Race for top 4

The race for top is heating up with Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester United all fighting for that fourth position and only 3 points separating the teams. Tottenham are currently 7 points ahead of Chelsea in fourth but if they have some bad results they could also be dragged into this battle. The games that occur between the top 6 are the ones that are most important, because these teams are expected to beat the other “lower” teams. When they lose to a team outside of the top 6 it feels like an added blow because they know that the other teams around them probably won and they will slip down one or two positions.

Arsenal have the easier run of the three teams as they have already played City, Liverpool, and Chelsea twice and only have to play United at home and then go to face Spurs away. United and Chelsea still have to play four of the top 6 teams. United host Liverpool and City which both games will have a big impact on top 4 as well as the title race. They then also have to travel to London to face Chelsea and Arsenal, with both games ending 2-2 in the previous round of fixtures. Chelsea travel to Manchester this weekend to face City which will be an exciting game. Chelsea’s next game against top six rivals is when they host Spurs in the end of February. They then have to travel to Manchester again later on in the season to face United and also need to go to Liverpool, which makes their run of fixtures slightly more difficult than United’s.

Reaching top 4 is obviously very important because it gets you into the Champions League, but it is everything else that comes with that as well. Teams can easier attract star players with the luxury of playing in Europe’s elite competition. Furthermore, it attracts more fans worldwide as people want to watch teams in the best competitions. Overall the Champions League brings more revenue to the club which makes it very lucrative and that is why it is so important to these clubs to make sure that they qualify for the next years competition.