Two down, one to go.

Burnley‘s loss to Manchester City meant they joined Wolves in having their relegation from the Premier League confirmed.

For the past couple of weeks, it has looked like being four teams – Leeds, Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Tottenham – scrapping it out to avoid the remaining spot in the drop zone.

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But, following Sean Longstaff’s dramatic late equaliser at Bournemouth, Leeds have taken seven points from three games to reach the magical 40-point mark, and many will be starting to exclude them from any relegation conversations.

“I am experienced long enough in this world, we will celebrate when it’s mathematically done. It’s too early,” Leeds boss Daniel Farke told BBC Match of the Day.

“We are on 40 points, seven games unbeaten in all competitions, so I am confident. Why should we lose the last four games?”

Victory over Championship-bound Burnley at Elland Road might be enough to make Leeds mathematically safe.

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Until then, there is still work to do before Farke will let himself celebrate and – certainly for the other three sides in the mix – it could go down to the wire…

Spurs more likely to go down than not – Opta

Big celebrations after a 97th-minute equaliser are usually to be expected but, for the Leeds players at the Vitality Stadium, it was about more than just the point.

That draw takes them nine points clear of Tottenham in 18th and, with so few games remaining, that gap will almost certainly be enough to keep them in the top flight.

According the Opta Supercomputer, the chances of Farke’s side being relegated from this position are a mere 0.21%.

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Still mathematically possible, as the Leeds manager said, but barring the most remarkable turn of events the Whites have done enough.

It is good news, too, for Forest. Following their win over Burnley at the weekend, Opta gives them just a 4.27% chance of being relegated.

As far as the supercomputer is concerned then, it is between West Ham and Tottenham for that unwanted 18th place.

The Hammers are given a 38.58% of ending the season in the bottom three, while it is seen as more likely than not that Spurs will go down for the first time since 1977.

Roberto de Zerbi’s side are the 56.93% favourites to be relegated from here.

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What does the form suggest?

Tottenham boss De Zerbi was bullish about his side’s chances of staying up after Saturday’s draw with Brighton, claiming they are “able to win five games in a row” to end the season.

But for all De Zerbi’s faith in his players’ capabilities, the evidence of this season does not suggest a team capable of such a feat.

Spurs have not won any of their past 15 league games, meaning they are without a top-flight victory in 2026 and have managed only two since 26 October.

They must beat bottom side Wolves on Saturday to avoid equalling the club’s worst winless league run – set some 91 years ago, between 1934 and 1935.

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By contrast, the form of Spurs’ relegation rivals has been picking up.

Nottingham Forest have two wins in their past three games and are unbeaten in five, and West Ham have won two of their past five.

Zoom out a little further and the Hammers have taken 19 points from their past 12 games, Forest have 18 from their past 13 and for Leeds it is 19 from 15.

Since beating Crystal Palace on 28 December, Spurs have taken six points from 15 matches.

The run-in

Every year when the fixtures are announced you hear the familiar refrain that “it doesn’t matter, you play everyone twice”.

But there is no doubt that when you face a certain team can make a big difference across a 10-month campaign.

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With five games remaining Spurs will definitely think their run-in, at least on paper, gives them every chance of staying up.

Next up is a trip to Wolves, whose relegation to the Championship was confirmed on Monday.

A home match against Leeds on 11 May is another Tottenham will view as an opportunity, especially if Farke’s side have ensured their safety by then.

Even a tricky-looking match at Champions League-chasing Aston Villa on 3 May comes at a good time for Spurs, as it falls between the two legs of the Europa League semi-final for Unai Emery’s men.

A visit to rivals Chelsea before hosting Everton on the final day is not a straightforward way to finish, given both teams seem likely to be fighting for European places.

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But, given how tight things are, that is something all the relegation candidates will have to deal with.

West Ham host Everton on Saturday before an away game at Brentford – and it only gets tougher with title-chasing Arsenal the visitors to London Stadium on 10 May.

Even with Newcastle enduring a disappointing season, an away game at St James’ Park on the penultimate weekend is far from simple and there could be plenty riding on the home match against Leeds on the last day.

Forest arguably face the toughest last five with away games at Chelsea and Manchester United in May – the former coming just three days before the second leg of the Reds’ Europa League semi-final against Villa.

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Home games against Newcastle and Bournemouth, on the last day, could be crucial but getting a result at Sunderland on Friday would help alleviate a lot of stress for Vitor Pereira’s side before the remainder of the run-in.

What do the stats say?

It is 49 years since Spurs found themselves in the relegation zone after 33 league games and, in that 1976-77 season, they were unable to save themselves.

Given only Sheffield Wednesday, already relegated from the Championship, have a worse home record than Spurs’ two wins in England’s top four tiers this term, significant improvements will be required.

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The numbers don’t get any more encouraging for De Zerbi’s side with only Derby (18) in 2007-08 and Sunderland (17) in 2002-03 having longer winless runs to start a calendar year than Spurs’ current streak of 15 – and both were relegated in those years.

Forest can take some comfort from the fact 36 points has been enough to survive in every Premier League season since 2015-16.

Even more encouragingly for the Whites, only six teams have been relegated with 39 points or more in a 38-game season and not in the past 14 seasons – since Birmingham and Blackpool both went down on 39 points.

This year might be one in which the traditional claim of 40 points being required for safety proves true, but West Ham know that sometimes even that is not enough.

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The Hammers hold the unwanted record of the most points achieved by a relegated side – the 42 they mustered in 2002-03 was not enough to spare them from the drop.

No wonder Farke and Leeds are taken nothing for granted just yet.

Venkatesh Iyer is itching to walk into the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s playing XI regularly, but the all-rounder understands the team dynamics that has left him on the benches, and is delighted with the role clarity the management has given to him. Part of Kolkata Knight Riders’ triumphant IPL 2024 campaign, Venkatesh joined RCB ahead of IPL 2026 but has played only one match so far, struggling to get a look into the packed top and middle-order of the Bengaluru outfit.

“…not used to sitting out, See, this is a team environment and as someone who places the team above everything else, it’s my duty to adhere to the environment,” Venkatesh told a select media gathering.

The all-rounder knows very well that RCB will be reluctant to tinker with a combination that had landed them their maiden IPL title a year ago.

“We’re defending champions. So, to tinker with a combination that has won you a championship is not always the smartest move. So as someone who’s walked into a team, it’s my duty to know what role I can play. The credit for that has to go to Mo (Bobat), Andy (Flower) and DK (Dinesh Karthik).

“They’ve been amazing when it comes to conversations about what my role in the team is. They’ve given me absolute clarity. Yes, It is hard, to be honest (to sit out). It’s something that you can’t prepare for. But that does not mean I’m not a part of their plans. It’s definitely a matter of when rather than if,” he added.

RCB bought the 31-year-old for Rs 7 crore during the auction ahead of IPL 2025, a far cry from his magical Rs 23.75 crore that he commanded from KKR earlier.

Similar to that dip in his monetary value, his chances to feature in matches too has shrunk in RCB, but Venkatesh does not see his motivation taking a dip.

“It’s not easy. But it’s extremely important to stay motivated because you can easily get desperate. You can easily lose out on your work ethic. So, I train my mind in such a way that I’m going to play every game. With the impact player (rule), anything can happen.

“But at the same time, I’ve always lived my life in a way that I compare myself with where I was yesterday. To look back at where I am in life, not just a game, is something that keeps me going. I had a great time for the past few years. I’m married now. I have a family. So, all these things kind of add to it that I’m doing well in life. So, these things keep me motivated,” he explained.

But is there regret lingering in him about KKR off-loading to free-up a purse close to Rs 24 crore? “I spent quite a lot of time at KKR, learnt a lot of things. I’d be lying if I said that I don’t have any emotional connection to them.

“There was amazing communication between me and Abhishek Nair (KKR coach) who wanted to release me at that point in time. So, he told me what the team requires. And you can get anything done out of me if it’s good for the team,” he said.

Praise for DK, Patidar

Venkatesh said he has been learning the finer points of modern T20 batting from Karthik.

“One thing I’ve understood is how to be flexible when it comes to batting. Obviously, he’s working with me only on my batting. How I can assess situations. How can I be smart in terms of staying ahead of others and combine that with total hard work.” RCB skipper Rajat Patidar, an accomplice of Venkatesh from age-group cricket in MP, has blown away the all-rounder with his simple methods.

“I see the biggest strength of Rajat Patidar is how simple he is in terms of his thinking, in terms of how he carries himself, also in terms of his batting. People are in awe of how he clears the boundary with ease. But at the end of the day, when you jot it down to how he does it, it’s actually simplicity. But he is tough also.

“So I think that fellow, I’ve not seen him change over the years. He’s still the same old Rajat that I used to admire back in under-19 days,” he said.

Upgrading red-ball skills

The IPL net sessions are not the place a player would want to improve his red-ball game skill-sets. But Venkatesh is exactly doing that.

“One aspect is that I get bored in the room. So I don’t want to spend a lot of time there. But one thing that I really feel that I haven’t tapped into is my red ball bowling. So, I make it a point to identify someone who has played a lot of red ball cricket.

“Last year (at KKR), I had Mitchell Starc. This year, I have Josh Hazlewood. So, obviously my conversations with them are about how I can improve my red ball bowling,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Should City and Arsenal win all their remaining five games they will both end on 85 points, meaning goal difference or goals scored could be the determining factor come May.

This is how tight it is – both teams have played the same number of games (33), have the same number of points (70) and their results are identical too – having won 21, drawn seven and lost five of their matches.

The only factor separating the two sides is the number of goals scored, with City netting 66 to Arsenal‘s 63.

Such is the topsy-turvy nature of this season’s race, City could find themselves trailing by six points by the time they next play in the league at Everton on Monday, 4 May – if Arsenal beat Newcastle and Fulham during that period.

City have previously scored five or more goals against Burnley in five different Premier League games – the most one side has done against another in the competition – and would have been eyeing up similar before this match.

Although City had 65% possession, a total of 28 shots with an expected goals (xG) of 3.54, they could only muster one goal through Haaland’s winner in the opening five minutes.

“Not many Arsenal players would have expected Burnley to get a result today, but if you are an Arsenal player or fan, you would take a 1-0 loss for Burnley,” former City defender Nedum Onuoha told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“Arsenal play Burnley in a few weeks and they will probably not be as wasteful with their chances as City, with so much on the line. Before you know it City are chasing Arsenal. I don’t think psychologically it matters that much.

“Now they have played each other, there is no longer this talk about the title decider in April. You have your five games, they have their five games. If you do well enough and win your games, the league title could very much be Arsenal‘s.

“They have to back themselves. The fact this only finished 1-0 to City when they had 28 shots, maybe this is the boost they need to turn their form around.”

Former Premier League goalkeeper Tim Krul added: “Arsenal have been so close the last few years, I think we all half want them to get it. But you can’t rule out Manchester City.

“My money would be on City, just with the experience. They are serial winners with the best manager in the world looking after them. You can’t not back them.”

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Eddie Hearn has named one fight that he feels is “inevitable” for Naoya Inoue, who must first defend his undisputed super-bantamweight crown against Junto Nakatani.

Their all-Japanese dustup will take place at the Tokyo Dome on May 2, with a full-capacity crowd of 55,000 expected to be in attendance.

Such is the level of intrigue attached to their encounter, which many believe represents the toughest test of Inoue’s career thus far.

Up to this point, ‘The Monster’ has won the majority of his fights in one-sided fashion, while nonetheless becoming a two-division undisputed champion.

He did, of course, suffer knockdowns against Luis Nery and Ramon Cardenas, but ultimately climbed off the canvas to win both fights by stoppage.

Even in his first encounter with Nonito Donaire, in 2019, Inoue showed tremendous guts and guile to eventually grind out a unanimous decision victory.

Against Nakatani, the 33-year-old may be compelled to overcome similar spells of adversity, but is heavily favoured to retain his four major titles at 122lbs.

Hoping to eventually face the Japanese star, meanwhile, is Jesse Rodriguez, who bids to become a three-division world champion against WBA bantamweight titlist Antonio Vargas on June 13.

Should ‘Bam’ emerge triumphant, then Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn will likely extend his talks with Turki Alalshikh for a potential Inoue fight.

“There [have] been some early preliminary conversations with [Alalshikh] about Inoue against ‘Bam’, and I do think that fight is inevitable.

“I don’t think it’s going to be necessarily straight after the Vargas fight, but it could be in the next two or three fights.

“It’s probably one of the biggest fights in boxing. It’s one that ‘Bam’ likes the idea of.”

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While moving up to 118lbs for his next outing, Rodruguez remains the unified world super-flyweight champion and could therefore chase an undisputed clash with the winner of Willibaldo Garcia vs Andrew Moloney, which takes place on June 6.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke about his team’s performance at Turf Moor as they beat Burnley 1-0

Pep Guardiola insisted that winning was the priority for Manchester City after they missed a host of chances to add to their goals tally against Burnley. A 1-0 victory was enough for the Blues to go top of the table for the first time since August, yet they missed the chance to better Arsenal’s goal difference playing against a side who have now been relegated and still have to play at the Emirates.

Guardiola had cut a frustrated figure on the touchline over the course of the 90 minutes at Turf Moor, but painted a positive picture of the performance when he discussed it with reporters afterwards. Given the effort that had gone into beating Arsenal on Sunday, the City boss was delighted to pick up another victory.

“We had chances. We have to win the games, but it was clear, clear, clear. We were not ‘umph’ in the last part of the shots. Sometimes it’s the fatigue. I had the feeling if we score at 2-0 it will be more relaxed and we could be more composed in the final third,” he said.

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“Winning is the main target. Considering the last three days and the emotion and physicality in the game we played, we make an extraordinary game. The chances we created we could score more goals but the important thing is every game winning. Five games in the Premier League for both games and we see what happens.

“I think we played really, really good. I’m pretty sure. I didn’t see all the images and the chances that we had, but I had a feeling that we had a lot. And just for many of these types of games, we score the second or the third, for the chances that we create, we deserve it, everything is more fluid, more natural.

“And at the end, the last minute, the corner, I said, Oh, God! But the way we play, we can draw, right? The corner is good. We cleared it, but they are good with that.

“And in terms of free-kicks, corners they are extraordinary. You never know, but the game was very well played. Well, we played, of course, they said, Ah, but the chances we create, you can have scored more. But the main target is win game, and against Everton, win the game, and all the games that we have to play.”

Former New York Jets quarterback Justin Fields was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in March. The former first-round pick will be backing up Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Fields, who had a difficult 2025 season with the Jets and is set to play for a fourth team in as many years, shared his admiration for the Chiefs signal caller on Tuesday.

“I wanted to come here because of the culture, because of Pat and to learn from him and coach Reid,” Fields said. I’m already kind of picking his brain a little bit and just observing how he goes about things in the meeting room, on the field, and stuff like that.”

Fans reacted to Fields’ comments about learning from Mahomes in Kansas City.

“Bro talking like he is a rookie, my guy you are on your 5th team and you are approaching 30.”

“I hope this goes well for him, maybe he can learn something and get another starting opportunity elsewhere.”

“Bro you were traded it wasn’t your choice 😭✌🏽”

“if he can’t be great with this team then it’s not the team but u ijs.”

“My boy true potential about to be unlocked 🔓 💪🏾🏈 ABOUT TO PROVE ALL THE HATERS WRONG!”

Fields was named the Jets’ starting quarterback after signing a two-year, $40 million contract in March last year. However, the Jets went 0-7 with Fields as their starting quarterback. He ended the season early with a knee injury, posting a 2-7 record in his nine games.

Also Read: Patrick Mahomes receives bad news as Chiefs’ draft plans for 2,283 YD WR gets concerning update from NFL analyst

Also Read: “Patrick Mahomes doesn’t have this aura” “Arrogance is wild”: NFL fans rip Caleb Williams over “narcissist” IG post

Chiefs HC Andy Reid expressed confidence in Justin Fields’ ability

The Jets got a 2027 sixth-round pick in exchange for Justin Fields, who had one year left on his contract. New York is reportedly set to pay $7 million of the QB’s $10 million contract.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid praised the former Jets quarterback for his work ethic as Patrick Mahomes rehabs from his ACL and LCL injuries. Reid said he is confident with Fields in the starting role if the team needs him.

“I appreciate Justin and the way he has gone about everything so far,” Reid said. “He’s been great with everything. He’s a legitimate quarterback, a starting quarterback in the NFL, and we’re lucky enough to have him here. If that’s the role that he plays early in the season, we have full confidence that he can do a great job with that.”

Although Reid acknowledged Fields’ credentials as a starter, the Chiefs are likely to stick with Mahomes if he recovers in time for Week 1.