The favourites for Champions League qualification - ranked

Champions League qualification is a little more complicated this season.

For the first time, there could befive English sides that qualify for Europe's premier competition through their league performances alone, but whether that is the case will depend on UEFA coefficients and, crucially, won't be known until late in the campaign.

Therefore, the only way to guarantee a spot in next season's Champions League is by finishing in the top four in the Premier League, something that looks guaranteed for Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City.

That leaves just one spot still to be occupied, with Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester United currently battling it out for a top-four finish. As the season draws to a close, the stakes get higher for all three sides with each passing week.

Here are the favourites for Champions League qualification — ranked.

It wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest that Man Utd's hopes of finishing in the top four have already gone, with the Red Devils currently trailing both Aston Villa and Spurs by some distance. However, with a game in hand, there is the slimmest of chances for redemption.

They would need an awful lot of favours from elsewhere while going on a perfect run themselves, which doesn't look incredibly likely given their generally subpar performances and inconsistencies this term.

Erik ten Hag's side have played Spurs and Villa twice each, so there are no extra points to be won there, and also have an FA Cup semi-final to focus on during April.

All in all, Man Utd's only hope is that they can somehow stumble to fifth and that English sides perform well enough in Europe to hand the Premier League and extra qualification spot.

Tottenham looked to have taken control of the race for top four