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With the Premier League title decided and relegation settled in midweek, this Sunday's only intrigue concerns the final Champions League place -- with Manchester City and Manchester United in the running.
United's defeat to West Ham United on Tuesday means City are in pole position and essentially just need to avoid defeat at Swansea City to ensure their place in the Champions League qualifying round. Manchester United, at home to Bournemouth, must win and hope for good news from Wales.
In truth, this gloriously unpredictable Premier League campaign deserves a more dramatic final day -- and so do supporters of the two Manchester clubs.
Four years ago, the final day of the 2011-12 season produced the most dramatic finale in Premier League history, with Sergio Aguero's late winner against QPR snatching the title away from United. That should have been the status of those two clubs this year: title challengers. The fact that they're competing for fourth underlines their significant regression over the past couple of seasons, and this will be the first time in Premier League history that neither side will finish in the top three -- a distinction mainly achieved by Manchester United, of course, with City picking up the slack in the last two campaigns.
Regardless of which side seals that final Champions League slot, neither can consider this season anything other than a failure. Manchester City started the season in tremendous form, with four consecutive victories, but their recent performances have been unacceptable: tactically naive and sometimes simply lacking in commitment. City's board were keen to stress that their decision to bring in Pep Guardiola wasn't necessarily a reflection upon Manuel Pellegrini's performances, insisting the Chilean would have kept his job if Guardiola hadn't been available. That has surely changed over the past couple of months -- Pellegrini likely would have been sacked anyway.
Manchester United's expectations were slightly more modest, but this has still been a hugely disappointing campaign, demonstrating almost no progression from Louis van Gaal's debut season at the club. The most underwhelming aspect of Van Gaal's tenure has been the lack of a grand plan, and an inability to measure progress towards an obvious end goal. His chopping and changing has been frustrating, his selection decisions often baffling.
Neither club have provided their supporters with many memorable moments this season, with the two clashes between the sides particularly poor. The goalless draw at Old Trafford back in October was one of the most dispiriting, uneventful games of the Premier League season, the teams managing just a single shot on target apiece.
Both defences seemed vulnerable but neither were truly tested, largely because the ball spent so long being passed aimlessly around the midfield zone. You yearned for the intensity of these clashes a few years ago: particularly Manchester City's 6-1 victory at Old Trafford, which wasn't anything like as one-sided as the scoreline would suggest. It's not simply about goals: it's about purpose, tempo and competitiveness, qualities which were badly lacking on that occasion, and provided a neat summary of the two sides' season.
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The reverse meeting at the Etihad was slightly better, settled by an early Marcus Rashford goal. Even then, you couldn't help remarking upon the poor overall standard, particularly the hapless performance of Martin Demichelis -- surely his last start in a City shirt.
More than anything, attitudes at the two Manchester clubs must change. This is particularly the case at City, with various reports suggesting Pellegrini's demeanour in recent weeks has suggested he, frankly, doesn't really care about Manchester City's future, a lethargy which has inevitably rubbed off on the players. Guardiola will have a tricky task when taking charge in the summer, although it's worth remembering that Barcelona were an underperforming shambles when he started his managerial career back in 2008, too.
The squads are essentially in the opposite positions. Manchester City have a worryingly old squad, far too many on the wrong side of 30 -- including, for example, all four full-backs -- and only Raheem Sterling, Kelechi Iheanacho and Eliaquim Managala, of the team's major players, are under 25. Guardiola will be tasked with regenerating the squad, introducing some talented youngsters who will be happy to play a back-up role for a couple of seasons before gradually earning their position in the side. Guardiola specialises at this kind of development, which appears almost alien to City.
United, meanwhile, are developing plenty of youngsters but need established, dependable performers. It remains to be seen whether that comes from within the existing group; Wayne Rooney finding his old form, Juan Mata becoming a central figure, Chris Smalling developing into more of a leader -- or through new signings. There's a danger that United will become similar to Arsenal towards the end of the last decade, featuring various talented youngsters but no one to look up to, stunting their development and leaving the club as outsiders looking into the title race. The likes of Memphis Depay, Anthony Martial and Matteo Darmian need elder statesman to set the standard.
The positive, though, is that next season's title race could be ludicrously open. It remains to be seen whether Leicester and Tottenham can cope with Champions League football while sustaining a title challenge, whether Liverpool and Chelsea can return to their position as title challengers, whether Arsenal can finally push on.
Manchester's clubs will rise again, and this should be nothing more than a temporary blip.
For a city which had briefly become accustomed to top-of-the-table title battles, however, it's been an entirely forgettable year. The difference between fourth and fifth place is, in financial terms, extremely significant. But whichever team gains that final Champions League slot would be well advised to avoid too much celebration. For these clubs, fourth is the absolute minimum requirement, rather than an achievement in itself.