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Goal-crazy Premier League final days including Liverpool, Man Utd, Spurs and Stoke!

The final Sunday of the Premier League season doesn’t always provide thrills and spills, with many of the major issues often settled long before fixture 38. However, what it does guarantee is goals.

The last seven top-flight campaigns have seen at least one club hit five or more goals on the final Sunday. And, ominously for Manchester City's final-day opponents Aston Villa, Pep Guardiola's men have recorded three 5-0 wins in their last five final-day fixtures. They fell short in May 2019, but only just, winning 4-1 at Brighton.

Before 2017 you had to go back to 2004 before Man City had previously hit five on the final day, with that coming in a 5-1 demolition of Everton.

But while five-goal maulings are all well and good, the final day of the Premier League season has thrown up even more random goalfests, as Planet Sport discovers.

Liverpool 6 Tottenham 2 (May 7, 1993)

The very first Premier League season did not benefit from a Super Sunday final day and rather fizzled out.

Nine fixtures took place on the final Saturday and two games were played on the Sunday, with Manchester United, who were already crowned champions, involved in one. Arsenal then took on Tottenham the following Tuesday, with the north London derby bringing the curtain down on the season along with QPR against Sheffield Wednesday.

However, while the scheduling was clearly in need of some Sky Sports magic, the final Saturday did at least deliver on the goals front.
An incredible 47 goals were scored across the nine fixtures, with Liverpool's 6-2 demolition of Tottenham providing eight of them.
John Barnes and Ian Rush scored two apiece for the Reds, with Bruce Grobbelaar also saving an injury-time penalty from Teddy Sheringham.
Under-fire Liverpool manager Graeme Souness missed the fun, however, having bizarrely opted to head to Coventry on a "scouting mission".
Two goals from Peter Beagrie gave Everton a 5-2 win at Manchester City, while Oldham escaped relegation on goal difference after edging out Southampton 4-3, Matt Le Tissier's hat-trick proving in vain for Saints.

May 7, 1993, results: Arsenal 3 Crystal Palace 0, Blackburn Rovers 1 Sheffield Wednesday 0, Coventry City 3 Leeds United 3, Ipswich Town 2 Nottingham Forest 1, Liverpool 6 Tottenham Hotspur 2, Manchester City 2 Everton 5, Middlesbrough 3 Norwich City 3, Oldham Athletic 4 Southampton 3, Sheffield United 4 Chelsea 2.

Stoke City 6 Liverpool 1 (May 24, 2015)

Scoring in his final Liverpool game to bring the curtain down on an illustrious career with his boyhood club - it was exactly how Steven Gerrard would have wanted it. Well, apart from the small matter of his side being 5-0 down to Stoke at the time.
A defeat to Crystal Palace in his final Anfield appearance had given Gerrard warning that this may not be the fairy-tale ending he and his legions of fans were craving.
Nevertheless, no one was expecting Stoke, ninth going into the game, to score five without reply before the first half was through.
Gerrard pulled one back in the 70th minute. Could he inspire one final miracle escape from the Reds?
Well, the answer to that was a categorical no, with former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch popping up in the 86th minute to restore Stoke's five-goal cushion.
It was the first time Liverpool had conceded six or more goals in a top-flight match since 1963.

West Brom 5 Manchester United 5 (May 19, 2013)

It may not have been a 6-1 defeat but squandering a 5-2 lead to draw will have stung Sir Alex Ferguson in his final game as Manchester United boss.
The title was well and truly wrapped up before United travelled to West Brom, allowing Ferguson to drink in the guard of honour and stadium-wide standing ovation without the pressure of needing a result.
Still it looked like he would get one anyway, with United taking a 3-0 lead courtesy of Shinji Kagawa, an Janas Olsson own-goal and Alexander Buttner.
James Morrison clawed one back for the Baggies in the 40th minute and half-time substitute Romelu Lukaku pulled it back to 3-2 five minutes into the second half.
United reasserted their dominance through Van Persie and Javier Hernandez, but a flurry of Baggies goals in the final ten minutes, including a further two from Lukaku, meant the game finished 5-5.
Ahead of the game Sir Alex had said: "I want to play Jonny Evans and Phil Jones at centre-half because they are the future."
A whole host of Premier League forward lines were certainly hoping so.

Middlesbrough 8 Manchester City 1 (May 11, 2008)

For a team that has only conceded eight goals in their last 11 Premier League fixtures, it seems inconceivable that they could ship eight in one afternoon.
Nevertheless, that is exactly what happened in 2008 when Sven-Goran Eriksson took his ninth-placed outfit to the Riverside to face Gareth Southgate's Boro, who were down in 14th.
Richard Dunne's dismissal in the 15th minute proved the turning point, with Stewart Downing's resulting spot-kick breaking the deadlock.
Alfonso Alves made it 2-0 and Downing added a third after the break.
"We were in the game until it was 3-0," said Eriksson.
"After that, mentally we had nothing left. We were not even on the pitch."
With City not on the pitch, Middlesbrough will have been disappointed to only add five more.
That they conceded a consolation from Elano in the 87th minute will have irked Southgate even more - he immediately brought on another holding midfielder.

Hull 1 Tottenham 7 (May 21, 2017)

Hull were down and Tottenham guaranteed second but there was still the small matter of the golden boot to be decided heading into this final-day encounter in East Yorkshire.
As it was, Harry Kane's three-goal burst, which added to his four goals against Leicester the previous match, ensured he finished on 29 goals, four clear of nearest rival Romelu Lukaku.
The win over the Tigers was sandwiched between two other final-day games which featured Spurs and a hatful of goals.
The previous season they were beaten 5-1 by Newcastle, while in 2018 they emerged 5-4 winners from a nine-goal thriller at home to Leicester.

Kane was again on the scoresheet against the Foxes, notching twice, with Jamie Vardy scoring two in reply for the visitors who had led 3-1.

It is part of an impressive goalscoring record for Kane, who has scored eight times in six final-day appearances for the north London club.

Chelsea 8 Wigan 0 (May 9, 2010)

Another Premier League season perfectly poised going into the final day, with Chelsea just a point ahead of title rivals Manchester United.
And despite Nicolas Anelka's sixth-minute opener, you could even make a case for the title race still being in the balance approaching the half-hour, with Manchester United having gone in front against Stoke.
However, Gary Caldwell's dismissal and Frank Lampard's penalty changed the complexion of the afternoon and it was pure exhibition stuff from Chelsea from then on in.
The champions-elect notched six times after the break, with Didier Drogba scoring a hat-trick and even Ashley Cole getting in on the act.
Wigan, who were safe going into the game, could at least point to having won more corners than Chelsea (3 to 2).

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