The 30th weekend of Premier League action closed with results that tightened the conversation around the top five. Manchester United, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Chelsea each confront runs of fixtures that could define their finishes.<\/p>\n
Aston Villa\u2019s reverse at Old Trafford was another disappointing entry on a poor run of form. Arsenal sit 19 points clear of Emery\u2019s side, and the defeat was notable for Ollie Watkins being withdrawn after an hour. Morgan Rogers was also ineffective in that match.<\/p>\n
Chelsea suffered their own setback on Saturday. Referee Paul Tierney interfered with their pre-match routine and, as the coverage noted, “don\u2019t forget folks, you must pay respect to the ball”. Liam Rosenior\u2019s side conceded a preventable goal to Anthony Gordon.<\/p>\n
Those two results helped Liverpool climb back into the Premier League top five, but they did not fully capitalise. Liverpool were held to a 1\u20131 draw by Tottenham Hotspur. The match featured a problematic moment from Guglielmo Vicario when facing Dominik Szoboszlai\u2019s free-kick.<\/p>\n
European results will influence whether five Premier League places for continental competition are available. After the first legs of the round of 16, the situation is less promising than it once appeared.<\/p>\n
Fixtures coming up (next five):
\nMan Utd: Bournemouth (A) \u2013 March 20; Leeds (H) \u2013 April 13; Chelsea (A) \u2013 April 18; Liverpool (H) \u2013 May 2; Brentford (H) \u2013 April 27.
\nAston Villa: West Ham (H) \u2013 March 22; Nott\u2019m Forest (A) \u2013 April 11; Sunderland (H) \u2013 April 18; Fulham (A) \u2013 April 27; Tottenham (H) \u2013 May 2.
\nLiverpool: Brighton (A) \u2013 March 21; Fulham (H) \u2013 April 11; Everton (A) \u2013 April 19; Tottenham (H) \u2013 May 2; Man Utd (A) \u2013 May 2.
\nChelsea: Everton (A) \u2013 March 21; Man City (H) \u2013 April 12; Man Utd (H) \u2013 April 18; Crystal Palace (H) \u2013 April 25; Brighton (A) \u2013 April 26.<\/p>\n
Manchester United\u2019s home run has included wins over Manchester City, Villa, Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Fulham. Three of United\u2019s next five are at Old Trafford. Bournemouth\u2019s form can vary, and there is a mouthwatering clash with Chelsea in the colloquially named Alejandro Garnacho derby.<\/p>\n
Aston Villa\u2019s schedule appears friendly on paper, but Emery\u2019s Europa League glory hunters are low on confidence and rank in the bottom five for Premier League points picked up in 2026. West Ham and Nottingham Forest present real threats in fixtures that carry relegation stakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Next five fixtures for Man Utd, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Chelsea will influence the top-five race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,190,175,1083,172],"tags":[227,506,1089],"class_list":["post-8650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","category-man-utd","category-epl","tag-alejandro-garnacho","tag-anthony-gordon","tag-chelsea-struggles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8650","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=8650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}