Premier League top four run-in: Remaining fixtures, key clashes and predicted finishes for Aston Villa, Manchester United and Tottenham

The battle for a place in the top four of the Premier League this season once again appears to be going down to the wire.

Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester United are all fighting for a place assuming their title rivals Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City do not suffer a major collapse.

What makes the situation even more interesting is that we still don’t know if England will get five Champions League places next year instead of four.

All these three teams can do is accumulate as many points as possible and hope that at the end of the season it will be enough to play with Europe’s elite.

Here, talkSPORT.com takes an in-depth look at football’s Champions League race.

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Villa Aston – 4th

The Villans have had an incredible campaign and head into the latter part of the season in the box seat to secure Champions League football.

Unai Emery’s men started the year with eight consecutive home wins, and after a victory against Arsenal in early December, they were well in the title race.

They have since fallen back a bit and have now lost three home games, giving them the fourth best home record in the division.

One of them was a 4-0 humiliation of Spurs, which leaves Villa just three points clear of their rivals.

The Villans have won six of their last 13 league matches and are struggling a little to finish in the top four.

Looking at their remaining matches, they still have to face Manchester City and Arsenal away and host Liverpool for their final match at Villa Park this season.

If they can take points from this, the top four are in play, but it appears they have lost a bit of form at the wrong time.

Expected arrival – 5th

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Tottenham – 5th

Tottenham, under Ange Postecoglou in his first season as Premier League manager, have been a breath of fresh air.

They have the fifth-best home and away record in the league and have scored 61 goals so far – only the five teams have scored more.

Spurs have played freely all season, while James Maddison and Micky van de Ven have proven to be excellent signings.

Inconsistency has cost them dearly at times this year, with good results then followed by bad ones, leaving their top four hopes hanging in the balance.

They have a game in hand against Villa which will be vital but like the Villans, they face Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool.

Once again, these games will likely decide their fate.

Expected arrival – 4th

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Manchester United – 6th

After finishing third last year in Erik ten Hag’s first season in charge of Man United, the future looked bright for the Red Devils.

However, this has largely been a campaign to forget for United.

They crashed out of the Champions League, finished last in their group and were never in contention for the title, while a top four finish is still quite unlikely.

But the players are returning from injury and have won five of their last eight league games to slowly narrow the gap to Spurs and Villa.

So it all comes down to the remaining games and the games against Arsenal and Liverpool look tough, while Newcastle and Brighton are likely to fight for the European places.

But despite a slightly easier run-in than their opponents on paper, the gap is too big to be reduced for the top four.

Expected arrival – 6th

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