Goal! Fulham 2-2 Crystal Palace (David, 90)

Palace have been denied at the last.

Some merited Dwight Gayle appreciation from "Ianandsibel":

Does Dwight Gayle have the best goals per minute on the pitch of any player this season he's only played about 3 and half games this season and scored 7 

Sending off! At Anfield again.

Newcastle now down to nine men with the dismissal of Paul Dummett for a foul on Luis Suarez, a very soft decision by the looks. Oh, and a bit of argy bargy at the Etihad too, Aguero's foul on Mark Noble sparking a bit of a melee.

Goal! West Brom 1-2 Stoke (Adam, 87)

Stoke look like ending a good season on a high, a firm left-footed drive from Charlie Adam putting them back in front.

Goal! Fulham 1-2 Crystal Palace (Gayle, 84)

It's that man again, a stunning free-kick from Dwight Gayle could well have put Palace on their way to a fourth consecutive away win.

There have been hearty rounds of applause for the substituted Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana, but Southampton are possibly lamenting their failure to make their first-half dominance count for more. Roy Hodgson, in attendance earlier, has left the building. Still 1-1 against Manchester United.

Goal! Cardiff 1-2 Chelsea (Torres, 75)

Chelsea have turned it round completely at Cardiff, and would be heading for second place if Newcastle hadn't imploded at Anfield.

Goal! Cardiff 1-1 Chelsea (Schurrle, 72)

The goal that Chelsea have been threatening has come, the substitute Andre Schurrle equalising on the rebound after a fine save from Marshall from Azpilicueta's header.

It's come to this. In the absence of truly forehead-slapping drama at most of our matches, we're discussing past Yugoslavia World Cup campaigns (and why not?). Here's Admir Pajic again:

"Simon Huxtable is partially right - Yugoslavia missed three out of five penalties. However, two of three were missed by Dragoljub Brnovic and Faruk Hadzibegic respectively who had played in French league back then. Only scorers for Yugoslavia were two out of three Red Star players (Stojkovic missed, Savicevic and Prosinecki scored).

Tomislav Ivkovic - who saved notorious Maradona's penalty that included a pre-match wager between two of them - wasn't playing in Yugoslavian league either (Sporting Lisbon) and there were suggestions that Ivica Osim should have put someone from Yugoslav league between the sticks. England wouldn't have the same problem like Yugoslavia had as there are no English internationals abroad. Unless THAT is a real problem, of course."

Trying to discern why Ameobi was sent off at Anfield. Looks like some kind of dissent, with Ameobi having words with Phil Dowd at the kick off after Liverpool's second goal. Nick Miller is following it all here.

More fun with facts:

Red card! Shola Ameobi (Newcastle)

Ameobi is dismissed by Phil Dowd, so Newcastle's afternoon is now collapsing in perhaps familiar fashion.

Goal! Liverpool 2-1 Newcastle (Sturridge, 65)

A repeat performance from Liverpool here. Another Gerrard free-kick from a similar area just out on the right is put in at the far post by Daniel Sturridge. League goal No101 for Liverpool this season.

Goal! Liverpool 1-1 Newcastle (Agger, 63)

Liverpool are level, so at least move closer to making absolutely sure of second spot (Here's a barrel, now scrape it). Daniel Agger converts Steven Gerrard's teasing free-kick.

Goal! Norwich 0-2 Arsenal (Jenkinson, 62)

Goal! Fulham 1-1 Crystal Palace (Woodrow, 61)

Youngster Cauley Woodrow's first ever Premier League goal brings Fulham level, and Carl Jenkinson buries Norwich with a second for Arsenal.

Hugo Rodallega's hit the post as Fulham step it up a little against Palace, to whom they still trail 0-1. Suarez hits a free-kick straight at Tim Krul at Anfield. Still 1-0 to Newcastle.

Goal! Southampton 1-1 Man Utd (Mata, 54)

Goal! West Brom 1-1 Stoke (Sessegnon, 56)

Juan Mata levels against the run of play with a sumptuous free-kick, and West Brom move closer to getting the point they technically still need through Stephane Sessegnon.

Goals flying in since half-time, as are the emails. Here's Simon Huxtable:

Admir Pajic's suggestion that introducing penalties to settle drawn matches would benefit the national team forgets the fact that the Yugoslav national team's one encounter with a penalty shootout came in the World Cup Quarter Final in 1990. After a dreadful 0-0 draw, Argentina won 3-2 on penalties. I was 9 at the time but I remember three things: Maradona took one of the worst penalties I've ever seen, Yugoslavia's kit was horrible, and Yugoslavia were rubbish at penalties.

And Kiran Kulkani's thinking ahead to next year's title race:

Today will be the last opportunity Rodgers is going to get to lay his hands on the trophy at least for the foreseeable future. It's not going to be easy to even break into the top four next term because :
1) Hungry & wounded United will be destructive. They won't play in Europe too. Plenty of rest.
2) Mourinho can't afford to make excuses & tell stories of Little & Big Horses.
3) City will be splashing cash as always & they are already formidable. 4) Wenger & Gazidis will be under pressure like never before to stop making empty speeches on Arsenal's finances & spending power.
5) And finally we can't rule out Spurs. Because we won't be seeing Soldado running like a headless chicken.
6) Everton won't be satisfied with what they have achieved this season.
So Rodgers, it's not going to get easier than this.

Goal! Sunderland 1-3 Swansea (Bony, 54)

Get back to your sun loungers, Black Cats – Swansea look to have wrapped that one up with another goal from Wilfred Bony.

Goal! Norwich 0-1 Arsenal (Ramsey, 53)

Aaron Ramsey with a brilliant volleyed goal, rounding off a neat move involving Giroud and Ozil.

Goal! Sunderland 1-2 Swansea (Borini, 50)

Sunderland players come back in off the beach and start making a game of it at the Stadium of Light. Fabio Borini scores. Arsenal still missing chances against Norwich by the way.

Goal! Manchester City 2-0 West Ham (Kompany, 49)

That's it. Game, and title race, so so over. Kompany prods home from six yards after a knock-down from a corner.

Goal! Hull 0-2 Everton (Lukaku, 46)

Romelu Lukaku is bowing out at Everton in style, and has doubled Everton's lead against the out-of-sorts FA Cup finalists.

Peep! And we're off again

Emails: Alex Banks has a pretty good lame - not to say claim - to fame tucked in this one:

I think West Ham should go for it 2nd half otherwise this'll be 3 or 4 nil. I asked the 19 year old guy next to me for his take. He agreed, saying sitting back and absorbing constant attacks knackers you. He should know, he stuck 2 past Ajax last week to win NL's version of the FA Cup.

Meanwhile, the relative shortage of drama and wild permutations in a lot of places today has meant a lack of last-day hypotheticals, but Cian Mulligan has one:

Hypothetical situation: In added time, Arsenal still haven't conceded. Wenger substitues Fabianski for Szczesny, who sees out the remaining minutes. Does that count as a clean sheet for Szczesny, handing him the Golden Glove for most clean sheets?

Paul Merson on SSN is ripping into Manchester United's "shocking" performance at Southampton, for whom England hopefuls Lambert, Lallana and Shaw are all excelling.

All your title race pictures:

The best images of today's action can be found here

Admir Pajic has some thoughts about improving the England team, as apparently everyone does this week, no matter how tenuous:

Given that England have lost six out of seven penalty-shootouts since 1990, perhaps Greg Dyke should make a copy & paste of an idea from Yugoslav league between 1989 and 1992. In case a game had ended a draw after 90 minutes, there was a penalty-shootout to decide which team would win that one point from the game. Red Star had benefited from that rule in Champions' Cup Final 1991 against Olympique Marseille as they had had a lot more practice from the domestic league than their opponents had.
Now, if Mr Dyke introduces that rule for all youth categories and all four leagues, perhaps English players would take penalties better while English goalkeepers would save more of them.

Goal! Manchester City 1-0 West Ham (Nasri, 39)

Samir Nasri hits one from a distance and Adrian can only finger-tip it inside the bottom corner of his net. City are set to win the title by a decent margin here.

Goal! Tottenham 3-0 Aston Villa (Adebayor, 36pen)

Well that's that settled. A 'comical' handball by Gaby Agbonlahor gifts Spurs the chance to go three-up and Adebayor bangs it down the middle to increase Spurs' lead.

Goal! Tottenham 2-0 Aston Villa (Baker 35og)

Emmanuel Adebayor's fierce shot rebounds off Nathan Baker and goes in. Spurs are heading for Europe.

In his final Manchester United appearance Nemanja Vidic is covered in blood at St Mary's, after a collision with Lambert in the run-up to that Saints goal. He is currently receiving treatment but is about to come back on.

Goal! Fulham 0-1 Crystal Palace (Gayle, 28)

The in-form Dwight Gayle puts the in-form Crystal Palace in front at hapless Fulham.

Goal! Southampton 1-0 Manchester United (Lambert, 28)

Southampton's early dominance has been rewarded, a fine goal by the outstanding Rickie Lambert. Meanwhile at Anfield, Newcastle miss another good chance. Gouffran played through and one-on-one but Mignolet blocks.

Meanwhile at the Etihad, Manchester City are dominant, but not yet making it count. Though it doesn't matter much at the moment.

Chance for Liverpool! Agger misses a good chance with a header, seven yards out, but sends it straight at Tim Krul.

Goal! West Brom 0-1 Stoke (McCauley og 22)

West Brom tease Norwich a bit by going behind with a Gareth McCauley own goal at the Hawthorns.

Some thoughts on Everton's goalscorer, and a blog-plug, from Gary Naylor:

I guess DM is an unglamorous position and James McCarthy is not going to Brazil,
but he did not make the shortlist for Young Player of the Season (he was
eligible) and did not figure in many end of season round-ups. He was my Everton
Man of the Season though (at http://evertonia.wordpress.com/) and it's good to
see that he's signed off with a goal.

Goal! Liverpool 0-1 Newcastle (Skrtel og, 20)

And wouldn't you know it, Newcastle have just gone down the other end and scored. An own goal by Martin Skrtel, volleying a sliced clearance into the corner of his own net. The title heads closer to Manchester.

Goal disallowed at Anfield!

A delicious lob from Luis Suarez, curled with the outside of his right foot, is disallowed because the referee wasn't ready for the free-kick. Scenes.

Goal! Cardiff 1-0 Chelsea (Bellamy, 15)

In what could be his final match for the Bluebirds, Craig Bellamy has given his side hope of signing off in style.

Liverpool have begun to dominate against Newcastle, but their front-runners aren't doing much

Goal! Tottenham 1-0 Aston Villa (Paulinho, 14)

More misery for Villa then.

Goal! Sunderland 0-2 Swansea (Emnes 14)

A brilliant drive into the roof of the net by Marvin Emnes doubles Swansea's lead against Sunderland, who might just be - metaphorically or even actually – on the beach.

Talking of the Cup final, David Wagland is a tad intrigued by Arsenal's lineup this afternoon:

Now correct me if I'm wrong but arsenal cannot finish anywhere other than fourth. If this is the case is this not a very strange team selection? Is fabianski in for match sharpness or is wenger going to drop him for the final? (Very harsh if he does) playing both right backs feel like an unnecessary risk, as does playing all of Ramsey, ozil and giroud. Surely kallstrom, sanogo and maybe some of our younger players looking to break through (eisfeld etc) would have made more sense for this game?

Maybe Arsenal really are serious about chasing third and scoring loads of goals? But they haven't got any yet. Still goalless in the title deciders too by the way.

Goal! Hull 0-1 Everton (McCarthy 9)

A neat Everton move is rewarded by McCarthy's finish as Hull's pre-Cup final preparations continue to stutter

Norwich need thousands of goals against Arsenal, but they've not even had the ball yet against Arsenal, but the visitors haven't scored - yet.

Goal! Sunderland 0-1 Swansea (Dyer, 7)

Nathan Dyer's sixth of the season has put the Swans ahead at the Stadium of Light, while Southampton are denied a decent penalty shout at St Mary's against Nemanja Vidic for handball

Title race latest: Shola Ameobi has missed a decent early chance for Newcastle at Liverpool, but not a lot happening at the Etihad at all so far. Goalless at both places.

Early exchanges: bright starts for Southampton, Spurs, West Brom and Chelsea, for whom Fernando Torres was denied at the last by Steven Caulker, but no goals.

Peep! And it's kicked off everywhere

More on planes, from m'colleague Dan Lucas:

"Banter" news: Some Manchester United fans are sending a plane over Anfield, trailing a banner saying "United 20 Gerrard 0". I wonder if people will start to yearn for the days when fans couldn't afford their own planes.

"Can anyone work out what formation Man U are playing?" asks Corin Metcalfe. "Forcing Januzaj, Kagawa and Mata into a team with two strikers. Possibly Giggs intends to emulate Sir Alex in going out with a bang. 5-5 anyone?"

Talking of which, a possible stat of the day:

Reports are circulating that Ricky van Wolfswinkel, absent from Norwich's lineup today, has "stormed" out of Carrow Road, prompting uncharitable questions about whether anyone would notice.

At last, the Cardiff v Chelsea lineups, confirming absence of Terry and Lampard:
Cardiff: Marshall, Da Silva, Caulker, Turner, John, Bellamy, Gunnarsson, Mutch, Whittingham, Daehli, Campbell. Subs: Eikrem, Cowie, McNaughton, Lewis, Berget, Healey, James.

Chelsea: Schwarzer, Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Kalas, Cole, Mikel, Matic, Salah, Oscar, Hazard, Torres. Subs: Luiz, Schurrle, Ba, Cahill, Ake, Hilario, Swift.

Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland)

Who says today's other games will be incident-free?

More on pre-match PA music: they've gone all Led Zep at the Etihad, apparently. Insert cliched Stairway to Heaven-crowbarring-in headline here.

Meanwhile, Tom Shaw is loitering outside the bookies pondering this one:

You can get 16/1 on a Man City - Chelsea top two. I'm tempted as I think Liverpool might bottle it against Newcastle, Chelsea should see off an awful Cardiff team and even though plucky little City will probably get a drubbing against Big Sam's claret and blue army they'll still finish first. I'm minded to waste chance twenty notes on that.

Fulham v Crystal Palace
Fulham: Stockdale, Zverotic, Heitinga, Hangeland, Amorebieta, Kacaniklic, Sidwell, Parker, Richardson, Rodallega, Woodrow. Subs: Kasami, Mitroglou, Dejagah, David, Joronen, Williams,
Tunnicliffe.
Crystal Palace: Hennessey, Mariappa, Dann, Delaney, Ward, Bolasie, Jedinak, Ledley, Ince, Chamakh, Gayle. Subs: Speroni, Dikgacoi, O'Keefe, Puncheon, Murray, Gabbidon, Jerome.
Referee: Kevin Friend (Leicestershire)

A first email: "One question if you don't mind," asks Thomas Krantz, "how comeback the final day doesn't contain any perceived favourites playing each other? I assume this is deliberate by the FA?"

All done by computer, Thomas, and computer says no.

Today is also the 29th anniversary of the Bradford fire, which claimed the lives of 56 fans. And Jeff Stelling on SSN reports considerable disquiet at the failure of any Premier League clubs to acknowledge the anniversary with a minute's silence today, though silences have been observed at at least some of the weekend's play-off games, such as yesterday's Peterborough v Orient match,

Straw-clutching latest: They are playing I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles on the PA at Anfield.

Manchester City v West Ham
Man City: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Demichelis, Kolarov, Silva, Toure, Javi Garcia, Nasri, Aguero, Dzeko. Subs: Lescott, Milner, Negredo, Clichy, Fernandinho, Pantilimon, Jovetic.
West Ham: Adrian, Reid, Tomkins, O'Brien, McCartney, Noble, Diame, Downing, Nolan, Taylor, Carroll. Subs: Jarvis, Armero, Vaz Te, Collins, Jaaskelainen, Carlton Cole, Joe Cole.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire)

Norwich City v Arsenal

Norwich: Ruddy, Martin, Turner, Ryan Bennett, Olsson, Redmond, Tettey, Johnson, Snodgrass, Howson, Elmander. Subs: Whittaker, Fer, Hooper, Bunn, Elliott Bennett, Loza, Murphy.
Arsenal: Fabianski, Jenkinson, Sagna, Koscielny, Gibbs, Arteta, Ramsey, Rosicky, Ozil, Podolski, Giroud. Subs: Szczesny, Wilshere, Monreal, Flamini, Sanogo, Diaby, Kallstrom.
Referee: Lee Mason (Lancashire)

West Bromwich Albion v Stoke City

West Brom: Foster, Dawson, McAuley, Olsson, Brunt, Mulumbu, Dorrans, Amalfitano, Morrison, Berahino, Sessegnon. Subs: Yacob, Ridgewell, Myhill, Lugano, Anichebe, Vydra, O'Neil.
Stoke: Sorensen, Cameron, Shawcross, Wilson, Muniesa, Whelan, Nzonzi, Odemwingie, Ireland, Arnautovic, Walters. Subs: Pieters, Palacios, Adam, Crouch, Etherington, Wilkinson, Butland.
Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire)

Chelsea team titbits: Frank Lampard, who has been ill this week, and John Terry haven't travelled to Cardiff, Sky Sports News reports.

Significant football match news: Burton Albion have beaten Southend United 1-0 at home in the first leg of their League Two playoff semi-final. Not a bad result for the Brewers given that they were down to ten men for the last half-hour following the sending-off of Ian Sharps.

Preamble: Tom will be here from 1pm with all the build-up and team news ahead of the last Premier League match of the season. In the meantime, read about Greg Dyke's plans to shake up football:

A controversial plan by the FA chairman, Greg Dyke, to introducePremier League B teams into the Football League by 2016-17 to boostEngland's chances will have to face down fierce opposition from within the game if it is to succeed.

Dyke has targeted winning the 2022 World Cup but warned that English football will slide into irrelevance without major changes. But he faces a bitter battle with the Premier League and the Football League over his plan to radically reshape English football's century-old pyramid.

He hopes the attraction to big clubs of being able to follow the continental model of blooding young players in a competitive B team and the prospect for Football League clubs of a £30m cash pool per season will be enough to sway the undecided.

The four key proposals are:

• A new League Three to be introduced in 2016-17, combining the top half of the Conference and 10 Premier League B sides.

• A beefed-up homegrown players' rule requiring 13 members of the 25-man squad to have been trained in England as youngsters by 2020-21.

• A more strictly enforced work permit system that would prevent Premier League sides from having more than two non-EU players.

• A new loan system that will allow Premier League clubs to loan up to eight players to a strategic partner below the Championship.

Read the full story here.