The Premier League situation after round 28 is still in the hands of Arsenal and Man City as they are steadfast in the double race for the championship.
The remaining teams, from Man United, Tottenham, Newcastle, Liverpool or even Brighton and Brentford still have a chance to land in a Top 4 position.
The usual way to think about a Champions League ticket through the Premier League is a place in the Top 4.
Not many teams have set a goal of winning tickets to this arena since the beginning of the season by winning the Champions League or Europa League.
Since the Europa League champions were given the No. 1 seed status in the Champions League group stage, every scenario has become more troublesome.
UEFA regulations clearly state that a country is only allowed to have a maximum of 5 teams participating in the Champions League. This means that in a rare case, the two English Champions League and Europa League champions are both outside the Top 4 of the Premier League, they will qualify directly for the Champions League as the No. 1 seed, along with the group leader.
The remaining two tickets were awarded to the 2nd and 3rd place teams. At that time, the 4th place team will fall to the Europa League.
Chelsea are now seen as having run out of doors to return to the Top 4 but still have a chance to win the Champions League when they have reached the quarter-finals. If Man United fall out of the Top 4 but win the Europa League, they will join Chelsea to make the 4th ranked team lose their ticket.
With the current situation in the Premier League, there is no guarantee that Erik ten Hag's team can finish in the Top 4 even though at this time, their 3rd place is very solid, 1 point ahead of the team behind Tottenham but has played 2 matches less.
Manchester United are facing a difficult time with a very thin squad and still having to stretch themselves on 3 fronts: Premier League, Europa League and FA Cup.
They are missing Casemiro for 4 domestic matches due to suspension, occasionally losing Rafael Varane due to injury.
Anthony Martial, Alejandro Garancho and Christian Eriksen are injured and have no return date yet. With the maximum number of remaining matches being 19, the "Red Devils" will certainly not be able to guarantee their fitness.
In the past, Liverpool had been outside the Top 4 but still played in the Champions League, that was the 2004-05 season. That season, The Kop successfully came back against AC Milan on penalties in the Champions League final and narrowly entered the tournament the following season as the No. 1 seed. In the Premier League, The Kop that year were right below arch-rivals Everton.
This season, with unstable form when they could beat Man United 7-0 but lose to Southampton 0-1 immediately afterwards, there is no guarantee that Liverpool can reach 4th place or not, before worrying about being eliminated from the Champions League ticket race due to a friendly scenario.
