Five teams will earn their place in the Champions League competition next season and Arsenal and Manchester City are virtually assured of qualification. The question is “Who will join them?” Manchester United are considered favourites to win a place. Michael Carrick’s team have lost only once in their last 10 games and the atmosphere in the dressing room at Old Trafford is both exciting and confident.

It feels like a completely different club with Carrick in charge and Ruben Amorim gone. His influence has grown and was one of the main reasons that Harry Maguire signed a new one year extension to his contract this week. United also hold a seven point lead over sixth place Chelsea.

Aston Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool are in contention with Everton also chasing a place alongside Brentford. Fulham can join them with a win away at Liverpool but Brentford play Everton so one of them is likely to slip back unless the match is a draw. Villa have a tricky away game at Nottingham Forest who are fighting for their Premier League survival but somehow coach Unai Emery seems to conjure up wins from almost nothing.

Forest are the long-distance goal scoring specialists with Morgan Gibbs-White, Callum Hudson-Odoi and even attacking midfielder Elliot Anderson joining in. Villa have missed Youri Tielemans and John McGinn for several games but Emery is a clever coach and he will likely push his team over the line. They do have a tricky final two matches against Liverpool and Manchester City.

Chelsea players are still trying to master Liam Rosenior’s style of football and they have struggled but must win their next three games against both Manchester clubs at home and Brighton away to have any chance of making the top six keeping Brentford and Everton behind them. Liverpool are the questionable team as their form has been hot and cold. Arne Slot is under pressure but he does have quality players from which to choose.

They have a difficult run to the end of the season with a trip to United and Aston Villa but they are also at home to Chelsea. After speaking to all the major contenders for a Champions League place, the majority of clubs think United will make it and Liverpool will finish fourth. Villa and Chelsea could hang on for a place in Europe but Everton and Brentford might crash the party!

De Zerbi impresses in training Last week newly appointed Tottenham coach Roberto De Zerbi took his first training session. It was typical of the man and classic De Zerbi. The Italian was in the middle of everything that went on, shouting, pointing, pushing, praising and instructing players to motivate his team.

He organised a rondo, physical warm-ups and a drill which relied on players keeping possession from one end of the full size training pitch to the other. Finally, he set up six-a-side games using all available players to make up three teams. I was intrigued to notice that he spent considerable time with Lucas Bergvall and standing with his arm around the shoulder of the young Swede he had three separate long talks.

He also concentrated on Mathys Tel during the rondo and told him to look around and move more with the ball before passing. One golden gem for all budding footballers to remember was directed at 20 year-old Archie Gray. De Zerbi told him that many teams now play man on man so there is pressure on defenders when they have the ball…the thing to do is to pass quickly using either one or two touches and no more.

Spurs have been notoriously bad at playing out from the back this season but De Zerbi believes in taking on a high press and quick tackling to win the ball. He said, “Win the ball. Attract the pressure.

Attract the pressure.” De Zerbi commanded respect from the outset and either some of the players had done their research on the new coach or they remember that the Italian played top level football as a No10 in Serie A. Dowman could be the ace card to win Arsenal the title Following Arsenal’s surprise crash out of the FA Cup to Southampton and their Carabao Cup exit to Manchester City, Mikel Arteta said with defiance, “Now we have to show who we are.” Arteta is under enormous pressure not to throw away yet another season for the fourth year running. Winning against Sporting CP in mid-week has helped his cause.

Arteta was criticised for pulling his players out of their international call-up matches suggesting that perhaps he was making up the excuse that they were injured but only Gabriel started against Southampton and he went off injured after 72 minutes. Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard and Piero Hincapie did not even make the trip down to the south coast. Rice and Trossard did however start in mid-week.

One bright light is the emergence of Max Dowman who was the Gunner’s best player in the cup loss to the Saints. The 16-year-old was fresher, more energetic, more influential and more skilful than his teammates. He quite literally glided past defenders on silky runs. Speaking to Arsenal fans after the los