call, I mean, I have no confidence on either side, and this is a pure guess. The pressure that Spurs are going to be under, I do think that Everton will go and get something off Spurs. I’m going to go and say a draw, and I think Spurs will stay up on goal difference.

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“Prediction – Draw.”

On West Ham’s home clash against Leeds, Shearer added: “I saw West Ham last week, I was at the game at Newcastle on Sunday, oh my goodness, they were so bad defensively. They came in with a new system, tried to play five at the back and changed after 25 minutes or so because they were 2-0 down. But they were really, really poor.

“They’ve got to try and get that win and try and put as much pressure on Tottenham Hotspur as possible, because you can imagine the picture where we’re flicking to Tottenham’s ground and we’re flicking to West Ham at different points on Sunday afternoon.

“I’m going to go for a West Ham win but unfortunately, I don’t think it will be enough to keep them up as I can see Spurs and Everton playing out a draw at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.

READ: The best ten Tottenham, West Ham relegation candidates reassigned to Premier League suitors

“Prediction – West Ham win.”

Murphy: I’ve got a bad feeling Tottenham will go down

Former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder Danny Murphy is expecting Spurs to be relegated on the final day of the season as he has “a bad feeling”.

Murphy said on talkSPORT: “I think it will be a tiny margin on the day, a lot will depend on Tottenham’s start to the game, I think if they were to go a goal down, the nerves would kick in. One of Tottenham’s biggest problems is their creativity, chances, they can’t score goals!

“I think West Ham will beat Leeds and I’ve got a bad feeling here. I want Tottenham to stay up but I’ve got a bad feeling they’re going to go.”

Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven is looking to join Liverpool over the summer, while Man Utd are set to make an approach if Spurs are relegated, according to journalist Ben Jacobs.

Roberto De Zerbi’s side will face Everton at home on Sunday knowing a win will keep them in the Premier League next season after a campaign to forget.

West Ham, who play Leeds at home, are two points behind Tottenham in the Premier League table and will relegate Spurs if they win and the North Londoners lose to the Toffees.

Relegation to the Championship would see a mass exodus of players at Tottenham as the club looked to fight the financial disaster of playing in the tier below.

One in-demand player is Netherlands international Van de Ven, who is attracting interest from Liverpool and Man Utd, with former CBS Sports journalist Jacobs bringing an update on his future.

As previously revealed, Jacobs has claimed that Van de Ven would prefer a move to Liverpool than anywhere else, while Man Utd will make an approach if Tottenham are relegated.

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Jacobs said about Van de Ven on The United Stand: “Micky van de Ven, they (Manchester United) won’t make an approach unless Tottenham go down.

“If Tottenham stay up, I think Micky van de Ven will likely sign a new deal, but a bit like Senesi, quite an open situation.

“I have said before on the show, if Liverpool enter that race, Van de Ven would want to join Liverpool, but they haven’t entered that race.

“So, let’s kind of be a bit patient on that one because Van de Ven is only focused on trying to keep Tottenham up at this stage.

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“From what I gather, he really enjoys playing under Roberto De Zerbi, but he’s not necessarily the kind of player that wants to drop into the Championship, even if he likes the manager.”

‘Konate’s totally the opposite to Van de Ven’

Former Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant has already expressed his wish for the Reds to sign Van de Ven from Tottenham in the summer.

When asked if Liverpool should try to buy Van de Ven, Pennant replied on talkSPORT: “100 per cent.

“Because the way we play, sometimes we play up a high line, he’s got pace. He can get us out of a lot of trouble. He’s also good on the ball.

“He can run with the ball and those darting run-throughs, piercing the attack line. Konate’s totally the opposite.”

When asked if Van de Ven being an international team-mate of Virgil van Dijk would help the Tottenham defender at Anfield, Pennant said: “I think that would.

“I think also with Arne Slot as well. Obviously he loves his Dutch players.”

He added: “I think that would be a very good signing – Van de Ven. Like I said, his pace would get us out of so much trouble.

“Two players who can have the ball at their feet, who are good.”

Final day of the season? Isn’t it? Hmm? Permutations? As It Stands tables? News of a vital goal filtering through from elsewhere? Isn’t it? Hmm? At least one meaningless game between two mid-table sides inexplicably ending up 5-4? Marvellous.

Ten simultaneous games, each impacting upon the others as the final formalities of the season are concluded. It’s always great. Sure, the title race might not have made it, but thanks to Tottenham’s inability to finish their dinner and absolute insistence on always being persistently and ludicrously Tottenham about absolutely everything, we do at least have a relegation battle to be decided among the overwrought FINAL-DAY DRAMA.

We thank them, though. For it spares us all having to go through the charade of pretending anyone outside the specific clubs involved really cares much either way about the Race for Europe.

We’re also now fascinated by what happens in Crystal Palace v Arsenal – a game that pits one team focused entirely on a different match a few days later against a team that hasn’t slept for three days. It will either be the best or worst game you’ve ever seen.

But it doesn’t make the cut here. Not on final day. Not ahead of this lot.

Game to watch: Tottenham v Everton

James Maddison described the situation as ‘embarrassing’ but here we are. Spurs are in genuine danger of relegation on the final day of the Premier League season.

Sure, they finished 17th last season with the same number of points they currently have to their name this season. But last season they had been safe for months thanks to there being three rather than this season’s mere two teams cut entirely adrift at the bottom of the table.

And while it was overplayed as mitigation given the sheer scale of the collapse in their form, there was also a clear and undeniable prioritising of the Europa League once safety was pretty much secured by a three-game winning run in February.

The only mitigation for Spurs this year is another catastrophic injury list, yet even that has its own counter-mitigation that Spurs already had a catastrophic injury list in January and decided to sit on their hands lest they be accused of panic. How’s that working out, lads?

Perhaps the most damning element of Spurs’ failure to either back or sack Thomas Frank in January, with results that could still be existentially disastrous if Sunday goes wrong, was on the right wing.

The decision to sell Brennan Johnson for good money early in the window was out of character for Spurs and actually encouraging. Nothing he’d done for Spurs earlier in the season nor for Palace since suggests this was a mistake. But watching Mohammad Kudus suffer a serious injury from which he is yet to return in the very next game and yet failing to even really try to replace either of them in the three remaining weeks of January will feature prominently in the post-mortem should the worst happen.

And, frankly, even if it doesn’t. Should Spurs scrape their way to safety this weekend there really is still no case that either their Chief Arsenal Fan Vinai Venkatesham or sporting director Johan Lange should be spared the boot as a result after overseeing a season of unthinkable ineptitude.

The effects of January’s disastrous attempt at looking like sensible grown-ups when panic was absolutely the correct emotional state are still being felt now, with the clear improvement Roberto De Zerbi has brought to the team in general still massively limited by the sheer dearth of both numbers and quality in the Tottenham attack.

He will once again here have little choice but to field a front three of Richarlison, Mathys Tel and the abysmal Randal Kolo Muani, and hope against hope that when he turns to a half-fit Maddison midway through the second half it isn’t in desperation.

Maddison’s cameos in the last two games against Leeds and Chelsea have shown what Spurs have missed in his absence, but are also damning of the players Spurs do have available. Spurs have looked far, far better going forward in the 20-odd minutes he’s managed in each game despite the fact he is still clearly and understandably miles off it in terms of overall fitness and match sharpness.

Spurs need only a point to guarantee safety (unless West Ham stick 12 past Leeds, which feels like a level of Spursy misfortune even we’re willing to cheerfully dismiss) and really should be able to get it against a team that has rather run out of puff in recent weeks. Everton haven’t won since early March to see realistic hopes of European nights at the Hill-Dickinson next season all but disappear.

But you absolutely would not guarantee it. A decent start feels absolutely vital for Spurs. Even the tentatively improved RDZ iteration of this team still has the most fragile and shallow reserves of confidence imaginable. They are still unable to react positively to any setback whatsoever, and the danger here is that the setback doesn’t even need to come from within their own game this time.

Under De Zerbi, Spurs have visibly wilted after going behind at both Sunderland and Chelsea having been doing absolutely fine before conceding, and went from cruise control to a clear and rattled second best after Leeds’ equaliser at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium a couple of weeks ago.

You do feel Spurs must strike the first blow here to settle their own nerves and avoid giving any encouragement to their rivals.

You can just imagine the noise a tension-addled misery-pit of a stadium will make should news of a West Ham goal filter through. You can just imagine the impact it will have on those nervous nellies on the pitch.

There are nine possible combinations of results from the two games that will settle relegation, and eight of those possible combinations leave Spurs safe. But this is Spurs, and you do just wonder if they don’t have one last catastrophe left in them to top the lot.

If they lose as they absolutely definitely could, it’s over to…

Team to watch: West Ham

It’s out of their hands. They face what is, on current form, a far tougher test than Everton in the shape of Leeds. But they have a chance, and after the abject capitulation at Newcastle last weekend, that was all they could possibly hope for here.

They will have to hope that Leeds are in cigars and flip-flops mode, because under normal circumstances outside of the unique cauldron of the final day, it would be almost impossible at this time to make a decent case for West Ham, after three straight defeats of assorted levels of dreadful, to get a win over a Leeds side unbeaten in eight games.

Leeds had nothing to play for last weekend either, and still produced a win over a Brighton side with everything to play for. We’re not really sure this Leeds team is one currently capable of rolling over and simply donating victory to any opponent at this time, but surely – surely – West Ham will at least this time deliver an all-or-nothing performance for an all-or-nothing occasion having so miserably failed to do so at Newcastle last time out.

Striking the first blow and piling the pressure on a deeply fragile and impossibly vulnerable Tottenham has to be the plan. It’s long-shot territory, but it is perfectly possible the cards fall West Ham’s way if they can just take care of their own business.

Manager to watch: Pep Guardiola

For one final time – as with Fergie, Wenger and Klopp before him, it’s simply inconceivable to imagine him in charge of anyone else in the league – Pep Guardiola will take to a Premier League touchline.

There is now nothing riding on the game itself against Europa League winners Aston Villa, City having failed to challenge Arsenal to avoid one last banana skin on their victory lap by labouring to a draw (even that undeserved) at Bournemouth in midweek.

A domestic cup double with a new-look side in transition means Guardiola’s final season can’t be considered an outright failure, as such, but it’s not quite a successful one either. Not by the standards he has set in a decade of dominance in this league. At its height, it was a domination that stretched to six league titles in seven seasons, often with 95+ points as the price of admission just to challenge them.

That he will leave after two seasons featuring no title challenge at all and then in honesty a pretty ropey one this year will, we suspect, nag at Pep a bit. But he walks away from Our League as its second greatest ever manager.

Given who’s at number one, it’s not a bad legacy.

Player to watch: Mohamed Salah

And another farewell. Slightly less fond, this one, Salah having spent his final season at Liverpool in full Emo Mourinho mode, looking grumpy and at times entirely lost without Trent Alexander-Arnold behind him, while also tilting at windmills in ill-advised post-match interviews and takings to social media.

It’s obviously a real shame, because an undoubted all-time Premier League and Liverpool great is departing under an unnecessary cloud 12 months on from Trent’s own unsavoury Anfield exit.

From our own selfish view, though, this is all very helpful. The problem generally with the ‘Player to watch’ section here is that you are a slave to late injuries and managerial whims and, on one embarrassing occasion, a failure to realise a particular silly sod had in fact got themselves suspended.

Many’s the time we’ve stroked our chin and mused about the vital importance of our chosen player only to see them spend Saturday lunchtime or Sunday afternoon or whatever sat among the substitutes.

Thanks to Salah’s ungrateful teenager stylings, we’re absolutely in the clear here. As Liverpool set about trying to secure the point they need to ensure Champions League football next season, Salah will be without doubt the man to watch whether he’s on the pitch, sulking on the bench, a bit of both or even neither.

On an afternoon of 10 simultaneous games, Salah is still the player to watch even if he isn’t at the ground. Especially if he isn’t at the ground.

Football League game to watch: Hull City v Southampton Middlesbrough

The Championship play-off final not traditionally a game that requires an extra dose of drama, given the stakes involved. But this year we certainly have it thanks to the magnificently hilarious Spygate caper.

It’s all very serious, of course, and Southampton have paid a heavy, heavy price for astonishing stupidity. Easily our favourite thing about it is just how small-time it all is, given it might have cost the club £200m. No drones or high-tech shenanigans here; just an intern with his phone out and not even the wit to disguise himself as a golf-club w*nker to make his planned escape route more straightforward. They deserve everything they get.

Middlesbrough, meanwhile, are victims in one sense but astonishingly fortunate in another. For all the fuss about whether Southampton’s punishment fits the crime, it is at least equally valid to consider the extent of Middlesbrough’s let-off.

The actual real victims are Hull City, of course. They are the one team who qualified without controversy in the traditional style by winning a two-legged semi-final. Yet it is they, the true innocents, who have been most profoundly buggered about by it all.

Southampton were guilty of cheating. Middlesbrough were guilty of losing. Not a crime, sure, but doing so in a semi-final does traditionally end one’s involvement.

Yet both those sides could at least prepare for the fact they would either be facing Hull, or not facing Hull. Hull, meanwhile, only knew for sure less than 72 hours before the final who they’d be playing.

And every one of us knows that the inevitable, inexorable forces of banter dictate that Middlesbrough will surely win the £200m match and become the first play-off semi-final losers in history to gain promotion.

European game to watch: Bayern Munich v Stuttgart

Harry Kane bids for more silverware as runaway Bundesliga champions Bayern take on holders Stuttgart in the final of the DFB Pokal. Easy to just be glib about an assumed Bayern win, but it would be their first Pokal win since their 20th all the way back in 2020. They haven’t even reached the final in the last five years.

Stuttgart won their fourth Pokal last season and have now reached back-to-back finals for the first time in their history. They have been beaten twice in the final previously by Bayern – in 1986 and 2013.

As you would expect, ex-Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Jamie O’Hara did not take his former side’s 2-1 loss to Chelsea well whatsoever.

On Tuesday night, Spurs had an opportunity to secure Premier League survival with a game to spare, with Roberto De Zerbi’s side only needing a point from their last two matches against Chelsea and Everton.

With West Ham two points adrift with far worse goal difference after their demoralising loss to Newcastle United at the weekend, a draw against Chelsea would have sufficed for Spurs, but they were deservedly beaten 2-1.

Chelsea have also been poor this season, but their quality showed as Enzo Fernandez and Andrey Santos fired them into a 2-0 lead, while Spurs could not muster an equaliser after Richarlison’s late consolation.

Now, the north London outfit must get something from their home match vs Everton on the final day, while West Ham will look to pile on the pressure by beating Leeds United in their last game.

Spurs capitulated after falling 1-0 down and O’Hara feared his former side would be on the end of a hammering by Chelsea.

“We’re absolutely gone. We’re here for the taking, we’re gonna get done 4-0 here,” O’Hara said on talkSPORT when Spurs were 1-0 down to Chelsea.

READ: Chelsea, Fernandez expose frail Tottenham as West Ham given hope by De Zerbi’s men reverting to type

“We’re absolutely garbage. Every single game. Every time I watch us, absolute crap! Crap FC.

‘We are all over the place.”

Naturally, co-host Jason Cundy kept poking the bear and O’Hara’s issued a scathing response to Spurs falling 2-0 down thanks to Randal Kolo Muani, who joined PSG for around £78m in 2023 before his loan move this season, carelessly giving the ball away to set up a Chelsea counter-attack, which Andrey Santos converted.

“Get out of our club!”

“You can see that happening.”

He continued: “It is a joke, you could see it a mile off. I told you: ‘We’ll go 2-0 down.

“Muani – get out of our club! This team is absolutely garbage. It is so bad!

‘It is disgusting how bad this team is. I cannot believe this team that I’m watching. How do I support this team?”

O’Hara later insisted that his former side “deserves” to suffer relegation to the Championship.

O’Hara added: “Oh my God, we are so bad. This team deserves to be in the Championship.

“It’s ridiculous. I’m embarrassed to be a Spurs fan.

“It’s embarrassing, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, honestly I can’t believe how bad this team is.”

Jamie Redknapp has revealed his assessment of the Premier League relegation battle following Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-1 loss to Chelsea.

Heading into Tuesday night, Spurs knew that a point from their last two games would be enough for survival because West Ham are two points adrift with a far worse goal difference.

The north London side would have obviously hoped to secure survival at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea on Tuesday instead of when they host Everton at the weekend due to their shambolic home record, but they will now need a result in their final game and risk going down if West Ham beats Leeds United.

In Tottenham’s penultimate game of the season, Chelsea’s superior quality made the difference as Enzo Fernandez and Andrey Santos fired the hosts into a 2-0 lead, while Roberto De Zerbi’s side could not find an equaliser after Richarlison pulled a goal back.

Spurs were pretty unfortunate not to be awarded a penalty in the closing stages of the game, but they did not deserve to come away with anything, and they are now under immense pressure heading into this weekend.

And Redknapp has argued that his former club are “sleepwalking towards relegation” and only one thing has “saved them”.

“They are sleepwalking towards relegation. I said it earlier this season,” Redknapp said on Sky Sports.

READ: Chelsea, Fernandez expose frail Tottenham as West Ham given hope by De Zerbi’s men reverting to type

“The only thing that’s saved them is a couple of good results.

“When I say good, they beat Wolves, and they beat an Aston Villa side who had seven players out at the time.

“Now they’ve got to find a way to win a game at home. Their home form has been horrendous all season. They’ve had no quality and no character to win a football match.

“Now they’ve got to find a way to beat Everton.

“David Moyes will be fuming after the weekend and he’ll be going there thinking, ‘We’ve got to get something out of this game.’

“I’d rather be playing Leeds at home than Everton.”

“I think there’s a chance they could draw at the weekend…”

Despite this, Redknapp has backed Spurs to just about do enough to stay up.

“Do I still think they survive by the skin of their teeth? Maybe, because I think there’s a chance they could draw at the weekend,” Redknapp added.

“But can they win? They haven’t won at home since December. December!

“They’ve got the best away record. If they were going away to Everton, I’d maybe give them more chance, but somehow they might just scrape a draw and survive by the skin of their teeth.

“But can you imagine North London if Arsenal win the title and Tottenham go down?

“How would that feel to Tottenham fans? They don’t deserve that.”

Mere weeks ago, the prospect of a trip to arch-rivals Chelsea in Tottenham Hotspur’s penultimate game of the 2025/26 campaign filled their supporters with dread, with it looking increasingly likely that the Blues would have the opportunity to condemn them to relegation from the Premier League.

But Tottenham’s dramatic turnaround under new boss Roberto De Zerbi over the past month, plus direct relegation rivals West Ham sh*tting the bed at the worst time, ensured the north London side instead had the chance to seal Premier League survival at Stamford Bridge.

Sitting two points clear of 18th-placed West Ham with a far superior goal difference, a single point from Spurs‘ remaining games against Chelsea and Everton would suffice, but they would have obviously preferred to get over the line in style at Stamford Bridge to ease their heart rate heading into the weekend.

And for the final 15 minutes against Chelsea, it looked likely that De Zerbi’s side would at least get the point they craved to secure survival.

Barring the severe lack of quality in Spurs’ frontline, the difference in performance levels inspired by De Zerbi compared to his predecessors has been night and day, with the players heeding the head coach’s pre-match message “to play with order”.

Mathys Tel came within inches of finding the inside of the post with a header after Tottenham opened the game with a great intent and confidence that has been absent from most of their performances this season.

But, once again, Spurs struggled to combine their neat passing moves with substance in the final third, and their superior opponents clinically punished them.

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Ex-Chelsea forward Daniel Sturridge pointed out before the match that Chelsea’s players are “fighting for their futures” ahead of Xabi Alonso’s arrival, and they had “an opportunity” to prove themselves against Spurs.

In the case of Cole Palmer, he has not been anywhere near his best this season and will be keen to re-establish himself as one of the finest attacking midfielders in the Premier League next term.

Palmer’s decline has been one of many contributing factors to a quite shambolic 25/26 campaign for Chelsea, but he took a minor step towards redeeming himself against Spurs with one of his brightest displays of the campaign.

The England international almost single-handedly wrestled back control of the game for Chelsea by nonchalantly pulling the strings before Enzo Fernandez spectacularly broke the deadlock after 18 minutes.

Having been fed the ball 25 yards out, Fernandez touched it out of his feet and fired it into the far corner of the net with the sweetest of strikes to leave goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky with no chance.

It was a moment of stellar individual brilliance that none of Tottenham Hotspur’s players looked capable of replicating, and as much as Fernandez comes with substantial baggage, he is a player around whom Alonso needs to build next season.

And there was further evidence of Fernandez’s quality via Chelsea’s second goal with 25 minutes remaining, which was admittedly incredibly poor from Tottenham’s perspective.

Randal Kolo Muani compounded his latest dire display by carelessly giving up possession with a loose pass to set up a clinical counter-attack, which was always going to be converted after Fernandez showed great vision to caress a pull-back to Andrey Santos to score from close range.

This followed Tottenham’s passive attempts to find an equaliser as they retreated within themselves, with a goal never looking likely until Richarlison fortuitously netted at the back post from a backheeled assist by Kolo Muani that was certainly accidental.

Richarlison’s finish set up a typically silly finale to a London derby between two sides that are at least alarmingly flawed and fragile, but Spurs could not find the equaliser they badly craved and ultimately would not have deserved on the night.

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Alonso has understandably been scrutinised for deciding to take on the Chelsea job. Yet the quality of Fernandez and Palmer alone shows that he has something to work with, provided he is given the necessary freedom in the transfer market, and a move towards signing more proven talents to improve their spine.

As for Spurs, their situation is far, far more alarming, and they now have to get something at home against Everton in their final game or hope that West Ham fail to beat Leeds United.

The Hammers did their best to throw in the towel against Newcastle United at the weekend, but they are now truly back in the fight, which is welcome as the one remaining huge narrative for the final day after Arsenal were crowned champions.

And as impressive as Tottenham’s start was against Chelsea, their insipid response to going behind was more notable; it’s hard to have confidence in them holding up their end of the bargain this weekend.

Chelsea will be looking to bounce back from their FA Cup final defeat when they host Tottenham at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues – who have since confirmed that Xabi Alonso will be their manager next season – now need to finish in the top eight to qualify for European football.

Tottenham also have a lot to play for as they are two points clear of 18th-placed West Ham, and a win over Chelsea would secure their Premier League status.

Chelsea v Tottenham kick-off time

Chelsea v Tottenham kicks off at 8.15pm BST on Tuesday, May 19 at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea v Tottenham how to watch

The game will be shown live in the UK via Sky Sports Premier League, with coverage starting from 7pm.

BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra will provide full match commentary.

Chelsea team news

Romeo Lavia missed the FA Cup final after picking up a knock in training beforehand, and is now a doubt to face Tottenham.

Joao Pedro may also need a late fitness test after appearing to tweak a thigh muscle in the first half of the cup final.

Robert Sanchez returned from injury to start the cup final, while Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho came on in the second half to prove their fitness.

Estevao and Jamie Gittens are both unavailable due to hamstring injuries, and Jesse Derry has been ruled out for the rest of the season.

Levi Colwill has started the last two games but may drop down the bench, given that he has just returned from a serious injury that saw him play no part in the season until earlier this month.

Tottenham team news

Despite making two amazing saves in the 1-1 draw with Leeds, Antonin Kinsky may have to settle for a place on the bench as first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is now ready to return.

James Maddison made a late cameo appearance against Leeds following nine months out with an ACL tear, and Spurs will continue to manage his minutes.

Dominic Solanke, Xavi Simons, Wilson Odobert, Dejan Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus, Ben Davies and Cristian Romero all remain sidelined.

Chelsea v Tottenham odds

Chelsea won 1-0 in the reverse fixture and are 21/20 to complete a Premier League double over Tottenham, while the draw is 14/5.

Tottenham have won their last two Premier League away games and are 14/5 to make it three in a row.

In the relegation betting, West Ham are 1/20 for the drop, while Tottenham can be backed at 10/1.

Spurs need just two points to secure Premier League safety, though one will almost surely be enough due to their goal difference.

Chelsea v Tottenham prediction

History points towards a Chelsea win, with Tottenham picking up just six points from their last 12 trips to Stamford Bridge.

But Chelsea have taken just one point from their last seven Premier League games, and haven’t won at home in the league since the end of January.

Tottenham are also improving with Roberto De Zerbi, who has seen his new side take as many points from their last four league games (eight) as they did in their previous 17.

It should be a very close game at Stamford Bridge, and we’re backing a draw and both teams to score at 7/2.

A draw would leave Spurs three points ahead of West Ham before the final day of the season, and the Hammers worse off by a goal difference of 13.

Richarlison has three goals in his last five Premier League away games and is 21/10 to score at Stamford Bridge.

Not like this… not like this.

Depending on how Tuesday night pans out at Stamford Bridge, with West Ham now in the position of needing a huge favour from one London rival at the expense of another, the Hammers may have kicked their last meaningful ball in anger in this relegation fight.

If, indeed, it is this catastrof*ck of a 3-1 defeat at Newcastle that relegates them it will be a tough pill to swallow. There is no easy or good way for a club of West Ham’s size to go down.

Once your Leedses and Forests had eased clear and it became apparent we were dealing with a two-horse race between big London clubs, there was only a brutal outcome or an even more brutal outcome. One would relegate the other and it would become A Moment in what has at times been a slightly one-sided but always nevertheless potent rivalry.

And it now very much looks like it will be West Ham who go, and it will be in a very bad way if so.

Let’s deal with the facts. West Ham’s defeat here leaves them two points adrift of Spurs and with only three points of their own left to fight for against Leeds on the final.

Spurs go to Chelsea and host Everton knowing that a vastly superior goal difference means a single point in either game will suffice. And that’s assuming West Ham manage to take care of their own business against a teak-tough and in-form team on the final day.

The even shorter version: all three remaining matches that matter in the relegation fight now have to go decisively West Ham’s way.

Now we are absolutely not about to rule out Spurs going full Spurs and West Ham somehow getting out of this. It is the history of the etc. and so forth.

But it is also worth looking more closely at the other three teams who still have potential roles to play in this story. Spurs need one point from two games against teams currently 16th and 20th in the form table; West Ham need, just for starters, three points from one game against the team in second.

West Ham should at least be able to rely on Chelsea being bang up for the chance to inflict more misery on Spurs, their favourite punching-bag. But this is no normal Chelsea, they have been abysmal in the Premier League for two months now, and will come into this game against a rested if still ruinously depleted Spurs just three days after giving their all to no avail against Man City in the FA Cup final.

Everton, for their part, have seen European ambitions dwindle to almost nothing on their own limp run to the finish line.

The Toffees are without a win in their last six games – and the last win they did get doesn’t even give Hammers much reason for hope because it was against Chelsea in the early days of their current seven-match winless Premier League run.

Dr Tottenham has performed many, many miracles before, but surely not even such an esteemed medic can be relied on here. West Ham’s final opponents Leeds, meanwhile, haven’t lost since the first week of March and have pocketed 16 points from their last eight games (four wins, four draws) to saunter well clear of trouble.

It seems fair to caveat things here with a broad suggestion that most of the Premier League would rather Spurs went down than West Ham did, but there’s only so much help they can offer. Based on this evidence, even if Chelsea and Everton – and Leeds – all do their very best to help West Ham out they might not be able to help themselves.

That’s what will really sting. If this really was the end as it very likely is, it is the most infuriatingly self-inflicted wound. West Ham spent their Sunday evening in Newcastle furiously hammering nails into their own coffin, stopping occasionally only to miss altogether and whack their own thumb.

The errors came thick and fast. Nuno Espirito Santo got his team selection badly wrong. We could just about understand why he wanted to stick with the back three after the huge and admirable if ultimately futile effort against Arsenal last week, but it was a big gamble to stick with it against such a very different team in such a very different mood.

Even if West Ham had started less abysmally than they did, they didn’t have the prospect they had last week of knowing that keeping the game tight and in the balance would cause nerves to creep into their opponent.

It was just a completely different occasion, something more akin to a testimonial as the Newcastle players emerged carrying their children to a ground full of signs bidding a fond farewell to Kieran Trippier ahead of what really should have been a far more difficult evening for a 35-year-old trying to deal with Crysencio Summerville.

But the real head-scratcher came at the sharp point of West Ham’s attack, where Taty Castellanos made way for Callum Wilson.

In one baffling wrong move, Nuno contrived to weaken both his starting XI and bench given Taty’s key role in the dramatic new-year improvement that gave West Ham any hope at all in this fight, and Wilson’s previous penchant for vital late goals as a substitute.

Within 20 minutes, the damage was done. Two catastrophic sets of multiple errors too grievous to analyse further handed a grateful Newcastle a 2-0 lead they barely had to work for.

Nick Woltemade and Will Osula accepted the gifts and, sure, Newcastle played a couple of neat little moves to create the goals. But it had the distinct whiff of the pre-season jolly. West Ham were just miles and miles off it in their biggest Premier League game in years.

The wrong XI playing the wrong shape in the wrong way, and it may well cost them everything. That Newcastle didn’t even have to be very good to pull them apart should break West Ham hearts.

As should the fact that when Nuno took steps to correct his mistake, the difference was instant. Jean-Clair Todibo was sacrificed to belatedly get Taty on the pitch, and West Ham became an active participant in the game once more.

But an important element of being the 18th-best team in a division is that you can’t really give anyone a 2-0 headstart before turning up. Not even a Newcastle team that p*sses leads away for fun.

There was further cruelty for Nuno, who, with just under half-an-hour to go in a game West Ham had to get something out of for a fight in which goal difference is largely meaningless, decided to go all out.

No criticism here of the decision to bring on Mohamadou Kante and Pablo to switch into something that looked very much like 3-3-4 for the final half hour – it was entirely sh*t or bust time – but giving away a third goal seconds later did rather draw attention to the changes.

That’s not really fair, either, because Nuno’s changes cannot explain how West Ham managed to use their own throw on halfway to not only instantly cede possession but break their own defensive lines so decisively that three Hammers were taken entirely out of the game by it before Osula couldn’t-believe-his-lucked a second goal of the night.

You cannot coach that kind of comical, self-defeating catastrophe. You can strive for another word to describe it all you like; you won’t land on a better one than Spursy. West Ham really might have just Spursed Spurs to safety by being more Spurs even than Spurs. What a way to go.

There was still time for Taty to score an absurd long-range consolation that briefly raised West Ham’s hopes again.

Thanks to that, it may end up that today serves as a microcosm of West Ham’s season as a whole: a miserable series of baffling self-inflicted mistakes, hope and improvement heralded by the introduction of Taty, but alas his eye-catching contributions all proving to be too little, too late.

West Ham need huge favours from elsewhere now, but whether they get them or not they need only look inward to see the source of their travails. This was a dreadful day in a season that has had too many of them and what is now a run of four points in five games since getting an improbable Great Escape into their own hands last month.

Jamie Carragher thinks Roberto De Zerbi will be “furious” with Tottenham Hotspur star Mathys Tel after he cost his side a win against Leeds United.

Tel had a rollercoaster game on Monday night against Leeds United, with the forward sensationally finding the net from distance to give his side a 1-0 lead shortly after half-time.

However, he later carelessly conceded a penalty for catching Leeds midfielder Ethan Ampadu with a high foot while attempting a clearance with an overhead kick.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin calmly converted the penalty and Sean Longstaff came close to winning the game for Leeds before full time, but the two sides were ultimately made to settle for a point.

This result leaves Spurs only two points clear of the relegation zone with two games remaining and Carragher hit out at Tel for his “really poor decision” when conceding a penalty.

“It’s just a crazy decision from Tel,” Carragher said on Sky Sports afterwards.

READ: Kinsky the hero for Tottenham as Tel plays long enough to become the villain

“What you think sometimes is we’ve been there sometimes as players where you don’t see the opposition player coming in.

“But he’s about to make his decision and he sees him, he looks. So he’s made his decision but as soon as he knows there’s someone there, it has to change.

“He still has time, he’s got to change his mind. I thought he hadn’t seen him initially, but he has. It’s a really, really poor decision.”

“De Zerbi will be furious…”

Tel also could have gifted Leeds a goal in the first half following a careless action. Carragher added: “We’re talking about a young attacking player, making two ridiculous decisions in this game.

“De Zerbi will be furious – but he’s got to remember he’s a young attacking player who has actually made a massive difference to Spurs right now.

“He came off the bench at Wolves, got the corner and the winning goal. He set up the second goal at Villa, and he scored the goal tonight.

“He needs him, because they haven’t got players with injuries but there’s a player there. We’ve seen that in the last couple of games.

“You’d be going nuts, but the good at the other end – everything we showed that was good from Spurs in the first half, and then he scored the goal in the second half.

“That’s the art of management, and De Zerbi knows that a lot better than me.”

Thankfully for Spurs, they were helped by Kinsky, with Carragher claiming he produced “one of the saves of the season” to deny Longstaff in stoppage time.

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Carragher has reserved praise for Kinsky for bouncing back from his disastrous performance against Atletico Madrid earlier this season.

“Who would have ever thought that he would probably ever play for Tottenham again, off the back of what happened at Atletico,” he said.

“You’d have to have a heart of stone if you didn’t feel delighted for him.

“Everyone thought his Spurs career was over a couple of months ago. That could be the save that keeps them in the Premier League.”

A BBC Sport mishap which saw the headline of their minute-by-minute coverage at half-time read ‘Spurs frustrated as they bid for crucial win against Spurs’ acted as a fitting summary not just for a season in which they’ve repeatedly shot themselves in the foot, in a club history featuring similar acts of self-flagellation, but in this very game when Mathys Tel got to his own byline and delivered a tantalising cross for Leeds’ James Justin.

It was a mad moment deserving rather more than the palms to the floor ‘calm down’ motion from manager Roberto De Zerbi. A ‘what the f*** were you thinking’ action of some sort would have been more fitting. Perhaps he should have forced his tongue under his bottom lip and groaned “uhhhhhhh” like a primary school bully in a playground to expose Tel as a fool.

Watch it back and it genuinely looks as though Tel is finding a yard to deliver a cross against a very stretched Leeds defence, but he was in fact looking to clear his lines with a lofted pass, for some reason unbeknownst to anyone but him, across his own box which Kevin Danso did well to get a touch on to stop Justin scoring with a header.

Anyone watching that moment in isolation, given Tottenham’s relegation strife, would have assumed it was a clear sign of nerves. Anyone watching this game as a whole would instead declare it as evidence Tel’s peaking confidence as a Spurs player manifesting as a failure to think clearly when near his own box, or indeed within it.

He was outstanding in the final third for Tottenham. Most of their most dangerous openings, in the first half in particular, came when the Frenchman cut in on his right foot and delivered crosses at pace towards the back post.

He very nearly scored after driving into the area and body-feinting to squeeze through two Leeds defenders, and then did find the back of the net with a delightful effort from the edge of the box.

We dispute the commentary claim that “his first touch gives him the chance”. It was decent but left the ball too close to him, making the strike all the more impressive as he had to half dig, half clip the ball out from under his body and into the top corner via the fingertips of Karl Darlow. The power he got on the shot with such a small backlift was astonishing.

Tottenham will wish now that they hadn’t taken the foot off the gas. Leeds didn’t look like scoring but neither did they before Tel’s audacity came at the cost of a penalty and swung the momentum in the visitors’ favour.

He should have headed it clear or at the very least chosen a method which didn’t involve a famously difficult and risk-ridden skill in the overhead kick. The reward of getting the ball a bit further away from danger in no way merits the risk of conceding a penalty. He saw Ethan Ampadu coming, too.

Spurs suddenly looked unsure of themselves. They had made all the running in the game before the equaliser, which then saw Leeds look the more likely side to claim victory. Spurs owe their point to Antonin Kinsky. What a save.

Substitute Sean Longstaff ran far too easily off the back of the Spurs midfield and leathered the ball from the corner of the six-yard line box. Kinsky had no right to get his right hand up in time, nor to have the wrist strength to divert the ball onto the bar. Jordan Pickford has a rival for save of the season even before you consider just how important a save that could be.

It means that Tottenham – barring West Ham smashing in 10+ goals in their two remaining games against Newcastle (A) and Leeds (H) – will need four points from their remaining two games against Chelsea (A) and Everton (H) rather than six to be sure of a place in the Premier League next season.

It was a huge moment; one Spurs fans will labour over should they retain their Premier League status. And there should be no doubt as to who Spurs’ No.1 goalkeeper is when Guglielmo Vicario returns from injury in quite the reversal of fortunes for Kinsky two months on from his Madrid nightmare.

Just as there should be no doubt as to who should be rampaging down the left flank for Spurs, so long as De Zerbi spends the next week before a battle at Stamford Bridge reminding Tel that the freedom to express himself doesn’t extend to the confines of his own penalty box.