Top four finish a distraction for Liverpool ahead of Champions League final

Liverpool have dropped points for the third successive week and thrown the race for Champions League qualification wide open.

Liverpool suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Chelsea on Sunday in what was another frustrating afternoon for the Reds in the Premier League. On a high from a mid-week Champions League semifinal victory over Roma, Liverpool headed into the match knowing that a win would secure them a top four finish and all but end Chelsea’s hopes of achieving the same.

The match started well enough for the Merseysiders who controlled the opening half hour of play with Sadio Mane in particular looking dangerous. The period of sustained dominance went by without reward, though, and Liverpool were punished when former loanee Victor Moses set up Olivier Giroud to give Chelsea the lead. From there Liverpool never looked like equalizing and the final whistle blew with Moses’ goal proving the difference; both in the match and perhaps in the race for Champions League qualification too.

Chelsea’s victory, coupled with Tottenham’s surprise defeat to relegation-threatened West Brom on Saturday means only three points separate third-place Liverpool from the Blues in fifth. Despite Chelsea and Spurs having a game in hand Liverpool have a superior goal difference and are still favourites to progress. They will be frustrated to find themselves in this position, though. Qualification should have been secured weeks ago but successive goalless draws against Stoke and West Brom allowed Chelsea back into the race for qualification to next season’s Champions League.

Ironically, it is their success in the current Champions League campaign which may have resulted in Liverpool’s recent dip in domestic form. The club have suffered from a visible hangover-effect following exhausting European ties against Man City and Roma and their league form has suffered as a result. While Chelsea and Tottenham have the luxury of resting their players mid-week, Liverpool find themselves playing twice a week with a squad that is already missing Emre Can, Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain through injury. The result is a thin squad of over-worked players and the strain was evident in, if not the result of the defeat to Chelsea.

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So where do the club’s stand?

Third-placed Liverpool are still in control of their own destiny despite having played a match more. The three point lead over Chelsea is cushioned by a15-goal superior goal difference. It is improbable (see: impossible) that Chelsea could overhaul that number which means if the Reds beat Brighton on the final match day they will secure qualification regardless of the other results. Should they fail to do so, Liverpool will in all likelihood have too defeat Real Madrid in the Champions League final to qualify for next season’s campaign.

Tottenham also find themselves in a favorable position. The aforementioned defeat to West Brom will have complicated their qualification hopes but they can still secure a third placed finish if they win their remaining two fixtures. They host Newcastle and Leicester in the coming weeks and, on paper at least, should come away with the goods.

That means that despite their victory this afternoon Chelsea still find themselves at the mercy of Liverpool and Spurs. The recently dethroned English champions need to win both of their remaining league fixtures against Huddersfield and Newcastle and hope that either Liverpool or Spurs draw or lose one of their remaining matches.

The three-way race between Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham is proving to be an exciting sub-plot to the Premier League season for the neutral. The Reds will be frustrated to find themselves in this position, though, as with a Champions League final against Real Madrid on the horizon the battle for top four is proving to be an unwelcome distraction.