Extraordinary times in the world of football have elicited extraordinary circumstances for the premier league this year. For what seemed like Liverpool’s season to take again as soon as they signed treble winning FC Bayern star Thiago, started going haywire as nobody foresaw their main man, Virgil Van Djik to get injured early in the campaign and go missing for the rest of the season.
Since then, many emerged as favourites for the title win. If to place bet on sports with Karamba, especially football, has been your thing, you must have seen how the odds have looked almost comical in the topsy-turvy first half of the campaign. At times, people thought Liverpool would be back again. But the only thing that was consistent during their campaign has been the curse of injuries, sadly. Odds at point also suggesting maybe it’ll be Jose’s men who would take home the league, but that was watered down too. Manchester United stayed at the top for almost a month but that wasn’t a forever thing either.
Right now, it’s Manchester City who are sitting at the top of the table and it’s safe to say, they should emerge as the champions of the league until something extraordinary happens—odds for which are very slim.
So, as the first spot looks quite set in stone, the teams sitting below it are only separated by a mere one point. And then there’s a complicated mess of 5 teams, where the team at the top, Chelsea is only ahead of the 8th placed Everton by 5 points.
Hence, it goes without saying that the end of the campaign is going to be a little tricky. And this is how the Premier League works, and hence, is one of the most popular leagues in the world.
So, how could the top 4 in the table shape by the end of the season? Let’s see.
1. Manchester City
Teams sometimes scratch their heads and wonder, how to stop this Manchester City team? This is how good this team has been this season and at the moment, they’re sailing at the top of the table with 71 points. They are 14 points ahead of their arch-rivals, Manchester United. They had a spectacular run of 21-wins, which came to a close this month after the 2-0 loss to Manchester United. They look like the most nailed on finishers for the first spot.
2. Manchester United
Despite losing 1-0 to Leicester City in the FA Cup and despite being just one point ahead of them on the table, Manchester United still are in a better position and would have most of their players back from the injuries when the international break ends. Not to mention they have better fixtures remaining too, as compared to Leicester City.
Therefore, the second place looks a little more certain for the red devils.
3. Leicester City
The foxes have had a fantastic campaign and a Champions League spot almost looks certain for them. They’re separated by one point from the second spot and the reason behind putting them at third is because of how their fixtures are—their final three fixtures are Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham.
Another reason is injuries. They’ve lost a lot of important players due to injuries; Harvey Barnes, James Maddison, Ricardo Pereira, Cengiz Under, James Justin, to name a few. Regardless of how well they’re playing, it’s hard to sustain form when you have so many starters missing. Although, they’re 5 points ahead of Chelsea and it seems like they won’t drop lower than third place at this point.
4. Chelsea
Even though Spurs and West Ham are right under their noses, it’s hard to imagine Chelsea letting the top-4 spot go, based on the way they’re under their new manager Thomas Tuchel. Chelsea spent nearly quarter billion euros to sign Havertz, Werner, Chilwell, Ziyech, Mendy. But, the new Chelsea era under Frank Lampard was just an illusion. Thomas Tuchel has steadied their ship into the winning ways and it looks like they’re going to carry this form into the next season.
Chelsea have gone 14 games unbeaten under the German manager, out of which 10 have been won with 4 draws. The most significant change has been Chelsea’s defensive structure, which looks far more stable than the way it was before.
In Conclusion
Hence, these four sides look like the strongest contenders for the top 4. They’re at the same spots at the moment and despite the fight for the 4th spot looking so fierce, the odds of season ending with these teams qualifying for Champions League football look highly likely.