A tight run of matches over the coming weeks will be pivotal for Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea as they bid to reach the Champions League places. The three clubs sit on 51, 48 and 45 points respectively, and each faces a distinctly different sequence of Premier League opponents across their next five matches.<\/p>\n
Fixtures (next five)<\/p>\n
Man Utd (51 points): Newcastle (A) \u2013 March 4; Aston Villa (H) \u2013 March 15; Bournemouth (A) \u2013 March 20; Leeds (H) \u2013 April 11; Chelsea (A) \u2013 April 18.<\/p>\n
Liverpool (48 points): Wolves (A) \u2013 March 3; Tottenham (H) \u2013 March 15; Brighton (A) \u2013 March 21; Fulham (H) \u2013 April 11; Everton (A) \u2013 April 18.<\/p>\n
Chelsea (45 points): Aston Villa (A) \u2013 March 4; Newcastle (H) \u2013 March 14; Brighton (A) \u2013 March 21; Fulham (H) \u2013 April 11; Man Utd (H) \u2013 April 18.<\/p>\n
Liverpool begin with a trip to last-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers, a fixture that starts what the original report describes as a favourable sequence. That run includes Tottenham at Anfield, a visit to Brighton \u2014 a side Liverpool have already beaten twice this term \u2014 and a Fulham home game before a Merseyside derby away at Everton completes the five-match set.<\/p>\n
Man Utd have a tougher-looking set of opponents in the next six weeks but carry the advantage of not being involved in European competition or FA Cup fixtures for the remainder of the season. United travel to Newcastle in midweek, then host Aston Villa, face Bournemouth and Leeds, and conclude the sequence with an away tie at Chelsea, a match framed as important in the race for Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n
Chelsea face one of the sternest stretches of the three clubs. Beyond their domestic fixtures, the Blues also prepare for Champions League last 16 meetings with reigning European champions Paris Saint-Germain, and the league run ahead has been described as a rotten run of matches.<\/p>\n
All three clubs still have time to influence the top-five race, with the upcoming calendar promising twists that could be decisive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea head into March with five matches that will shape the top-five race. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,175,1083],"tags":[1162,1047],"class_list":["post-7180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","category-man-utd","tag-analytics","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7180","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=7180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}