The most dramatic end to a season ever? Quite possibly. More on that in a moment. Arsenal answer back after having the answer against Newcastle. This season’s FA Cup final lacks the underdog narrative of 12 months ago. Does anyone care who actually wins? Issue 93. Go.

Was Saturday lunchtime non-league football’s Aguero moment? Truth be told, it might be even better. Rochdale taking on York, the hosts needing a win to win the National League (English football fifth tier) to get promoted, the visitors needing just a draw.

Unless you have been living under a rock or operating under some form of social media blackout over the past few days, then you will obviously be aware of how it all played out in the final few minutes of the game,

Rochdale score in the 95th minute, Emmanuel Dieseruvwe climbing highest to send Spotland into absolute rapture. Home fans in a state of a delirium, they think they’ve won the game and with that the league.

Excitement cannot be contained, fans (not all, it must be said) spill on the pitch.

It takes a good five or six minutes to clear those same supporters of the field of play. That period of time allows the York players to regroup.

The time lost by the pitch invasion means there is still just enough time for York to launch one last attack.

York fans willing the ball in, Rochdale fans doing their best to blow it away.

It bounces around like one of those 99p balls you get from the beach and finally falls at the feet of Josh Stones. A scrappy attempt at goal.

Then time stands still……….

York think they’ve scored, so does the assistant referee. The goal is given.

That bedlam that took place some eight minutes later has now been multiplied by a factor of 10,000.

Now it is York supporters who are on the field or at least trying to avoid a flimsy line of security. Those who break through punch the air. Those Rochdale players on the field, punch the floor.

York have done what they needed to do in the most dramatic way possible.

Forget Aguero in 2012, forget Michael Thomas at Anfield in 1989, Troy Deeney’s goal against Leicester still comes nowhere.

This was the apex of footballing drama. The sheer peak of it all.

Not one goal in injury time to potentially decide your league winner but two.

The best way to crown a champion, the cruelest way to crown a runner-up.

Even if you tasked AI to think of a better end to the season, it would not be able to.

The plaudits go to York. The commiserations go to Rochdale.

Football. Bloody hell.

The fact that so much was riding on the game between Rochdale and York was due to only one automatic promotion berth being offer from the National League to EFL’s League Two.

A situation that suited neither club before kickoff and especially as both sides had picked up more than 100 points each before their 46th game of the campaign - the fact that only one dominant force would earn the necessary reward an obvious point of contention.

Contention that has been going on for some time as part of the National League’s 3UP campaign and although there is a groundswell of positive opinion towards it, the logjam is the EFL clubs that are unwilling to vote in favour of opening the trapdoor below.

From their point of view, it would make no sense but should teams suffer relegation to the fifth tier, it would then be easier to earn promotion back to the Football League itself. Easier but far from a guarantee and that is the sticking point of it all.

Those pushing for an extra place will point to no National League side getting relegated in their first season in the EFL. The EFL will point to their being no financial restrictions in the fifth tier.

Which creates an odd imbalance: National League clubs can effectively build League Two squads before they’ve even been promoted.

Some argue the simplest solution is to absorb the National League into the EFL and create a League Three. That could work but that would mean any rights money earned by the entity would have to split across 96 teams instead of 72.

Not something that would be digestible by teams in the Championship as they have already sold the family silver in a bid to reach the promised land of the Premier League.

Which means there needs to be some allignment between the fair play rules of the two leagues in question. If the National League were to show some form of willing on this front, their bid to earn a third promotion berth may start to earn more favour.

Even when you look at the high stakes of Saturday’s clash between Rochdale and York, that only comes about because of the one automatic promotion berth on offer. Had they both been already promoted, last weekend would have been a dead rubber.

So in essence, it seems like something of a double edged sword.

If you’re in the EFL you want to keep it at two teams being relegated

If you’re in the National Leaue you want to extend it to three teams being promoted

And if you’re a neutral you want final day drama

How do you keep everyone happy? Truth be told, you can’t and that ladies and gentlemen is the problem.

Life imitates art as Arsenal and Manchester City find themselves neck and neck on 63 wins each. The Gunners topping the list by virtue of losing on 14 of their last 100 compared to City’s 15.

Nothing to split those two, Liverpool and Aston Villa one position better off when it comes to win rank % than their league position but neither team will have too many complaints on that front.

A win for Tottenham at the weekend means they have won only 31% of their last 100 league games and there is only a three position disparity between win rank and their current 18th place in the table.

Newcastle the biggest underperformers as they find themselves eight places worse off than their win rank would have them placed. Chelsea the next team with a negative swing only three places worse off by comparison.

The success stories are Brighton and Sunderland who are both six league places better off than their win rank. The Black Cats would be even better off were it not for their recent slump.

Wolves and Burnley’s Premier League stints soon to come to an end and when looking at their win ratios of 25% and 18%, relegation to the Championship seemingly cannot come soon enough.

Time for a slightly smaller portion of the weekend’s Premier League action

Sunderland have seemingly put the deckchairs out after their thrashing at the hands of Nottingham Forest last Friday. Everything they seemed to touch in the first half led to some form of dangerous attack from the visitors, those making the journey up from the River Trent could not have believed their luck at the interval.

Four goals up in the first 45 minutes, Morgan Gibbs-White must believe that he keeps this purple patch of form going for just a few more weeks then he will be part of England’s World Cup squad. You want to take and more importantly, play players who are in red-hot form and there are not many hotter than the former Wolves man right now.

Fulham’s last six results in the Premier League have been a model of being consistently inconsistent. Loss, draw, win, loss, draw, win. You just do not know what you are going to get with Marco Silva’s men from game to game. Fans at Craven Cottage will be glad they caught them on one of their good days last Saturday.

The same cannot be said for Aston Villa after a rather uninspiring showing in the capital. One that brings their three game unbeaten run in the league to an end. More importantly, it has seen them slip to fifth in the table. They do at least have their escape route of winning the Europa League, but Unai Emery’s men are not over the Champions League line yet.

A relatively comfortable win for Liverpool on Saturday as they seem to have found some late season fuel in the tank. Third choice goalkeeper Freddie Woodman seemingly having the time of his life between the sticks, even if he did take a whack before Crystal Palace got on the scoresheet. Talking of injuries, will Mo Salah be fit enough for the weekend trip to Old Trafford?

As for Palace, certainly contention attached to their goal when Daniel Munoz decided to chip the ball into the net after Woodman lie stricken on the floor. Should he have taken the opportunity? Legally within the laws of the game he was entitled to. Should the referee have stepped in? Probably. Did it matter at the end of the day? Thankfully no.

How important could that goal be at the end of the season? Callum Wilson keeps chipping in with late strikes for West Ham. This one worth two additional points in the battle to avoid the drop. For a couple of minute on Saturday, the Hammers found themselves in the relegation zone. The win over the Toffees made sure they crawled their way back out.

As for Everton. it is now just a single point from the last nine on offer. What looked like being a potential Champions League charge is in danger of missing out on Europe altogether. Still enough time to get things back on track but they may need a win on the final day at relegation-stricken Tottenham. Which leads us to…

Wolves showed some of defensive capability on Saturday but it was very much a case of after the horse (in this case the horse being named relegation) had bolted. Another limp showing in attack their ultimate undoing as Rob Edwards’ men still find themselves three points behind Burnley at the foot of the table.

As for Tottenham, they got their win but at what cost? Xavi Simons has torn his ACL and will now be out for the next seven months. No relegation clause either, so his comeback could be when Spurs are in the Championship. In addition to this, Dominic Solanke is now out for at least three weeks and could have played his last game of the season. Great.

Arsenal had the answer against Newcastle on Saturday but the tension within the Emirates seemed almost palpable. It is not the players that I worry about, it is their fans who are in danger of cracking the most. An Eberechi Eze goal in the ninth minute proving to be the difference but for the next 81, the Emirates support wanted the game finished. Will it be they who trip up the Gunners in the end?

As for Newcastle, the fact that they are not really safe from relegation just yet must be something of a concern. I am not suggesting that they will get relegated but the fact that bookmakers are now putting them in the market for the drop (66/1) highlights this is no ordinary season. Then again, four successive league defeats has not helped either.

Manchester United moved back into third after their win on Monday. A bright start and a slightly sloppy finish made for an interesting encounter when playing host to Brentford. At this stage of the season it is not necessarily about performance, more the collection of points. Then again, if Michael Carrick is to stay in the job full time, he needs to continue convincing as much as possible.

Have the wheels fallen off at Brentford? Obviously, there have been dizzying heights for Keith Andrews’ men but that is now no win in six for the Bees (even if five of those have ended in draws). If they fail to get into Europe from here, does this constitute disappointment? I guess it shows how fluid a concept ambition can actually be.

Brighton and Hove Albion have released their plans for Europe's first purpose-built women's football stadium, which will cost £75-80m. A capacity of 10,000 is planned to sit next to the existing AMEX Stadium.

Personally, I think this a positive move for the Women’s game in England, especially as it helps in building its own true identity. We’ve obviously seen Arsenal play at the Emirates and Chelsea announcing that next season all Women’s home games will be at Stamford Bridge, but there is always a sense of lent influence.

You could argue that influence is needed to help grab a foothold in the English football landscape, but it is moves like this that will push it on further and hopefully more clubs will follow suit in the near future.

Manchester City to play Chelsea in the FA Cup final next month. Personally it does nothing for me and I doubt it will do anything for many others. Once again the competition is loved when there’s an exciting narrative but this upcoming encounter sets us back to a level of apathy.

John Stones is the second star name to announce a summer departure from Manchester City. In 10 years at the club he has won six Premier League titles, the Champions League, two FA Cups, five League Cups, three Community Shields, the Club World Cup and the Uefa Super Cup.

Let’s be honest he done the lot. Whoever gets him in the summer will have a huge addition to their squad (as long as injuries do not continue to take their toll)

Manchester City face a fixture pile-up of four games in 11 days next month following the rescheduling of two key matches in the race for the Premier League title.

Pep Guardiola's side will host Crystal Palace on Wednesday, 13 May and travel to Bournemouth six days later, with the FA Cup final against Chelsea taking place in between on Saturday, 16 May. Is this going to trip up Pep’s men? The fixture computer may just have downloaded the championship to Arsenal.

FIFA have announced that players at the World Cup could face a red card if they cover their mouths when speaking to opponents during confrontations. I think the word could is doing the heavy lifting here. Are we honestly going to see a player given his marching orders for this in North America. Time will tell us the answer I guess. Stranger things and all that.

Right, that’s the end of issue 93 as word continues to spread around the football world.

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Issue 94 drops Friday, I’ll be back with another round of insight, analysis and trends that matter. Any feedback or comments on this issue, contact me below:

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