Liverpool arrive at Old Trafford with European qualification still to secure but well placed to finish in the top five.<\/p>\n
After a difficult campaign, the Reds sit fourth in the table and are eight points clear of sixth-placed Brighton & Hove Albion. Only three teams remain above them in the standings, so a positive result at Manchester United on Sunday would be valuable on two fronts: it would be a statement in a fierce rivalry and could move Liverpool up to third.<\/p>\n
Technically Liverpool can clinch Champions League qualification at Old Trafford, but that outcome depends on other results. To guarantee a top-five finish this weekend, Liverpool need victory in Manchester and require Brighton to drop points away at Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon. They also need Bournemouth to fail to take maximum points at home against Crystal Palace on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Reds will know before kick-off whether a top-five finish can be confirmed, yet the club will be desperate for all three points regardless of permutations.<\/p>\n
If Liverpool do not win at Old Trafford they are not without options. As the weekend begins they know they need a maximum of five points from their remaining fixtures to secure a top-five place. There are three more Premier League matches left after Manchester United.<\/p>\n
Liverpool return to Anfield on May 10 to face Chelsea. The Blues are currently operating without a permanent manager but still possess the quality to trouble opponents. Liverpool suffered a 2\u20131 defeat in the reverse fixture this season, underlining that the meeting at Anfield will not be straightforward.<\/p>\n
A trip to Villa Park follows, where Liverpool will meet Aston Villa. The Reds have failed to win either of their last two matches at Villa Park, making that fixture another potential hurdle in the run-in.<\/p>\n
In short, a win at Old Trafford plus favourable results elsewhere would settle Liverpool\u2019s Champions League hopes now. If not, they retain multiple paths to the same objective across the final matches of the campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool need a win at Old Trafford plus favourable slips by Brighton and Bournemouth to clinch it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,969],"tags":[1162,299],"class_list":["post-13558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-arne-slot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13558","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=13558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}