With the Premier League reaching its final two matchweeks, four clubs remain firmly involved in the fight for Champions League qualification. Liverpool sit fourth on 59 points, Aston Villa are a point behind on 58 with a game in hand, while Bournemouth (55) and Brighton & Hove Albion (53) are not out of the equation and have two games remaining.<\/p>\n
Liverpool are in the strongest position. A victory in either of their remaining matches would secure a top-five finish. The Reds must overcome Aston Villa at Villa Park in one of those fixtures and would then close the campaign at home to Brentford if qualification is not sealed in the Midlands. A draw at Villa Park could be sufficient depending on results elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Aston Villa remain central to how the race unfolds. Villa travel to Burnley this Sunday and then host Liverpool, before ending their season at Manchester City. Their European destiny could be affected by the Europa League final. “Should Unai Emery\u2019s side win the Europa League final against Freiburg and then finish fifth, it means the team that comes sixth in the Premier League will also qualify for Europe\u2019s premier competition next term.” That scenario would extend qualification to an additional league position.<\/p>\n
Bournemouth occupy sixth and have kept their hopes alive after a recent win over Fulham. The Cherries need at least one victory from their final two games to give themselves a realistic chance of moving into the top five; back-to-back wins would greatly improve their prospects. Bournemouth head into a high-profile home game against Manchester City on May 19, followed by a trip to Nottingham Forest on May 24, which will be Andoni Iraola\u2019s final match in charge of Forest.<\/p>\n
Brighton remain in contention on 53 points with two matches to play. All four clubs face awkward, high-stakes fixtures and the outcome will depend on form across the remaining dates. The final stretch promises close margins, where a single result will likely decide who progresses to Europe\u2019s elite competition next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool lead a tight chase with Aston Villa, Bournemouth and Brighton still vying for top-five…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,739,773,175,172],"tags":[1615],"class_list":["post-13714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-bournemouth","category-brighton-hove-albion","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-andoni-iraola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13714","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=13714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}