Manchester United sit fourth on 48 points, three clear of Chelsea and Liverpool, who each have 45. With Champions League knockout ties starting, United\u2019s pursuit of a return to Europe is their singular focus while their rivals must balance domestic fixtures with continental commitments. \u201cResults wise, it\u2019s been good,\u201d Manchester United\u2019s manager admitted, a plain assessment of the recent uplift that has put United in that position.<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s run of upcoming opponents looks the most favourable on paper. The Reds face three of the current bottom five over the next fortnight, with West Ham and Tottenham travelling to Anfield either side of a trip to Molineux to open March. That schedule carries caveats. Arsenal recently proved that Wolverhampton Wanderers are a foe to be underestimated at your own cost, and West Ham have collected 11 points from their last six games, one more than Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Chelsea arrive in the race unbeaten in the league since Calum McFarlane\u2019s last game of his interim spell against Fulham in January. Yet Liam Rosenior was left to lament another draw at Stamford Bridge. \u201cWe\u2019ve set fire to four points from two home games,\u201d he fumed after Saturday\u2019s frustrating 1\u20131 stalemate. Chelsea have dropped 19 points from winning positions this term, a tally only West Ham can top. Arsenal have developed an unhealthy tendency to slip into this trend, so the first goal may not be decisive when the London rivals meet at Stamford Bridge next Sunday. That visit is the first of a testing sequence for the Blues, who also face Manchester City and Aston Villa among their next five fixtures.<\/p>\n
For Manchester United the coming games feel like an audition. Oliver Glasner is set to lead Crystal Palace to Old Trafford next Sunday, if he is still in a job. The Austrian coach, who has been heavily linked with the full-time position at United, seems to treat each press conference as an opportunity to needle his own fanbase. Despite steering the Eagles to victory over Wolves last weekend, the contest was dominated by Glasner\u2019s uncertain future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United sit fourth with a three-point cushion, as Champions League ties reshape rivals\u2019 league focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,175,179,172],"tags":[1047,1089],"class_list":["post-7074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-champions-league","tag-chelsea-struggles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7074","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=7074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}