By Daily Sports on April 23, 2019

The race for the top 4 places in the English premier league was always going to go down the wire between three teams:Tottenham Hotspurs,Chelsea Arsenal and Manchester United. With these teams locked in a tight race for the remaining two spots for the prestigious Champions League and with the front two of Manchester City and Liverpool flying on, it was always assumed that deciding who will make the top four among the four competing clubs was going to be a matter left for the last day of the season.

But what most didnt know was that these four teams, instead of making a real push by winning matches they should be winning easily, would all be combining to experience a slump at this crucial time of the season. 

Last weekend's matches saw Tottenham lose to Man City at the Etihad,after eliminating the same side in the Champions League some days earlier despite losing at the same. venue 4-3. Results wise, it is two straight losses and Spurs have not been in fantastic form lately, even against other lesser quality sides.

Man United have struggled unbelievably since the appointment of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as permanent manager and it is hard to tell why. On sunday afternoon, watching them get hammered 4-0 at Goodison Park by Everton was a surprise to everyone. Surprise at the lack of fight, given what was at stake? Surprise about the body language of the players. I have not seen the normally relaxed and smiling face of Solskjaer look so red and stern as he went through the horror of seeing his players put on a lifeless show.

Solskjaer said after the game: "That performance is not good enough for a Manchester United team, from me to the players. We let the fans down. We let the club down. That performance is difficult to describe because it was so bad. They beat us on all the basics: long throw – put your head in, our corner, they counterattack and score, their corner, they score. We were beaten on all the ingredients you need, added to the talent. There is no place you can hide on the pitch. It was 85 minutes before we got a strike on target which is not good enough.”

With only one win and a flurry of defeats since his appointment, apologizing to the fans of the club after the Everton loss was the least he could do. But the analysis of Man United legend Gary Neville was telling in its scathing nature.“The fact he [Solskjaer] had to apologize to the fans is embarrassing. I’ve often said that if clubs have weeds in the garden, you’ve got to get rid of them. But there are Japanese weeds rotting that football club, and it’s attacking the foundations of the house that need dealing with properly. That performance was rancid. I don’t need to name names, you know who they are. They are in the newspapers every day, they are on social media today,” Neville said.

Arsenal came back from an impressive away win at Napoli in the Europa league to shoot themselves in the foot,losing 2-3 at home to Crystal Palace at their Emirates stadium home. It was a carelss line up from Unai Emery that did Arsenal in,as they would have hit 69 points and sat pretty in 3rd spot, but the Spanish coach opted to rest one too many players and started with 3 players who have not simply done enough to merit all of them starting a crucial game at once. 

Carl Jenkinson (right wing back on the day), Stephanos Mavropanus (inexperienced center back) and Mohammed Elneny (midfielder who seem to offer nothing of note) were all thrown into battle against a dangerous Crystal Palace side that have claimed the scalp of Manchester City this season at the Etihad. The 4 of them failed to impress and the Gunners have been left to lift their wounds.

Chelsea have seen Sarriball hit the rocks this season antheir Monday night thrilling 2-2 draw at home to Burnley means they dropped 2 points rather than earn one. A win would have taken Chelsea to third but they are 4th now, but with a game more than Arsenal who have the same number of points as Chelsea.

One thing is clear, Chelsea fans are mostly not happy with Mauricio Sarri. The beautiful football that Chelsea craved in luring Sarri from Napoli has turned into a nightmare and not a few Chelsea fans will prefer now to see a return to the gritty days of defensive solidity marked by 1-0 wins, if that's what it would take to nick a top 4 place.

Judging by the recent form of these four teams, its hard now to know who will fail harder and drop from the top 4. Arsenal have three of their remaining four matches away, and its hard seeing them win against Wolves, Leicester City and Burnley away, given their poor away form this season. Even when they had a Watford player dismissed in the first half in their last away tie, they labored to make the one-man advantage count and were lucky to have escaped with the narrowest of wins.

Manchester United are wobbling and it’s almost impossible to bet on them finding enough motivation to beat Man City on Wednesday evening to gift bitter enemies Liverpool the title. 

Then there is the issue of Chelsea coming to the Old Trafford after the City clash, and that match could potentially eliminate the loser from the top 4, while a draw may do neither any good.

Chelsea simply are too inconsistent and can't  relied upon to win. 

Spurs have the easiest of fixtures on paper. 3 out of their 4 remaining games are home matches, and the smart money is that they will book a top 4 place, leave the remaining three clubs to scramble for the last spot. 

Source Daily Sports

Posted April 23, 2019

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