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Saturday’s briefing: Leeds close on survival and Salah at peace

Leeds are on the verge of securing Premier League survival thanks to a 3-1 win over already-relegated Burnley on Friday night.

Mohamed Salah says he is at ease over his Liverpool exit at the end of the season, while Roberto De Zerbi believes Tottenham are up for the fight in their bid to beat the drop.

Leeds take big step towards survival

Anton Stach fires Leeds’ superb opener (Martin Rickett/PA)

Leeds bounced back from their Wembley disappointment by beating already-relegated Burnley 3-1 at Elland Road to take another giant step towards Premier League safety.

Daniel Farke’s side, who lost 1-0 in the FA Cup semi-final to Chelsea last Sunday, took an early lead through Anton Stach’s superb long-range strike before second-half efforts from Noah Okafor and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Loum Tchaouna pulled one back for Burnley in the 71st minute but the managerless visitors, who parted company with Scott Parker by mutual consent on Thursday, slipped to a fifth straight league defeat.

Leeds’ third win in four league matches lifted them up to 14th in the table, nine points clear of the bottom three, with their relegation rivals all in action later this weekend.

Salah at peace with Liverpool exit

Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, right, scores against Wolves
Mohamed Salah, right, scores against Wolves (Peter Byrne/PA)

Departing Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah insists he is at peace with his decision to leave at the end of the season and go out on his own terms.

The Egypt international will end a trophy-laden nine years at Anfield this summer after coming to an agreement with the club to cut short the lucrative two-year contract he signed 12 months ago.

“I feel to go through the season this is the right thing to do now, and I have peace with it,” he said in an interview with former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard on TNT Sports.

“I’m happy about it, everything that is going on this season makes me like ‘No, it’s time to go’, so I’m happy.”

De Zerbi: Tottenham are good enough

Roberto De Zerbi has warned Tottenham’s relegation rivals not to count them out and promised there will be no crying at the club over more injury problems this season.

Spurs secured a first Premier League win in 16 matches at Wolves on Saturday, but it was quickly followed by Xavi Simons (knee) being ruled out for the majority of 2026 while Dominic Solanke is also out with a hamstring issue.

Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa, De Zerbi started his press conference with a four-minute monologue about silencing negativity and reiterated his belief 18th-placed Tottenham can stay up.

“We are good enough to win the games and we are good enough to stay up,” he said.

Arteta ready to use ‘siege mentality’

Mikel Arteta is ready to draw on Arsenal’s “siege mentality” for their Premier League title charge following the perceived injustices against his side in Madrid.

Arteta was furious in the wake of Arsenal’s 1-1 draw in the opening leg of their Champions League semi-final at Atletico Madrid on Wednesday after Eberechi Eze’s late penalty was overturned by VAR.

Ahead of this weekend’s clash against Fulham, Arteta said: “We certainly have that (siege mentality). We need to face any context, and any situation to achieve our goal.

“What happened on Wednesday night was extremely disappointing. But we have enough fuel in the tank. We’re playing to win the Premier League. It’s exactly where we want it to be.”

Guardiola downplays fixture concerns

Pep Guardiola has played down Manchester City’s frustrations over fixture rescheduling during their domestic treble push.

City face a hectic end to the campaign after Premier League games against Crystal Palace and Bournemouth were given new dates either side of their FA Cup final against Chelsea, meaning they need to play three times in the space of seven days from May 13th-19th.

“It is what it is,” Guardiola said at a press conference on Friday. “When we won the treble and quadruple we always had this kind of calendar.

“Of course it could be better but I’ve never expected (help). We’ll do that and go game by game. The broadcasters, Premier League, whoever, decides. We will be there with 11 players plus people on the bench.”

What’s on today?

Ipswich players celebrate a goal
Ipswich are bidding for promotion (Adam Davy/PA)

A lot of eyes will be on the final day of the Sky Bet Championship season, with Ipswich, Millwall and Middlesbrough all vying for an automatic promotion spot. Ipswich are in the box seat and they welcome QPR.

Arsenal could take advantage of Manchester City not being in action until Monday by moving six points clear at the top of the Premier League, with the Gunners welcoming Fulham to the Emirates Stadium in Saturday’s teatime kick-off.

West Ham will be looking to move further clear of the relegation zone when they travel to Brentford, Newcastle host Brighton looking to end a run of five consecutive defeats in all competitions while Sunderland visit Wolves.