Hello football fans, I hope you’re all having a solid morning and are ready for another weekend of English Premier League action! While the title race came to a head at the Etihad with Manchester City’s 4-1 win over Arsenal, there is still much more left undecided with only 4 games to play. Today, I’ll be looking at a few of the more interesting stories as the season comes to a close. Before we get into it, here’s the current league table for reference as we go.

1. Are Brighton going to Europe?

One word answer? Yes. The seagulls from the south coast have had a remarkable season under Graham Potter and Roberto de Zerbi, and now look to be locking themselves into the Europa League places (5th and 6th). Winning their 2 games in hand over Liverpool would see Brighton move level with the Reds on points, and likely ahead on Goal Differential into 5th place. Behind Brighton are Spurs, Aston Villa, and Brentford. Brighton also have 2 games in hand over all of these teams, and currently sit higher on points, meaning finishing ahead of the clubs currently in 7th or lower is entirely in Brighton’s control. Finishing in the Top 4 is still possible for the Seagulls, but would require overcoming a 6 point deficit to Manchester United, provided Brighton win their game in hand.

A major collapse from Manchester United or Newcastle with 4 games to play could open the door for one of Liverpool or Brighton, or both(?) to sneak into the Top 4. However, Brighton recently won all 3 points hosting Man U off of Alexis Mac Allister’s last minute penalty, and this could be a knock to United’s confidence. I believe with the way de Zerbi’s team has played this season, I cannot see them finishing any lower than 6th. Tottenham are an uninspiring outfit at the moment, and Villa have already overachieved to be in 8th at this point of the year.

So, what stops Brighton from qualifying to Europe?

Not to leave you under the impression that nothing could go wrong, Brighton’s remaining schedule has some difficult fixtures: Everton (H), Arsenal (A), Newcastle (A), Southampton (H), Man City (H), Aston Villa (A). That’s 3 Top 4 clubs, and their rivals for European qualification Aston Villa. To make things worse, only Manchester City is a home game for Brighton. Expecting them to pick up 6 points against relegation candidates Everton and Southampton (although Southampton are a bit more than a candidate at this point), the biggest fixtures will be Newcastle (A), and Aston Villa (A) on the final day of the season. My prediction is that wins against both Newcastle and Villa will result in Brighton finishing Top 5. If they can also somehow manage to steal 3-4 points from the Arsenal and City fixtures, they will finish the season on 70/71 points, which would put pressure on Man United to match, who would need 7/8 points from their final 5 matches to finish ahead of Brighton.

Ok, wrap it up already. I’ve never watched a Brighton game in my life, move on to the Big 6.

In conclusion, if you haven’t been watching Brighton play this season, you’ve made mistakes. Possibly the most exciting team in the Premier League, only 4 games stand between the seagulls and finishing out their best ever season in club history. For a club that only got promoted to the Premier League for the first time in 2018, going to European competition is pretty darn impressive.

2. Mason at the Wheel?

Let’s face it: Tottenham’s season has not gone according to plan. This was supposed to be the year Antonio Conte took the next step forward from the Top 4 finish he engineered at the end of last season, to push Spurs closer to the top of the table. This did not happen. Spurs tactics under Conte this season were inflexible and uninspiring, his 5-2-3 being oh-so constant through his departure following the 3-3 Southampton draw. In many press conferences, Conte gave off the impression that he was not doing anything wrong, and that it was the players and club who were letting him down. This closed-mindedness from Conte and unwillingness to deviate from his original plan was the main reason for his failure at Tottenham. It takes a different type of manager to succeed at Spurs than one to succeed at Chelsea, as Daniel Levy could not be more different from free-spending counterparts Roman Abramovich and Todd Boehly. Conte made several mistakes in the transfer market this season as well, which Spurs will feel the effect of for another few years. Bringing in Ivan Perisic, planning for him to start the majority of the season at LWB, at age 34, after having spent most of his playing career playing LW (not defending), was abysmal. Perisic shouldn’t have been more than a squad player to provide cover at LW and LWB, and to mentor the younger players on the squad. Ryan Sessegnon was only given 6 starts all season, and following a hamstring injury picked up in February, he has not been back in the squad. Conte’s tendency to prefer older, more experienced players also hurt Spurs this season, with exciting young midfielder Pape Sarr barely seeing the field, Djed Spence being ousted from the squad and sent out on loan, and after telling the press he would have a place in the squad for the rest of the season, Conte sent Bryan Gil away on loan as well. All of this is to say, Antonio Conte is a great football manager, but he was absolutely not the right person for the Spurs job.

So who is?

Maybe, just maybe, it’s Ryan Mason. For those of you that don’t know, Ryan Mason is a former Spurs player who’s career was tragically cut short due to a skull injury sustained in a match while playing for Hull City. Originally a Spurs academy graduate, Mason debuted for the first team in 2008 (the last year Spurs won a trophy), after scoring 29 in 31 matches for Spurs academy in the Premier Academy League. After several loan spells, he broke into the first team in 2014 and spent 2 years in the first team before moving to Hull City for a then club record 13 million pounds. On the 22nd of January 2017, Ryan Mason played his last professional match as a footballer, retiring from professional football following medical advice.

Following his playing career, Mason rejoined Tottenham as a member of the coaching staff in 2018, was appointed official academy coach for the 2019 UEFA Youth League, and went on to be Spurs’ head of U-17 to U-23 player development in 2020. This is a manager who’s learned and worked his way up through the ranks, and who received his first appointment as interim first team manager following the departure of José Mourinho in 2021, making him the youngest ever Premier League manager at age 29. Now that you know how he got here, let’s talk about why he might be the perfect fit for Spurs.

He’s one of their own. Tottenham love an academy graduate, and even more so love telling the world that a player was once part of the Spurs academy. Imagine appointing a former academy player as head coach? The club’s philosophy would be consistent from the top down, and you would have a manager who understands Tottenham Hotspur, the club, better than any past managers. This is extremely important in my opinion. The biggest reasons why Mourinho and Conte couldn’t succeed at Tottenham is due to differences with the ownership group, and Daniel Levy. Both of these managers most recent EPL experience was at Chelsea, and both won titles at Chelsea. Arriving at Tottenham only to find out that you can’t create the starting XI of your dreams due to self-imposed transfer restrictions might cause a bit of a disagreement. One of Ryan Mason’s best strengths would be that it’s unlikely he would expect Spurs to act like anyone else besides Spurs, the club he’s known since he was a child. This would almost certainly eliminate the chance of him leaving the club in the same way Mourinho and Conte did (in chaos).

Not a Bus Driver. After consecutive defense-first managers, Spurs fans are crying out for some offensive creativity. Heung-min Son has been a shadow of himself for large portions of the season under Conte, as Conte insisted that Son take most of his touches centrally with back-to-goal in hold-up play, while the LWB makes the run behind the defense. Son scored a large chunk of his Golden Boot-winning tally last season off of fast runs behind the defence where he could be picked out by Harry Kane or Kulusevski with a pass. This season, it’s not even that he isn’t able to perform this as well, it’s that Conte actively tried coaching this out of his game, wanting him to play more like an Italian centre-forward than the Inverted Winger/Inside Forward role Son thrives in. While just one player as an example, it is indicative of Spurs season as a whole. After just two games of all Conte influence gone (after Stellini left), Ryan Mason’s Tottenham have scored 5 goals against Manchester United and Liverpool (and deserved at least a point at Anfield). Additionally, Son has scored in both games off his trademark runs behind the defence, running to celebrate with Mason in likely appreciation of the tactical change.

Low-ego, open-minded thinker. Mason has shown an open-mind, which I believe is paramount to designing and adjusting a tactic. Instead of there being set ideas for what each player must do in the game, Mason has shown that he is more open to making changes to find the right formula. In a recent press conference he commented on Harry Kane dropping deeper in buildup, something Spurs fans have seen him do very very well in the past, but something that was absent under Conte, who wanted Kane to stay as far forward as possible in his system. Under Mason, the players look to have rediscovered some of their freedom and creativity, which is a welcome sight to any Spurs fan.

Today’s match against Crystal Palace will be the best test yet for if Ryan Mason is suited for the full-time manager role next season. 2-2 vs. Man United and the 3-4 loss to Liverpool were both decent results, great results to some fans given the way the season’s gone, but now there is the first game Spurs will be looking at as a “Should-Win”. With the heaviest criticism of Spurs style of play in recent years being an overreliance on counter-attacking football, seeing what Mason chooses to do vs. Crystal Palace will be very telling as to what his overall approach to managing a full season would be. You’ll always have to play the Big 6, but you’ll also always have to play the bottom half of the table, and to compete for the top places, you need to win those games.

To conclude, Ryan Mason is the breath of fresh air that Tottenham Hotspur so desperately needed after what seemed like a bad break-up with Antonio Conte. Whether he will remain as manager longer than just a breath of fresh air will be determined by his approach in the final 4 games of the season. As a human being, he is the perfect person for Spurs. The biggest criticism will be his inexperience, which will only become less of a flaw over time. I’d like to see Daniel Levy give Mason a proper look if he can lead Spurs to a strong finish to the season.

(Note: Lineups for the Tottenham vs. Crystal Palace game just released, and Mason’s going with Emerson at LWB instead of Perisic for defence. This is great, should allow Son to play with freedom down the left today. Will be interesting to see how Richarlison and Porro link up on the right.)

As always, thanks for reading!