Premier League top-four odds: Villa, Chelsea and United cut for Champions League spot
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Premier League top-four odds and contenders
The race for the Champions League spots is as fierce as ever, but as things stand the odds suggest Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal will be playing at Europe’s top table next season.
City are 1/100, with the Gunners and the Reds both available at 1/8, but there are six other clubs lining up to join them in the Champions League.
Top-flight action returns this weekend after the final international break, as we look at the contenders and the latest Premier League top-four odds.
Tottenham
Despite their unbeaten start to the Premier League season ending with back-to-back defeats, Spurs remain the favourites to take the final Champions League spot, although they are no longer odds-on.
A 4-1 loss at home to Chelsea was compounded by injuries to key players James Maddison and Micky van de Ven which ruled them out until the new year, while Cristian Romero copped a three-match ban for a straight red card.
Ange Postecoglou had to make three changes to his back line for the trip to Wolves, with Eric Dier and Ben Davies playing in the heart of defence and Emerson Royal filling in at left-back for Destiny Udogie, who was also sent off against Chelsea.
Spurs conceded twice in stoppage time in a 2-1 defeat at Molineux and are now fourth in the table, two points off the top ahead of tough games against Aston Villa, champions Manchester City, Newcastle and West Ham.
Newcastle
The Magpies are playing Champions League football for the first time in 20 years, but a lengthy injury crisis means they are in danger of missing out on the knockout stage and slipping down the Premier League table.
Eddie Howe was without both first-choice strikers Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson for Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth where Anthony Gordon played up front in a game missing suspended midfielder Bruno Guimaraes.
Miguel Almiron also went off early on with a hamstring problem and with Dan Burn out for a couple of months and Harvey Barnes also still injured, Howe admitted the break has come “at a very good time” ahead of their next two games at home to Chelsea and Manchester United.
Aston Villa
Villa’s sensational home form in the Premier League has lifted them to fifth place in the table, just three points adrift of leaders Manchester City heading into the international break.
A 3-1 victory over Fulham at the weekend made it 13 successive top-flight victories at Villa Park stretching back to last season which saw their odds cut from 4/1 for a top-four finish.
Only City have scored more than Villa’s 29 goals this season, but they face Tottenham, Manchester City and Arsenal in three of their next four games, so they will be hard pushed to be inside the top four after they have faced the Gunners.
Chelsea
The Blues have been involved in two of the greatest Premier League games in history in the space of six days and their improving side have been cut from 7/1 to be playing at the top table next season.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men followed a 4-1 victory at nine-man Tottenham, Premier League leaders at the time, with a spectacular 4-4 draw with champions Manchester City on Sunday when Cole Palmer’s stoppage-time penalty kept them in the top half of the table.
Chelsea’s tough run of games continues with matches against Newcastle, Brighton and Manchester United, so it remains to be seen whether they can make inroads on the 10-point gap on fourth-placed Spurs during that spell.
Manchester United
The Red Devils are just five points off the Champions League spots, but an unconvincing 1-0 victory over Luton at Old Trafford hardly suggests they can repeat last season’s feat.
All seven of United’s wins have come by one-goal margins and they have a difficult stretch of games between now and Boxing Day, with Newcastle, Chelsea, Liverpool, West Ham and Aston Villa making up five of their next seven fixtures.
United, who have lost five of their 12 games, were 6/1 for a top-four finish at the end of October, but back-to-back 1-0 victories have seen those odds cut.
Best of the rest
Eighth-placed Brighton are 8/1 on the back of a six-match winless run involving 1-1 draws against Everton, Fulham and bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United which has left them seven points adrift of fourth place.
The Seagulls visit Nottingham Forest and Chelsea after the break followed by home games against Brentford and Burnley, but they also have a couple of Europa League group games which seem to be affecting their Premier League form.
West Ham beat Forest on Sunday and are priced at 50/1, while Brentford, Crystal Palace and Fulham are all available at 100/1.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication
