After this weekend it feels as if the race for a top 4 position is down to 3 London teams, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham. True Manchester United and West Ham will want to have their say but we will get to them later. For months Chelsea have looked a shoe in to finish in 3rd place but one has to wonder if the Blues form will finally suffer given all of the off the field activities with the club now up for sale? Not just that but Chelsea have a difficult few weeks coming up that involves playing in the quarter finals of the Champions League where they will face Real Madrid and then there is their FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace. To be fair the Blues have remained solid this year but at the weekend they lost 4-1 at home to Brentford and not many people would have seen that coming. That top 3 shoe in doesn't look so good now as Tottenham and Arsenal are the main threats. One would think that Chelsea will have enough in the end even if they lose 3rd place but with 9 games to go for them nothing is certain.
Arsenal remain the favourites to take 4th place and they have some games in hand over their direct rivals but then again they have a tough fixture list coming up where they will play Chelsea and Manchester United later this month, so points could be dropped. Tottenham though have emerged as a real threat and Antonio Conte has seen his side drop silly points at home in the last few months that would have ensured a top 4 finish otherwise. But the club seem to be finding their stride just at the right time and certainly at this point they are looking better, fresher and have more ideas than Manchester United for example. At the weekend Tottenham crushed Newcastle 5-1 and Harry Kane was outstanding and yet he didn't even score, so Tottenham look like they are in a great place.
The problem for Manchester United is that time and again they fail to produce the goods. One week they look back, the next they are ordinary again and they really have to beat teams like Leicester when playing at home. The Foxes were playing for very little and yet should have won the game that finished 1-1 in the end. More dropped points for United means that they have lost 20 points at home this season. Their top 4 dreams look very bleak now and in theory they could be six points adrift of that target very soon and with Tottenham and Arsenal in their way, that's their problem and we know that this club are incapable of consistency. West Ham are up there too and we know that David Moyes side can find consistency but they have played 31 games- 3 more than Arsenal, they won't give up of course but it looks more realistic that the club will be qualifying for the Europa League next season.
To finish in the top 4: Chelsea 1.05, Arsenal 1.57, Tottenham 2.50, Manchester United 10.00, West Ham 34.00
Next weekend could well decide where the Premier League title will end up when Manchester City play Liverpool at the Etihad. The two clubs keep winning their respective games and heading into the next batch of games City lead Liverpool by 1 point. Liverpool had gone top of the league for a couple of hours last weekend as they beat Watford 2-0 to maintain their unbeaten home record. However City also beat Burnley by the same score line to reclaim 1st place. In any normal season one would think that whoever wins next weekend that wouldn't determine the final outcome for the season but these two clubs have raised the bar so high that if you drop points it gives a huge advantage to the other team.
Because of Liverpool and Manchester City's respective victories Everton kind of won at the weekend even though they lost their game as they were beaten 2-1 at West Ham. However the gap to the bottom three remains at four points with Burnley and Watford losing. Everton have the worst away record in the league and Wednesday evening will be a huge game for them as they play Burnley away from home. A win would create some breathing space for the Toffees but a defeat would drag Frank Lampard's side right back into the danger zone.
Form Guide:
Top 3 sides on form: Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea
Bottom 3 sides on form: Burnley, Brighton, Norwich
Finally Mohamed Salah looks like a shoe in to finish as the top goalscorer this season but two other players are in with a shout and one is Salah's team mate at Liverpool- Diogo Jota. Jota has been superb for Liverpool since his transfer from Wolves and he has been involved in 15 goals this season in the league scoring 14 times including this past weekend. Jota is just six goals behind Salah whose season may be overshadowed by his delayed contract talks. Another player is Heung-Min Son for Tottenham who also scored at the weekend and who also has 14 goals, can they get near or catch Salah who currently has 20 goals to his name and has been involved in 30 goals so far?
Top Goalscorer: Mohamed Salah 1.05, Harry Kane 21.00, Diogo Jota 25.00, Cristiano Ronaldo 34.00, Heung Min-Son 41.00
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