Gary Neville has cast his eye over the Champions League battle with two teams set to miss out on the Premier League’s final day as Chelsea and Man City sweat on European involvement
Gary Neville believes Chelsea will miss out on the Champions League as five teams eye three spots on the final day of the Premier League. The battle for the top five has gone down to the wire with two clubs due to miss out.
Newcastle currently occupy third place despite losing at the weekend as they eye a return to the Champions League following a year away. Chelsea’s win over Manchester United has them in fourth with Aston Villa sat in fifth.
All three teams sit on 66 points and are only separated by goal difference. Manchester City are sixth, a point behind, but do have a game in hand to come against Bournemouth on Tuesday night. A win would put them in pole position ahead of their visit to Fulham on the final day.
Nottingham Forest’s win at West Ham kept them in contention and they’ll host Chelsea on the final day. Neville believes the Blues and Forest will just miss out – with Aston Villa among those benefitting.
He said on his podcast: “That was a really important win for Nottingham Forest. They’re still up against it a little bit and they’ve got a big game coming up next weekend. Obviously Man City still have two games but they’re two difficult games actually.
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“Bournemouth are a tasty opposition and then they’ve got Fulham on the final day. City will be flat after losing the cup final. They need to get themselves back up for those games and finish the job off. There’s a lot to play for in the next week and a lot of money at stake.
“At the moment I think Man City will just get in there, I think Newcastle will get in there and I think Aston Villa might just sneak in. I think Forest might just hamper Chelsea next weekend and Aston Villa should win at Old Trafford, everyone is beating Man United at the minute.”
For Neville to be right Chelsea and Forest would need to draw at the City Ground later this week. That would be a major blow for the west Londoners, who sat second back in December and were tipped as Liverpool’s potential challengers for the title. They’ve since fallen away with consistency an issue.
Despite that Enzo Maresca is not set to face the chop. He’s only been in charge for one season and the Stamford Bridge bosses are ready to stick by the Italian, even if he ultimately fails to deliver the club’s primary goal.
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