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By Monday morning, the shape of next season’s Premier League will be clearer. Saturday lunchtime stages the final round of the actual best league in the world, the Championship. One of Ipswich, Millwall and Middlesbrough will join Frank Lampard’s Coventry in being a top-division club by 3pm, Rochdale-esque pitch invasions permitting, as automatic promotion is boxed off. There’s also a race for sixth, another triple-header, where plucky, Disney/tech bro/Hollywood-backed Wrexham kick off a point ahead of Hull and Derby in the chase for the playoffs. Will Ryan and Rob be there? Boro are the opposition, so will Chubby Brown and Jeff Winter be there?
Drama awaits over 90 minutes of sheer hell for fans, probably requiring more than an isotonic drink to wash down. Though that’s not the end of it. Once the Championship regular season bids farewell, another weekend of worry awaits for two of football’s grandest drama-magnets. West Ham visit Brentford, who have not won since 28 February but are nevertheless two points off what may be a Champions League spot – sixth – in a meeting of well-run club versus club run on the whims of a billionaire. Should the Hammers get a point – Brentford have drawn five from the last six – that would open a three-point gap on Tottenham. All eyes then on Sunday night at Villa Park, kicking off in the 7pm Heartbeat slot, as a result of Aston Villa’s Bigger Vase commitments. The hope for Tottenham is Villa replicate a disappointing display at Nottingham Forest that had Unai Emery going full Mr Hennetty in the Bureau after some ropey VAR-ing.
