With only weeks left to go in the Premier League campaign, part 3 of our look at the runners and riders for European places next season is below. In case you missed part 1 and part 2, each week we take a look at three of the teams in the top half that aren’t Liverpool and scope out the remaining games, their chances of glory, and any assets to grab or dodge for your team before the season ends. First up this week is the majestic, glorious, inspirational….
Brighton and Hove Albion (9th place – form WWDLL)
Alright, so it hasn’t exactly been a great three weeks for Fabien Huerzler’s seagulls. Hopefully later today the run of poor results will end with a (presumably, and I hope I’m not hexing anything by saying this) handy home game to the abysmal Leicester. The season has been all ups and downs at the Amex, with a level of inconsistency in results usually reserved for arch-rivals Crystal Palace. In terms of remaining fixtures, it’s not bad bar a lethal trip to Anfield in GW37. West Ham and Newcastle at home over the next fortnight are interesting but hardly safe games. After that it’s a trip to Wolves and the season ends with Spurs, whose season ended around Christmas. The problem with making projections for Brighton is that they’re wildly erratic in their performances. Few teams could lose 7-0 to Forest and then go and hammer Chelsea by three. With both a highly rotated squad and a fairly inexperienced man at the wheel, it’s hard to say how they’ll finish up. My heart says that 7th European place for England might be the thing that does it, but my head says place no bets.
As for assets, it’s Mitoma all day and all night with value also to be found in Joao Pedro (albeit on limited minutes), and this season’s rising star Carlos Baleba. Minteh, too, has been delivering over the past 60 days despite the team’s woes, pointing to a genuine talent and a high-value fantasy asset. Europe? At this point, probably not, but at least we’ll finish ahead of Fulham.
Probably.
Maybe.
Speaking of which….
Fulham (8th place – form WLWLW)
And from the righteous and beautiful heights to the depraved, foul, wretched lows. It’s the team you love to hate, the guys you draft and then leave on the bench for the season, the squad that “someone” keeps hyping as the greatest of all time despite a complete inability to achieve anything beyond mid-table mediocrity, a team so disgusting they let recidivists like Palhinha and Mitrovic play for them. It’s Fulham, and we all wish it wasn’t.
Jokes aside, they’re even patchier than Brighton. Their last few games are a string of greens and reds worthy of Christmas lights, and there’s not a lot of joy to come either. Between now and the curtain call, Fulham have to deal with Bournemouth (away), Chelsea (home), City (home), and Villa away. Home to Everton and Southampton should yield a safe(ish) six points, but even the trip to Brentford is likely to challenge. But then, it’s Fulham, and it’s the 24/25 season, and it’s lower top half competition, so who has any idea? This writer reckons Europe is out of reach for them, and they’re likely to drop below Brighton for a finish simply because the easy games just aren’t there. 
As for player assets, we’re big fans of Alex Iwobi around here. Factoring in his spell at Everton, this is second team he’s shone in when fit, and frankly we don’t know why he hasn’t been snapped up by a bigger fish thus far. Antonee Robinson too seems to be playing at a level beyond his current club and has been outstanding for several years now.
Beyond that, it’s been a quiet year for Leno, but Ryan Sessegnon appears to be back on form. In the absence of Anders Pereira – a perennial draft must-have – Muniz has been providing fairly decent firepower. But overall, the issue isn’t which Fulham players you should draft, it’s whether you should lower yourself to drafting Fulham players.
Nottingham Forest (3rd place – form DWWWL)
There’s not a fan of football, casual or hardcore, that I’ve spoken to this year that isn’t cheering on Forest. I write this as a Brighton fan, having taken an absolute kicking from Nuno Espirito Santo’s men not long ago. Their season is one of those fairy tales that comes along in footie now and then, like Denmark in 1992 or Leicester in 2015. In another timeline, this season would be theirs, but unfortunately for them (and everyone else), Slot’s Liverpool own this season. That said, if Arne and the lads get to the end of gameweek 38 without losing one, it’ll always sting just a little that they lost to Forest in week two of the season. Forest are strong at the back, lethal at the front, creative in the middle, and seemingly injury proof. Yes, Chris Wood has been central to goalscoring but in his recent injured absence they’ve still done fine. They got to the end of December, and we expected them to run out of steam but they’re still going. They hit their patch of tough fixtures in the late spring and guess what – still winning games. Honestly, it looks like they’ll catch the ever-accident-prone Arsenal and should be back where they belong playing Champions League football next season. And don’t forget, those two stars on their jersey aren’t there just to look nice.
The remaining fixtures are nothing to be scared of either. Spurs and Brentford in the next two weeks are basically chum. Then it’s Palace, Leicester and West Ham to ensure handy points. The last day is their biggest challenge, and even that’s a Chelsea side that aren’t quite back where they should be yet. Nobody has any reason to believe they’ll bottle points like Arsenal or shit the bed completely like Brighton.
As for assets, it’s really a case of too many to choose from. Chris Wood is having his first consistently brilliant season, and may have been in line for a golden boot were it not for injury recently. Matz Sels is the goalkeeper to have this season. You’d be hard pressed to find better defenders than Murilo, Milenkovic and Aina. Morgan Gibbs-White, Anthony Elanga, Jota Silva, Callum Hudson-Odoi…the squad is made of players that you’d never call superstars but have proven themselves efficient, high-scoring parts of a greater whole. This is the true brilliance of Nuno, and long may it last.
Jimi Kavanagh, April 2025
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