Crystal Palace forward Ismaïla Sarr will lead his side onto Selhurst Park on Sunday to face Arsenal — the night they will receive the Premier League trophy after being confirmed champions on Tuesday when Manchester City drew 1-1 at Bournemouth.
The moment is simple and stark: Arsenal will be presented the trophy against Crystal Palace, in front of Palace fans and at a ground where Palace, as a top-flight side, have never lost when playing their final league match of the season. That history sits against Arsenal’s own weight of form — the champions have won 29 games this term while keeping clean sheets across competitions, and a win to nil here would give them 30 clean-sheet wins in a campaign, matching the club record set in 1970-71.
The numbers underline why Sunday matters beyond ceremony. Arsenal have won their final Premier League game of the season 24 times and have won on MD38 in each of the last 14 campaigns; their last final-day league defeat came in 2004-05 at Birmingham City, 2-1. Against Palace specifically, Arsenal have lost just two of 16 Premier League away fixtures and have won their last three away league games at Selhurst Park by an aggregate 8-1. Crystal Palace, though, are no automatic foil: they drew 2-2 with Arsenal at the Emirates in April last season and remain unbeaten in five matches at Selhurst Park this season.
But there is friction. Palace arrive winless in their last six Premier League games, a run that clashes with their sterling final-home-day record. They most recently marked a season-closing home fixture by beating Aston Villa 5-0 in 2023-24. Up front, Sarr brings striking momentum — eight goals in his last eight starts in all competitions and a run of scoring in each of his last four starts — and Palace can point to Eberechi Eze’s rare achievement: since Palace’s return to the top flight in 2013, Eze is the only player for the club to have scored in five consecutive starts, a run he completed in April and May last year.
For Arsenal the questions are both practical and personnel. Gabriel Jesus has a remarkable final-day record: five goals and two assists in Arsenal’s final Premier League matches, seven goal involvements in total, the most MD38 goals and involvements of any current Premier League player. Yet team selection is clouded; Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz sit ahead of Jesus in the pecking order, and at least four Arsenal players could be playing their last Premier League match for the club this weekend. Christian Norgaard, who joined from Brentford last summer, could leave despite the move and has not been included in Arsenal’s last two matchday squads. Ben White has been linked with Everton, and Myles Lewis-Skelly, who has started only four league fixtures, has been linked with Manchester United.
The tactical choice for Arsenal is raw: protect the trophy and the club record, or tinker with players who may be on their way out or trying to force a move. Arsenal have recorded games this season in which they faced not a single shot on target in six different league fixtures, evidence of defensive control that suggests a clean-sheet finish is feasible. Yet Selhurst’s atmosphere and Palace’s unbeaten final-home-day history inject unpredictability into what might otherwise be a scripted celebration.
The single most consequential unanswered question is whether Arsenal will be handed the trophy in a routine, shutout victory that seals a rare 30-clean-sheet season, or whether Sarr, Eze and Palace’s final-day resilience will turn the presentation into a contested moment that denies the champions a ceremonially tidy finish.
