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The present Premier League season is nearing its conclusion and the top half of the table may yet see a lot of changes as both the title and top 4 places are still up for grabs.
As the 1st-placed Arsenal and 2nd-placed City grapple for the title, Manchester United, Newcastle, Tottenham and Aston Villa are all in the running for the remaining top 2 Champions League berths.
Premier League Race Heating Up
The Matchweek 31 of the season has seen a lot of surprising results till now, some of which may potentially have huge implications in the Top 4 race.
Yesterday’s match-day saw all three: Newcastle, Tottenham and Chelsea lose. Newcastle and Tottenham’s losses against Aston Villa and Bournemouth in particular carry huge significance in the race for the top 4 places, as for Chelsea their loss against Brighton hardly carries any relevance as their season is already a write-off.
Tottenham and Newcastle losing means an advantage to Manchester United. If the Red Devils can secure a victory at Nottingham Forest’s home: The City Ground then they will be one of the nailed-on favourites to finish in the top 4 places despite their current injury crisis.
The most shocking result of Yesterday’s match-day was Newcastle losing 3-0 to Aston Villa, the Magpies suffered an astonishing defeat given how defensively organised they are. Newcastle went into the game against Villa in a rich vein of form as the Magpies had won their previous 5 Premier League matches before this visit to Villa Park.
Villa started the game brightly as Ollie Watkins came close to scoring the opener within the first 30 seconds of the match only to be denied by the post. However, Watkins did play a big part in Villa’s opening goal as he headed the ball down from a cross which was slotted in the net fiercely by Jacob Ramsey in the 11th minute. Villa then again came close to scoring before Watkins doubled their lead in the 64th minute. Watkins then scored his 2nd goal of the day as he calmly guided the ball into the back of the net from Jacob Ramsey’s assist in the 83rd minute, although the ball did take a slight deflection while going in.
Apart from denting Newcastle’s hopes for a 3rd place finish the outcome of this game also brings Aston Villa into the race for the European places.
Tottenham Hotspur was another of the top 4 contenders who suffered a blow to their Champions League hopes as they conceded a very late goal in the second-half stoppage-time, scored by Dango Ouattara in the 5th minute of the additional time.
Tottenham now find themselves 3 points behind the 4th placed Manchester United who have a game in hand on Tottenham.
What grabbed the headlines more than Tottenham’s home defeat to Bournemouth was that their defender Davinson Sanchez being booed by their home fans. The Colombian was at fault for Bourbnemouth’s second goal.
Tottenham had recently sacked their Head Coach Antonio Conte after his fiery outburst in a post-match press conference and had installed his assistant Cristian Stellini as the interim Head Coach, but it seems that even Conte’s sacking has not been able to help Tottenham’s inconsistencies as the North London club now finds itself in a difficult position in the top 4 race and they still have to play away at Newcastle and Liverpool as well as face United at home.
