Sundays football briefing Bournemouth stun Arsenal while Leeds claim Championship title

Arsenal will go into their crunch Champions League clash with Paris St Germain on the back of defeat by Bournemouth in the Premier League.

The final day of the regular EFL season saw Leeds pip Burnley to the Sky Bet Championship title, while Luton suffered back-to-back relegations.

Elsewhere, Harry Kane was agonisingly made to wait for the first silverware of his career as Bayern Munich were held to a 3-3 draw by RB Leipzig.

Arsenal driven by anger

Mikel Arteta demanded his Arsenal players use the “rage” from their shock defeat to Bournemouth as motivation for a Champions League comeback against Paris St Germain.

The Gunners geared up for Wednesday’s semi-final second leg in France in the worst possible fashion with a 2-1 home defeat after second-half goals by Dean Huijsen and Evanilson cancelled out Declan Rice’s 34th-minute opener.

It made it back-to-back Emirates defeats after a 1-0 loss to PSG on Tuesday and, while the focus is on the return clash, Arteta knows his second-placed side now also face a fight for a top-five finish in the Premier League.

“We certainly wanted to create a really good vibe,” said the Spaniard. “A positive result would have really helped us to build what we wanted towards Wednesday.

“So, what we have created now is a lot of rage, anger, frustration and a bad feeling in the tummy, so make sure that we use that for Wednesday to have a massive performance in Paris, win the game and be in the final.”

Villa keep up the fight

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery said his side will keep on battling for Champions League qualification after boosting their chances with a 1-0 win over Fulham.

Villa, who made the quarter-finals of this season’s competition, are still in the hunt to finish in the Premier League top five thanks to Youri Tielemans’ 12th-minute header.

They drew level with Nottingham Forest and Chelsea on 60 points and will now sit back and hope their rivals falter over the weekend as the race heads for a climax.

“If we weren’t winning today, forget it completely,” said Emery. “Today, we got more or less to be close to Europe.

“Champions League, OK, we are going to try to get it, but we are not contenders. We are not favourites to get it because there is Nottingham Forest in front of us, Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle.

“But we will fight for it, Europe, and hopefully we can fight for the Champions League.”

Leeds go marching on

Leeds won the Championship title in dramatic style at Plymouth.

The Whites needed to match Burnley’s result to beat them to the trophy on goal difference and, thanks to Manor Solomon’s stoppage-time winner, they did just that.

Their 2-1 victory and superior goal difference rendered Burnley’s 3-1 win over Millwall meaningless in the title race, although staggeringly it ensured both sides ended the season with 100 points.

The emotions were very different for Luton, relegated from the Premier League 12 months ago and now demoted to the third tier after a 5-3 loss to West Brom.

Bristol City booked their Championship play-off place, while the final automatic promotion spot in League Two went to Bradford.

Kane made to wait

Harry Kane still has not quite clinched the first silverware of his career after RB Leipzig’s dramatic late equaliser in a 3-3 draw with Bayern Munich.

The Bundesliga leaders were seconds away from moving to an insurmountable 11 points ahead of defending champions Bayer Leverkusen when Yussuf Poulsen struck in the fifth minute of added time.

With suspended top scorer Kane watching from the stands, Bayern had overturned a two-goal half-time deficit thanks to Eric Dier, Michael Olise and Leroy Sane.

But Champions League-chasing Leipzig, who had looked set to spoil the party following first-half goals from Benjamin Sesko and Lukas Klostermann, had the final say courtesy of a clever dinked finish from substitute Poulsen.

Kane had made his way pitchside in anticipation of joining in the celebrations before being left crestfallen by the last-gasp leveller.

What’s on today?

Bayern will be crowned champions on Sunday if Bayer Leverkusen fail to win at Freiburg, while Champions League chasers Chelsea and Newcastle are both in action in the Premier League.

Chelsea host newly-crowned champions Liverpool and Newcastle travel to Brighton, with the other Premier League matches seeing Manchester United visit Brentford and West Ham hosting Tottenham.

Rangers will look to take something from a wretched domestic season by beating Scottish Premiership champions Celtic, while another big derby in the Women’s Super League sees Manchester United host Manchester City at Old Trafford with a Champions League spot at stake.

Published: 04/05/2025 by Radio NewsHub