Premier League: 10 things to look out for on the final day of the season
For the third time in 29 years, Everton’s Premier League status is on the line on the final day at Goodison Park although, unlike against Wimbledon in 1994 or Coventry in 1998, survival is in their own hands. The task sounds straightforward enough: beat a Bournemouth team with nothing to play for and a 70th consecutive season in the top flight is guaranteed. Everton, though, have an aversion to the straightforward. Sean Dyche does not have a decent striker available with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has been integral to the team’s recent improvement, hamstrung again. Unless Vitaliy Mykolenko recovers from a thigh injury, he will not have a recognised full-back (left or right) available either. Everton have not won at home since 11 March and were soundly beaten twice in five days by Gary O’Neil’s team just before the World Cup break, 4-1 in the Carabao Cup and 3-0 in the Premier League. A defining afternoon, laden with consequence on and off the pitch, awaits. Andy Hunter
Everton v Bournemouth (all games Sunday 4.30pm BST)
Leicester could scarcely have asked for kinder opposition than West Ham in a match they must win to have even a puncher’s chance of avoiding relegation on the final day. David Moyes’s side have the distraction of a looming Europa Conference League final and are likely to field a weakened side. In the final game before his contract expires, Dean Smith must decide whether to stick with the belt-and-braces back five that kept a rare clean sheet at Newcastle or recall one or both of James Maddison or Harvey Barnes, his most creative sparks who started that game on the bench. It seems inconceivable that a player as gifted as Maddison won’t line up for what may well be his final game for the club, and his