Arsenal defeated West Ham 2-0 on Wednesday and are closing in on European football while Birmingham and Aston Villa drew 1-1 to set up a frantic finale at the bottom of the table with two games left to play.

Arsenal v West Ham United - FA Women s Super League - Meadow Park Arsenal's Kim Little right scores their side s second goal of the game during the FA Women s Super League match at Meadow Park, Borehamwood. Picture date: Wednesday April 28, 2021. Copyright: Andrew Matthews
Arsenal v West Ham United – FA Women s Super League – Meadow Park Arsenal’s Kim Little right scores their side s second goal of the game during the FA Women s Super League match at Meadow Park, Borehamwood. Picture date: Wednesday April 28, 2021. Copyright: Andrew Matthews

The Gunners are now one win away from returning to the Champions League thanks to their excellent goal difference over Manchester United. They have Everton away and Aston Villa at home and you have to believe that one of those two games will yield a win.

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At the bottom of the table, there are five teams still involved in the relegation battle. Birmingham scored an equaliser late in the game against Villa from a free kick that was not taken from the right place.

It is kind of payback from 2014, when they lost the title to Liverpool in such a controversial manner, conceding from the kick-off when the referee had not whistled for the game to restart. I am still in disbelief that a technical error as huge as this was not corrected by the FA and the game not replayed!

Now, if we look back at all the recent games between the bottom five teams, they all ended in a draw. Birmingham 1 Villa 1, Villa 2 Bristol 2, West Ham 0 Villa 0, Birmingham 1 Bristol 1, Spurs 1 Bristol 1, West Ham 2 Birmingham 2.

Nobody wants to lose those six pointers and nobody seems to be able to win them either. Next Sunday, we will have Villa v West Ham at Villa Park. The other remaining games for the five teams still fighting to avoid relegation are:

Bristol v Man United, Man City v Birmingham, Spurs v Chelsea on Matchday 21.

Spurs should be safe by Sunday night and the winner of Aston Villa v West Ham should be on the verge of safety.

On final day, we get Brighton v Bristol, Birmingham v Spurs and Arsenal v Villa.

It will probably be a two or three horse race by that time. This is the first season where so many teams are still in the relegation battle and, obviously, no one wants to go down with the Sky/BBC TV deals coming up next season as well as the new solidarity payments from the UEFA Women’s Champions League.