Premier League Daily Report - 2026-05-24

Arsenal ended the 2025-26 Premier League season as champions, with Mikel Arteta's side finally getting their hands on the trophy after a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. The title had already been clinched earlier in the week when Manchester City drew with Bournemouth, but the presentation on Sunday turned the achievement into a full celebration in front of Stan Kroenke and the travelling support.

Martin Odegaard was among the players visibly overwhelmed as Arsenal lifted the trophy amid fireworks and tickertape, underlining how long the club has waited for this moment. The win also capped a season in which Arsenal were able to rotate heavily on the final day while still finishing on top, a sign of the depth that carried them to the league crown.

Tottenham Hotspur survived relegation on the final day thanks to Joao Palhinha's first-half goal in a 1-0 win over Everton. The result meant Spurs finished two points clear of West Ham, whose 3-0 victory over Leeds United was not enough to escape the bottom three.

The stakes were enormous because Spurs had been in genuine danger of dropping into the Championship for the first time in 49 years, yet Palhinha's scrappy finish settled the match and kept them up. The outcome also confirmed West Ham's relegation after a 14-year stay in the top flight, making the afternoon one of the most dramatic in recent Premier League history.

Chelsea's season ended in disappointment with a 2-1 defeat at Sunderland that left them 10th in the Premier League and out of Europe for 2026-27. Trai Hume opened the scoring for Sunderland, Malo Gusto then turned a Brian Brobbey effort into his own net, and Cole Palmer's goal only briefly kept the Blues alive.

The result underlined how far Chelsea fell after being fifth when Enzo Maresca was dismissed in January, before further upheaval and Calum McFarlane's final game in charge. Missing out on European football is a major setback for a squad that still had a route into the Europa League on the final day, but could not deliver when it mattered.

Erling Haaland finished as the Premier League's top scorer for 2025-26 with 27 goals, winning the Golden Boot for the third time in four seasons. Manchester City did not play him in their final match, a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa, but his total still left him five clear of Brentford striker Igor Thiago.

The numbers reinforce Haaland's extraordinary consistency in English football: he also led the scoring charts in 2022-23 with 36 goals and 2023-24 with 27. No other player in the league reached 20 goals, which makes his 27-goal haul even more striking in a season where City fell short of the title.

Mohamed Salah's farewell season ended with Liverpool securing Champions League football, after a 1-1 draw with Brentford on the final day. Salah supplied the assist for Curtis Jones to bundle home, and while he came close to a dramatic goodbye himself, the point was enough to guarantee a return to Europe's elite competition.

The result mattered because Liverpool were under pressure to protect a top-five place, and Salah's contribution again proved decisive at the business end of the season. Across his Liverpool career, he leaves with 257 goals in 438 appearances, a record that places him among the club's all-time greats and makes this summer exit one of the Premier League's biggest storylines.

Trinidad and Tobago midfielder Rio Cardines made his Premier League debut for Crystal Palace in the 2-1 loss to Arsenal at Selhurst Park. The 19-year-old delivered a composed display on his first appearance at the top level, and one report noted he was the second-youngest player on the pitch behind Arsenal's 16-year-old Max Dowman.

The debut is a notable milestone for Cardines because he is already involved with Trinidad and Tobago's senior national-team setup, and Palace were able to give him minutes against the newly crowned champions. Even in defeat, the appearance suggests the club is willing to trust young talent in meaningful Premier League fixtures.