Tottenham face challenge for Europa League as Chelsea beat Brighton

Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min, left, and Chelsea top scorer Cole Palmer [REUTERS; AFP/YONHAP]

Chelsea beat Brighton 2-1 on Wednesday on the penultimate day of 2023-24 Premier League action, climbing into sixth place on the Premier League table with a shot at challenging Tottenham Hotspur for a ticket to the Europa League.

That leaves it all to play for on Sunday, when Manchester City and Arsenal will decide who takes the Premier League title and Tottenham, Chelsea, Newcastle and Manchester United fight over the remaining spots in Europe next season.

The UEFA Champions League is no longer on the table, with Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa locking up the four berths given to the Premier League.

Fifth-place Tottenham are currently in the Europa League spot, five points behind Villa and unable to challenge for the Champions League, but only three points ahead of Chelsea in the Conference League spot.

That means that a win against Sheffield United on Sunday guarantees Spurs fifth and the Europa League ticket. But Chelsea lead on goal difference, so if Chelsea win and Spurs lose on the final day of the season, the Lilywhites could be pushed down to sixth.

Three points behind Chelsea are Newcastle and Man United, with Newcastle beating Chelsea on goal difference. That means that if Chelsea lose and Newcastle win, the Magpies could take sixth and the Conference League slot.

If Newcastle and Chelsea both lose and Man United win, the club cannot climb further than seventh place due to goal difference, but that does not necessarily mean it's game over.

Complicating matters further is the FA Cup final.

Man City and Man United will face off in the FA Cup final on May 25, with the winner taking a Europa League spot. But City do not need one as they are already in the Champions League, so if they win — and with just three losses in the league this season it’s not a bad bet — the Europa ticket goes to the sixth-place finisher in the Premier League.

That means that the Conference berth drops down to seventh, so United are also technically still in play.

The worst Spurs and captain Son Heung-min can come out of that mess is a drop from fifth to sixth, guaranteeing them some European action, but in the Conference League rather than the Europa League. That’s assuming United lose the FA Cup — if they win it would be Europa League regardless.

If Spurs win their final game against Sheffield, who will be relegated with just 16 points and a -66 goal difference on the season, they remain untouchable.

Chelsea will face Bournemouth on Sunday, while Newcastle take on Brentford and Man United play Brighton. Up in the race for first place, City will host West Ham while Arsenal host Everton.

The format for the three big UEFA club tournaments — Champions League, Europa League and Conference League — will change next season to the “league stage” system, where rather than playing the preliminary rounds in groups, all teams play in a single league where they play a series of games against randomly-drawn opponents.

The AFC has adopted the same system for its newly revamped Champions League Elite.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]