Chelsea win the top 4 race, Man United are out!
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A couple of weeks back, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur were the most likely teams to finish in the top four but Chelsea became the first club to cross the finishing line in the top 4 race on Sunday, thanks to Arsenal dropping points in four of their last five games and Tottenham winning only two Premier League matches during the same period.
In fact, all teams involved in the race including Chelsea struggled to put together a winning run to qualify for the Champions League. The series of poor results from English clubs led to La Liga club Sevilla posting a witty dig at the Premier League clubs on twitter.
The crazy race for the top four is almost over with Chelsea coming out as big winners on the day. Knowing Tottenham were beaten by Bournemouth a day before, the Chelsea players knew they had a big chance to solidify their chances of a top four finish with a victory over Watford.
In the first half, Kepa had to make a brilliant save of Deeney’s header to keep the score tied at 0-0. Chelsea made up for their lacklustre performance in the first half by starting the second half strongly.
Eden Hazard created Chelsea’s first two goals within a span of three minutes. First, Ruben Loftus-cheek headed in a fantastic cross by the Belgian and then, David Luiz came up with a powerful header to extend Chelsea’s lead from a corner.
Higuain killed any hope of a Watford comeback in the 75th minute by chipping the ball over the keeper into an empty goal after Pedro played him through. A couple of minutes after the goal, Watford’s Holebas hit the bar!
As the game was approaching it’s end, Hazard came up with another brilliant cross that was scuffed over the bar by Giroud. The game ended 3-0 and Chelsea finished their last game at home with a win.
In the other game that was going on simultaneously, Manchester United put on an awful display and were held to a 1-1 draw by Premier League’s bottom placed club Huddersfield Town. Mbenza cancelled out McTominay’s goal in the first half and Man United’s Pogba hit the bar in both halves.
However, it was one of the worst performances from Manchester United with their players showing lack of energy to win the second balls and press for a winning goal towards the end. The result confirmed Man United will not play in the Champions League next season and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has a lot of rebuilding to do in the summer.
In the game that kicked-off late, Arsenal needed a win to have any real chance of qualifying for the Champions League. The Gunners started the match brightly and Mkitaryan was denied by the post in the 2nd minute. Arsenal were awarded a penalty by the referee in the 9th minute for a foul on Monreal in the box and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang converted from the spot to amusement of home fans at the Emirates.
The slender lead got blown away in the second half when Granit Xhaka brought down March. Glenn Murray scored from the spot and from there on, it was all one way traffic. Brighton who were already safe showed Arsenal on how to defend inside the box – some thing Arsenal have forgotten in the past few weeks.
Brighton defended brilliantly with Dunk and Duffy negating almost every threat from Aubameyang and Lacazette. The match ended 1-1 and confirmed Arsenal can’t overtake Chelsea, which means the blues of London have qualified for the Champions League next season.
Even though Arsenal can mathematically end up with the same points as Tottenham Hotspur, the goal difference between the two sides suggest Tottenham will finish in the top 4, barring a miracle.
LosMejor's Editorial Team includes a team of experts who cover the UEFA Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and the Carabao Cup. The Editorial team is headed by Deepak Selvan.
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