Chelsea enjoyed the perfect midweek as their bid to qualify for the Champions League was completely re-energized. A midweek of surprises has compressed the table, leaving Liverpool in sixth and Man Utd in third with just three points separating four sides.<\/p>\n
A top-five finish will almost certainly be enough for entry into next season’s Champions League and the next five Premier League games could have a drastic impact on who claims those positions.<\/p>\n
Man Utd face Aston Villa (A) on March 15, Bournemouth (A) on March 20, Leeds (H) on April 13, Chelsea (A) on April 18 and Brentford (H) on April 27. Man Utd have the luxury of avoiding European and cup soccer for the remainder of the term, which reduces their midweek congestion compared with Chelsea and Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Liverpool’s next five are Tottenham (H) on March 15, Brighton (A) on March 21, Fulham (H) on April 11, Everton (A) on April 19 and Crystal Palace (H) on April 25. Liverpool had been in resurgent form\u2014well, results-wise at least\u2014but their Tuesday night humiliation at Wolverhampton Wanderers rocked their Champions League qualification bid. The Reds have two opportunities to make amends before the March international break. Champions League and FA Cup matches come before the clash with Tottenham on March 15, with Liverpool seeking to do the double over their relegation-threatened visitors. On their return from the Premier League hiatus, Liverpool face Fulham at Anfield. Then comes the first Merseyside derby at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, a fixture that has yielded difficulties for Liverpool away at Everton over the past decade.<\/p>\n
Chelsea’s schedule reads Newcastle (H) on March 14, Everton (A) on March 21, Man City (H) on April 12, Man Utd (H) on April 18 and Brighton (A) on April 26. The Blues will juggle European and cup fixtures alongside this run. The trip to Stamford Bridge from Newcastle is a tough test, and the return of league action sees Liam Rosenior’s men host title-chasing Manchester City followed by the clash with Man Utd. The clash with the Red Devils, which Chelsea lost earlier this term after yet another red card, could prove pivotal in the race for the top five.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Next five fixtures for Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea and how they could affect the top-five race…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,175,1083,969],"tags":[1162,1510],"class_list":["post-7514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","category-man-utd","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-premier-league-fixtures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7514","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=7514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}