Tottenham Hotspur route into top four is still possible

Tottenham still have an opportunity to qualify for next season’s Champions League if Ryan Mason’s side run the table and the Foxes stumble across the line. 

Chelsea, with four matches to play, is five points clear in fourth place with Leicester a further two points ahead. Thomas Tuchel’s side are firing on all cylinders, making the possibility of reining them in extremely unlikely.

The west Londoners travel to Manchester City before hosting Arsenal. They then travel to Leicester for the season’s penultimate fixture and finish the campaign with a comparatively easy trip to the midlands to face an Aston Villa side with nothing to play for.

While winning at City won’t be easy, I don’t see Chelsea slipping up against an inferior Arsenal side. I also have trouble seeing Chelsea lose at home to Leicester on May 19.

Which means Tottenham’s slim top four hopes are predicated on an almost total Leicester collapse. After playing Newcastle at home on Friday, Leicester has an incredibly difficult run of three games to end the season, including trips to Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge before hosting Tottenham on the final day of the season.

Assuming they beat Newcastle, Leicester will then need to lose to Manchester United and Chelsea before the final day. If that improbable run of results occurs, Tottenham, with three successive victories, will leapfrog Leicester into the top four with a win at King Power Stadium on the final day of the campaign.

While improbable, this scenario is by no means impossible. Leicester’s focus, with an FA Cup Final against beckoning against Chelsea, is split. An FA Cup would mean the world to Leicester but so too would a top four finish. They don’t have a deep enough squad to rest key players, so Brendan Rodgers’ top players will receive no respite whatsoever.

Leicester, 14 points clear of Manchester United in February of last season, were in a similar position last season. And they bottled it.

Not only did their 14-point lead evaporate but the Foxes, with one last chance to secure their top four spot, lost 2-0 to United on the final day of the season, sealing their fate.

Leicester will do everything in their power to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself. However, Spurs supporters will hope the Foxes’ demons come back to haunt them one more time.