Good Morning,
We have a full lineup of matches today. But first queue up Michael Scott pressing play on the voice recorder (IYKYK), cause Vardy just announced that he is leaving Leicester at the end of the season. After 496 games with Leicester he showed us all that Red Bull really does give you wings.
-Gabe

Matches

🔥 Headline Match: Chelsea vs. Everton

🏟️ Stamford Bridge | 🕗 12:30 PM BST / 4:30 AM PT

🔵 Chelsea: No room to breathe: Remember that time your friend convinced you to go to a random metal concert and you ended up drenched in sweat, moshing in the basement of some venue, hardly able to breathe?

Well, that’s exactly how Chelsea feels right now sitting 6th in the table. Part of the 'Group of 5' packed within four points of each other, they’re just trying to fight to the front to keep from suffocating.

A top-five finish is going to take some doing, with Chelsea’s remaining games coming against a stingy Everton, the soon-to-be champs, Liverpool, fellow moshers, Newcastle, and a resourceful Forest.

🔵 Everton: Finding a way
Everton find themselves in 13th place, cough (above Manchester United) cough, which will probably be the highest they can finish this season.

David Moyes has never secured a league win at Stamford Bridge in 19 attempts.
But with the way the Toffees have been grinding out results since Moyes (re)took over, it can’t be ruled out.

A surprise win at Stamford Bridge would be the cherry on top of a pretty underwhelming season.

📆Unbeaten since 94’: Chelsea are unbeaten in their last 29 home meetings with Everton in the league — a streak dating back to 1994. It’s the longest home unbeaten run against a single opponent in Chelsea’s history​. Everton’s last win at Stamford Bridge came in November 1994.

🔢 3 teams with 38:
Everton(13th), United(14), and Wolverhampton(15th) all sit at 38 points with the toffees leading on goal differential. The last time Everton finished above United was 12 seasons ago.

 ⏳️ Time Flies: Almost exactly 1 year ago Chelsea thrashed Everton 6-0, which was Everton’s heaviest defeat in 20 years. In that game Cole Palmer scored four goals, becoming the first player to net four in one game against Everton in the 21st century​.

⚽ Other Premier League Fixtures:

• Brighton vs. West Ham
  West Ham has only ever beaten Brighton in the Premier League once, back in 2023. 1 win in 15 tries, just keep hammering away.

• Newcastle vs. Ipswich
  Newcastle was on a 6 game win streak before losing to Villa last week. Lowly Ipswich may become collateral damage to an angry magpie squad. ​

• Southampton vs. Fulham
  Southampton is now tied for lowest ever pt total in PL history (at least the miserable have company). They only need 1 more point to not be the worst PL team of all time.

• Wolves vs. Leicester
  Jamie Vardy announced his plan to leave Leicester this summer. He will be missed. He was apart of some absolute crackers against Wolves over the years. Like this match from the 2019 season.

Extra Slice

Premier League Merit Payments: Why Every Point Still Matters

As the Premier League season winds down, the final table doesn’t just decide titles and relegation, it also determines how much cold hard cash each club takes home. Thanks to "merit payments," each league position is worth about £2.8 million ($3.5M), stacking neatly atop a club's equal share of Premier League revenue.

Here’s how it works:

• Every club gets a flat share (~£95M last season) just for being in the league.

• Extra money comes from facility fees (games shown on TV, ~£900k per game) and merit payments (higher you finish, more you earn).

• The 2023-24 season saw Man City pocket £56.4M just from merit payments alone, bringing their total payout to nearly £176M.

Small moves = big money:
For clubs like Man United or Spurs, even a few places up or down could swing their payout by £12M which could cover the cost of a new signing or a player's full-year wages.

European battles = even bigger stakes:
Clubs chasing Champions League or Europa League spots (like Forest, Brighton, Palace) stand to boost their revenues by £40M+ from UEFA money, on top of merit payments.

Financial examples from this season:

• Nottingham Forest would bring in a minimum of £30M extra, compared to last season, if they finish at least 7th.

• Ipswich Town, even though relegated, can secure an extra £3M just by finishing 18th instead of 19th, bringing their total payout to £115M which is almost triple last season's turnover.

Bottom line: Even mid-table matches and relegation scraps have real, measurable stakes. Every point and every place ALWAYS matters.

📈 Table