The fight for Champions League football appears to be turning into the race that no-one wants to win.
For the second year in a row, it is all but certain that the top five teams in the Premier League will qualify for next season’s Champions League.
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But shock defeats and inconsistency means the form of the so-called top sides is falling off a cliff.
Defeats for Liverpool and Chelsea have opened the door for a team to come out of left-field and clinch a coveted Champions League place.
Could it be Everton? Brentford? Even Fulham, 10th-placed Brighton and teams below remain in touch.
[BBC]
Before Monday’s draw with Wolves, Brentford played a video on screens around Gtech Community Stadium showing pre-season predictions from pundits, including Micah Richards and Alan Shearer, who said the Bees would be involved in a relegation battle after losing Thomas Frank to Tottenham.
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The video ended by playing lyrics from Stormzy’s song Shut Up, with those two words displayed in giant letters across the screen.
Under Keith Andrews Brentford have largely done their talking on the pitch. Rather than looking over their shoulders in the relegation battle, they have written their name into the conversation for European qualification – something never done in the club’s history.
The Bees could not capitalise on teams above them dropping points on Saturday, the goalless draw a missed opportunity to go level on points with Chelsea and edge closer to securing not only a spot in Europe, but a push for the Champions League places.
“It’s tight,” Andrews said after the game. “The league is pretty condensed in that part. Seven to go.
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“We have done unbelievably well to get where we are in the league. We deserve to be where we are and it’ll take a mammoth effort to stay there.
“Everything we can give, we will give, like they do all the time. The intentions are always good from our players. They are always positive, embrace the occasion and challenge and I would expect it’ll lift them for the last seven games.”
Read more on the race for top five