Premier League top-four finish analysis

The Premier League title looks like it will be heading to Merseyside with Liverpool romping towards first place and bookmakers are in no doubt that Manchester City will chase home the Anfield aces, which leaves two available Champions League qualification spots.

This could be a pivotal weekend in the hunt for top-four slots with third-placed Leicester hosting fourth-placed Chelsea, fifth-placed Manchester United welcoming seventh-placed Wolves to Old Trafford and sixth-placed Tottenham tackling champions City.

Here we assess the chances of those aiming to dine with Europe's elite in next season's premier club competition.

Leicester Top-four odds: 1-8

The fabulous Foxes have won 11 of their last 16 Premier League matches, which sounds like a fine return but is heavily influenced by their eight straight successes between October 19 and December 8.

Leicester have looked less sure of themselves since, winning three of their last eight games and two of those were against West Ham.

The other victory was at Newcastle, with a home draw against Norwich and defeat to Burnley among the low lights before Tuesday's heartbreaking League Cup loss to Aston Villa suddenly put the pressure on Brendan Rodgers' previously free-flowing side.

A 14-point buffer to United should make Leicester comfortable, although they face a tricky set of fixtures with Chelsea, Wolves and City their next three league opponents.

Chelsea 1-2

Frank Lampard is after some January reinforcements following just four wins in their last 12 league outings, but fortunately for Chelsea their Champions League rivals have been unable to take advantage.

That could change in the next three fixtures as the Blues face six-pointers against Leicester, United and Spurs which will determine whether things are about to get really interesting or the market could be dead before the end of February.

Lampard has been keen to bring in further firepower but he could be concentrating on the wrong end of the pitch. Goalkeeper Kepa has been awful and their only away league clean sheet came at ten-men Spurs.

Tottenham 4-1

Tottenham will feel like they have the nicer fixtures once they get City out of the way on Sunday, having already played Liverpool twice and been to Leicester, United, Wolves and Arsenal.

Jose Mourinho has halved the deficit to his former club Chelsea from 12 to six points in his 12 league outings since replacing Mauricio Pochettino and is already shaping his own squad with Christian Eriksen sold and Gedson Fernandes and Dutch dribbling dynamo Steven Bergwijn coming in.

Hugo Lloris is back to fitness and Giovani Lo Celso has hit top form, but Harry Kane's latest lengthy injury could prove decisive. Colleague Kevin Pullein's ratings suggest they will finish below United despite the odds pointing differently.

Man Utd 11-2

If United are to gatecrash the top four they will need to do it the hard way with trips to Tottenham, Leicester and Chelsea still to come, although counter-attacking is the name of the game for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's inconsistent outfit.

Since December they have beaten City and Spurs but also lost to Watford and Burnley, and Marcus Rashford's back injury is a major blow no matter who arrives late in the transfer window.

In theory there are cheap points to be gained from home dates with West Ham, Bournemouth and Watford but nothing comes easy for Solskjaer's side.

United may also decide to go full tilt at the Europa League, a competition they are currently co-favourites to win at 7-1 alongside Sevilla and Inter.

Wolves 10-1

Wolves are double United's price for the Europa League despite having accumulated the same amount of Premier League points through 24 matches.

Fatigue has not been an issue so far - they have scored 26 second-half goals - but Wolves are running with a small squad and the trip to Old Trafford on Saturday is their 41st game of a campaign which started in July.

A crack at winning the Europa League could be Wolves's best bet at making next season's Champions League.

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