West Ham and Tottenham are battling to avoid the final relegation spot heading into the last round of the Premier League on Sunday, when English soccer will bid farewell to Pep Guardiola and Mohamed Salah.
West Ham has it all to do to maintain its 14-year top-flight status, with the team from east London in third-to-last place and two points behind Tottenham with a goal difference deficit of 12.
West Ham must, therefore, beat Leeds at home and also needs Tottenham to lose at home to Everton.
Tottenham last played in the second tier in the 1977-78 season and would be the biggest team to be relegated from England's top flight in a generation.
With the title already clinched by Arsenal, the other sporting focus is on the race to seal the final European spots.
Sixth place will be enough to get Champions League qualification this season if Aston Villa — the newly crowned Europa League champion — finishes in fifth place.
For Villa to drop from fourth to fifth and Liverpool to climb from fifth to fourth, Villa needs to lose to Manchester City and Liverpool has to beat Brentford.
Bournemouth, which visits Nottingham Forest, is currently in sixth — three points ahead of seventh-place Brighton, which hosts Manchester United.
Guardiola will take charge of his final game at Man City after a record-breaking 10-year spell. Also leaving City at the end of the season are stalwarts Bernardo Silva and John Stones, so it promises to be an emotional afternoon at Etihad Stadium.
Salah will play his last game for Liverpool after nine years, but manager Arne Slot hasn't confirmed that the Egypt winger will start after a critical recent social-media post.
Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah runs during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Liverpool in Birmingham, England, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland)
FILE - Manchester City's head coach Pep Guardiola, right, and Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak celebrate with the Premier League trophy after the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and West Ham United at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Sunday, May 19, 2024. Manchester City clinched the English Premier League on Sunday after beating West Ham in their last match of the season. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson, File)
From left, West Ham United's Konstantinos Mavropanos, Jarrod Bowen and Valentin Castellanos applauds the fans following their English Premier League soccer match against Newcastle United in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
ANKARA (AP) — Police stormed the offices of Turkey's main opposition CHP party on Sunday, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at a crowd of party supporters and officials gathered outside the gates.
It was a violent end to a standoff that had been going on for several hours between members of the Republican Peoples’ Party, or CHP, and its new court-appointed leadership.
Footage taken by local media in the courtyard and inside the building show huge clouds of tear gas with riot police storming through the premises, before journalists were removed by the police. Correspondents who had been in the building during the raid reported that doors and furniture were destroyed.
Tension had been rising since Thursday when an appeals court on Thursday nullified the election of Ozgur Ozel as party chairperson in November 2023, suspending him and members of the party’s executive board.
Immediately after the raid began, Ozel posted a 3-minute video on social media in which he said, “We are under attack. Our crime? To make our party Turkey’s number one party after 47 years. Our crime? Defeating the Justice and Development Party," referring to the AKP party led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“We will resist here till the end. And if they forcibly remove us, we’ll resume our march towards (becoming) the administration in the square," he said.
The court ruling said Ozel should be replaced by Kemal Kilicdaroglu, his predecessor, who led the party for 13 years but never won any national elections.
Meanwhile, Ozel, in his first and only election as party leader, delivered a decisive blow to Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party in the 2024 municipal polls.
The opposition says the decision was politically motivated to weaken the party as it struggles under waves of legal cases targeting its members and elected officials.
The next presidential election is due in 2028, but Erdogan can call for an early vote. His main challenger, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a CHP member, has been imprisoned since March last year and is on trial on corruption charges.
Many observers have said the legal cases against the CHP — mostly centered on corruption allegations — are aimed at neutralizing the party ahead of the next election. The government insists that Turkey’s courts are impartial and act independently of political pressure.
The vast majority of the party has rallied behind Ozel. He and most of the party had been inside the CHP headquarters in the capital Ankara since Thursday’s ruling, with the new administration unable to enter. The rival teams were supposed to meet Sunday afternoon to figure a way out of the impasse.
Early on Sunday, a crowd gathered outside the office, watched by a growing police presence. In his social media video, Ozel said those outside had been sent to intimidate CHP members.
Kilicdaroglu’s lawyer, Celal Celik, sent a request to Ankara police to assist in vacating the building. The Ankara Governor’s office released a statement approving the request.
The police raid comes at the start of a nine-day holiday for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, when many people are on vacation and out of the big cities.
Erdogan has ruled Turkey, first as prime minister and then as president, since 2003. His electoral record suffered a setback in 2019, when the CHP seized control of several major cities in local elections. In Istanbul, Imamoglu emerged as a popular and charismatic figure who many felt could successfully topple Erdogan.
Police officers arrive at Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) headquarters in Ankara, Sunday, May 24, 2026, to evict supporters gathered inside. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
Supporters of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) shout slogans as they gather at party's headquarters in Ankara, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
Police officers arrive at Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) headquarters in Ankara, Sunday, May 24, 2026, to evict supporters gathered inside. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
Leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Ozgur Ozel, addresses supporters gather outside the party's headquarters in Ankara on Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)
Supporters of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, shout slogans as they gather outside the party's headquarters in Ankara, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Gunsu Ozmen/DIA Photo via AP)
Supporters of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, gather outside the party's headquarters in Ankara, Friday, May 22, 2026, in support of party's leader Ozgur Ozel. (Yavuz Ozden/DIA Photo via AP)
Former Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party or (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu waves from a car after talking to journalists in Ankara, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photo via AP)
