Every season the race to be eligible to compete with Europe's elite tends to be a worthwhile spectacle alongside the title and relegation battles and yet this season it appears to have taken centre stage. With most pundits backing Chelsea to be Champions and City being not too convincing, the run-in to the title has ceased to be a race or at least an intriguing one if it is a race. The relegation scrap involves the usual suspects and even though it might be a close shave it certainly isn't as dramatic as the tussle for the top four as several teams are all within a good chance of qualifying.
Wednesday night football saw Manchester United survive a major blow to their top four ambitions as Ashley Young managed to pounce on a horrendous Tim Krul mistake in the very late stages of the match. United had been rather uninspiring for most of the match sometimes even looking clueless as Newcastle stood resolute.
Arsenal had a fairly routine win against an ever struggling QPR with Alexis Sanchez finally finding the back of the net after 8 games of wayward shooting. Charlie Austin managed to get a goal for the strugglers but it does look like they will be in the mires of relegation right to the end. Meanwhile at White Hart Lane Tottenham found themselves on the right side of a 3-2 scoreline in what was quite a lively match. The 5 goals were accompanied by the rather unfortunate collapse of Swansea striker Bafetimbi Gomis which turned out to be a much lesser problem than initially feared as he was not even hospitalised.
At Anfield Liverpool continued their fine form to see off Burnley and ensure that every realistic top four contender earns maximum points albeit with varying score lines. The results then mean that there is no change in how things stood from the last match-day which leaves us all none the wiser as to who will be in the Champions League next season. With 11 games to go it does seem as if the race to be among Europe’s elite will go down to the very last day of the season.
Source: DSG
