Champions League places – Premier League form table informs who has easiest and toughest run-ins | OneFootball

The Champions League qualifying race, out of five teams, which three Premier League clubs will get the places on offer, alongside Liverpool and Arsenal?

It is now down to Forest, Newcastle United, Man City, Chelsea and Villa.

Three to succeed and two to fail.

How best to judge which clubs have the easiest or toughest run-ins, when it comes to the final five rounds of Premier League matches?

Looking at the matches each of the clubs have left to play, is it simply a case of looking at the current Premier League table and judging from that how difficult (or not) each team’s five fixtures are?

Or is it more relevant at this late stage in the season, to instead look at the Premier League form table?

Have a look at the five teams that Forest, Newcastle United, Man City, Chelsea and Villa each have left to play, how they have done in their last six Premier League matches.

Here is the updated Premier League form table on the morning of Tuesday 22 April 2025:

Wolves are surely the perfect example.

They had been fourth bottom of the Premier League table for ages, they had won only six of their opening 28 PL matches. They may have only now just risen to sixth bottom BUT they have now won their last five PL games!

West Ham are only two places and two points behind Wolves in the Premier League, however, they have won none of their last six matches and only already relegated Leicester and Southampton have worse recent form.

So facing Wolves in the coming weeks now looks a far more daunting prospect than facing West Ham or indeed many other clubs. Wolves full of confidence and momentum and really playing for their manager, desperate to keep it going and finish the season strongly. Whilst others look to have just pretty much given up…

These are the five Premier League clubs competing for the three Champions League places. I have looked at who they have to play and then underneath given the places in the Premier League form table, of each of the teams they have left to play.

Forest 60 points GD +14

Brentford (H), Palace (A), Leicester (H), West Ham (A), Chelsea (H)

Premier League form table places: 9th, 10th, 20th, 18th, 8th

Newcastle United 59 points GD +18

Ipswich (H), Brighton (A), Chelsea (H), Arsenal (A), Everton (H)

Premier League form table places: 17th, 15th, 8th, 5th, 13th

Man City 58 points GD +22

Villa (H), Wolves (H), Southampton (A), Bournemouth (H), Fulham (A)

Premier League form table places: 3rd, 1st, 19th, 12th, 11th

Chelsea 57 points GD +18

Everton (H), Liverpool (H), Newcastle (A), Man U (H), Forest (A)

Premier League form table places: 13th, 4th, 2nd, 14th, 6th

Villa 57 points GD +6

Man City (A), Fulham (H), Bournemouth (A), Spurs (H), Man U (A)

Premier League form table places: 7th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 14th

When it comes to Newcastle United, three of their five remaining games are against teams (Ipswich, Brighton and Everton) that have each won only one of their last six matches and are in the bottom eight of the Premier League form table.

Chelsea and Arsenal are in the top eight of the form table and have each won three of their last six PL matches.

It goes without saying that the Newcastle v Chelsea match looks huge, a win for NUFC in that would surely take the club a long way towards ending up in the top five.

Arsenal an interesting one, before thrashing ten men soon to be relegated Ipswich at the weekend, the Gunners had only won two of their last seven PL matches and had only scored six goals in those seven games.

The Gunners have looked preoccupied with the Champions League and had increasingly looked like they had given up on the Premier League, thinking no chance of catching Liverpool and also believing they’d done enough to stay in a Champions League qualifying place.

United have already defeated Arsenal three times this season without conceding a goal, whilst if the Gunners reach the Champions League final, that comes only 13 days after they face Newcastle United.

Speaking of form though, first things first, Ipswich Town have won only one of their last 13 Premier League matches and lost ten of them, only five points from a possible 39.