With the Premier League title looking like a two-horse race between Manchester City and Liverpool, and Chelsea hovering in third, the battle for fourth place – one of the prized Champions League spots – is being fiercely contested by five clubs: Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham. But what chance do the Hammers actually have of securing a place and mixing it with the European big boys?
In theory, we are entering game week 26 of the 2021/22 Premier League season although the postponing of fixtures over the busy Christmas period has made it hard to tell where every team actually lies in the table with some sides having played 25 fixtures and Burnley with the lowest games played on 22.
A number of factors have contributed to this, from Covid 19 cases within clubs, injuries leading to depleted squads, heavy snow, and other cup competitions such as the FA, League and World Club Championship leading to the postponements of a number of games.
These factors have affected Tottenham on three occasions and Manchester United, Arsenal and Wolves twice while surprisingly West Ham have avoided having any of their games postponed.
The contenders
West Ham
Speaking at a press conference ahead of his team’s victory against Watford David Moyes said of his team’s chances of a top four finish, “The team has played really well for long periods of the season… keep hanging onto the shirttails of teams above us and see what we can do.”
West Ham have constantly been around the top half of the table all season and it would be a pleasant surprise to see them clinch the fourth spot and break up the ‘Big Sixes’ stranglehold of these positions. If they had strengthened their attack and possibly added one or two more squad players, I believe they would have a good chance of taking fourth spot, but with Europa league FA Cup commitments I fear their squad may wear thin as the season draws to a close.
Manchester United
Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick described his side’s 2-0 win over Brighton as “First half was Mr Hyde, second half Dr Jekyll” during a post-match interview with BBC Sport, a win that moved them into fourth spot.
It was a welcome win for Manchester United who had dropped four points in their last two league games with draws against Southampton and Burnley. On their fight for top four, goalkeeper David De Gea said after the game “We should be fighting for more things than the top four, but that is the reality. There are many teams fighting for the same position and with the quality that we have we should win a lot of points”.
As De Gea said, Manchester United do have the firepower to outscore opposing teams with the likes of Ronaldo, Rashford, Cavani and Fernandes to call upon but their defensive frailties and inconsistent pressing and tracking back often leaves them exposed at the back.
Arsenal
It seems a long time back now that Arsenal started the season with a three-game losing streak and sat rock bottom of the Premier League throughout August and some of September with zero points and zero goals scored. But after beating potential – or some would argue current – fourth spot contenders Wolverhampton Wanderers, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta remained coy on his team’s top four chances telling BT Sport “We have some really good players but we were sometimes inconsistent… we need to look at ourselves and focus on what we’re doing and go game by game because we can’t look too far ahead.”
With a number of games in hand on teams above them, Arsenal are in a strong position to secure the fourth spot but their recent ill-discipline (collecting four red cards in their last six games) may prove costly as players continuously serve suspensions.
Wolves
Wolves also started the season with a three-game losing streak like Arsenal but sat one place above them in the table during that period, so it’s quite remarkable to see them also in contention for a European spot. Bruno Lage’s Wolves team is made of a stubborn defence and a resolute formation that ha proved effective on a consistent basis this season.
Having beaten Tottenham in their most recent game to leapfrog the north London side in the table, Lage said “I don’t want anyone comfortable… the goal every time is to look and improve the way we are working. I don’t promise anything. We want the character every time to do better.”
Tottenham
After three consecutive league defeats Tottenham manager Antonio Conte claimed his team have no more than a “one percent” of securing a top four finish come May.
“The level of this league is very high and there is not a lot of space for other teams than the top teams,” he said at a news conference ahead of Tottenham’s game while going on to state “It’s important not to be scared. We need to have the desire to fight.”
Bar this season, Tottenham have consistently finished in the top four in recent years and with a seasoned coach like Antonio Conte and a few games in hand may just have the know-how to rise above their rivals in the final few weeks of the season.
