Chelsea-Tottenham: Champions League at stake for the Blues
by Cydias Aujard | by Cydias Aujard
Champions League race: Chelsea must not lose ground
After Tuesday night's victory over Nottingham and yesterday's wins over Manchester City, Newcastle and Aston Villa, the Blues must win tonight. Although our Chelsea - Tottenham prediction is that Maresca's men should come away with all 3 points, it won't be an easy encounter.
Currently in 6th place, Chelsea can move back ahead of the Magpies and Sky Blues if they win tonight, relegating the Villans to 4 points and Brighton Seagulls to 5. A far from definitive lead with 8 games to go, with a total of 24 points still to be distributed after tonight's clash between the two London clubs.
Champions League target and Conference victory for Chelsea.
With a very heavy fixture list at the end of the season against direct rivals (Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest in the last 4 rounds), Cole Palmer's team-mates would do well to pick up points now, to ensure a slightly less stressful end to the financial year.
Still in the running in the Conference League, with a quarter-final against Legia Warsaw to come, Chelsea Football Club's two main objectives are clear: to go all the way in the C4 and, above all, to qualify for the next Champions League, which they have not participated in since the 2022/23 season and the quarter-final elimination by Real (4-0 on aggregate).
Tottenham Spurs' disappointing season over in a few days?
As far as today's visitors are concerned, the picture is very bleak. Currently 14 in the Premier League, Tottenham are completely missing out on their league campaign, even though our Premier League prediction was that Ange Postecoglou's men had what it takes to go all the way in Europe next year.
With players such as Heung-min Son, Dominic Solanke, Cristian Romero, James Maddison, Pedro Porro, Dejan Kulusevski and Yves Bissouma, Spurs' squad has nothing to envy many European teams on paper. However, the mayonnaise isn't taking and their last hope remains a big Europa League run.
Tottenham are still involved in C3 and have qualified for the quarter-finals against Eintracht Frankfurt, which will take place over the next two weeks. Reaching the end of the tournament would not only enable Tottenham to win a trophy, but also to qualify for next season's Champions League.
Winning this European cup will be far from straightforward, however, given the competition (Lazio, Manchester United, Lyon and Athletic Bilbao are all in the running), but by making this competition the main objective, and if the players finally get up to the expected level, the end of the season could turn out to be more exciting than expected!
