With a cluster of important matches over the next month, Manchester United, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Chelsea all face schedules that could determine the final Premier League places for next season\u2019s Champions League.<\/p>\n
Current standings make the contest tight. Man Utd sit on 58 points, Aston Villa have 55, Liverpool 52 and Chelsea 48. Chelsea have just one win in their last eight league matches, and the four-point gap between Chelsea and the fifth-place Reds could increase to seven within 24 hours.<\/p>\n
United return home to take on Brentford next before welcoming Liverpool to Old Trafford. A trip to the Stadium of Light follows and United conclude their home fixtures with relegation-battling Nott\u2019m Forest. By the time Carrick\u2019s men face Brighton on the final matchday, the club expect their Champions League place to be wrapped up.<\/p>\n
Aston Villa are no longer part of the title conversation but remain on course to match their best finish of the 21st century if they take care of business. Fixtures against Sunderland and Fulham should be straightforward on paper, then in May Unai Emery\u2019s side meet Tottenham Hotspur and Burnley. Villa finish with Liverpool at home and an away trip to Man City, and could still influence the title picture on the final day.<\/p>\n
Liverpool face a more testing run. The Merseyside derby at the Hill Dickinson Stadium comes first, followed by Crystal Palace. The Reds then travel to Old Trafford before hosting Chelsea and later visit Villa Park, where they have not won in four years. Brentford are Liverpool\u2019s final opponents, a match that could be nervy if a win is required to secure Europe.<\/p>\n
Chelsea need near-perfect results to climb back into the top five, starting with matches against Brighton and Nott\u2019m Forest. For the defending Club World Cup champions, the next month will be decisive in whether they can salvage a Champions League challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United, Villa, Liverpool and Chelsea face pivotal fixtures over the next month for top-five places..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,190,175,1083,969],"tags":[1162,1047],"class_list":["post-12241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","category-man-utd","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}