The Premier League champion has already been decided and clubs who are going to be relegated at the end of this month have also been marked out in red. Now the only fight that remains is to decide which clubs play in the Champions League and who gets to be in the Europa League next season.
Manchester City and Manchester United have secured two out of the four Champions League spots for the 2021-22 campaign so now as many as five clubs are fighting it out for the remaining two spots.
Liverpool gave their top-four hopes a massive boost thanks to Alisson Becker’s 95th-minute winner against West Bromwich Albion at the weekend and according to Michael Owen, this momentum should help his former grab one UCL spot by the end of next weekend.
“It’s been a strange season for Liverpool,” Owen told Premier League Productions, as quoted by The Mirror.
“In the last few games they’ve missed so many chances and created so much. Today there were a few chances but it was a disappointing performance on the whole.
“That last-minute goal will paper over the cracks in terms of the performance because I thought it was only okay. But at this stage of the season it really doesn’t matter.
“You would say that Liverpool’s remaining fixtures are the easiest out of the three teams, and it’s definitely two from three now, I can’t see the likes of Tottenham [sixth place] or anybody else squeezing into the party, West Ham [seventh place].
“I think it is Liverpool, Leicester and Chelsea, two from those three and I think it’s going to be Liverpool and one other.
“You would say that Liverpool’s remaining fixtures are the easiest out of the three teams, and it’s definitely two from three now, I can’t see the likes of Tottenham [sixth place] or anybody else squeezing into the party, West Ham [seventh place].
“I think it is Liverpool, Leicester and Chelsea, two from those three and I think it’s going to be Liverpool and one other.”
Theoretically Spurs and West Ham United are also in the race of a top-four finish but these sides will require a lot of things to go their way to be able to make it into the European elites next season.
So ideally both the London clubs will be looking to secure a Europa League spot for the upcoming season leaving the remaining three clubs to fight it out.
Leicester City narrowly missed out on a top-four finish last season and Brendan Rodgers will be eager to get this wrapped up this week itself when the Foxes take on Chelsea in the Premier League.
A win for either of the two sides will help them secure a Champions League berth and the onus will then be on Liverpool to win their remaining two matches.
Just 24 hours after the Chelsea vs Leicester City game, Liverpool will face Burnley and ideally, Jurgen Klopp will want the Blues to suffer a defeat on Tuesday since Liverpool are just one point behind them on the Premier League table.
