Can Mancini deliver Champions League Football to Eastlands as promised.

Well the Premier League returned this weekend and whilst the title battle seemed to swing towards Chelsea and the relegation battle continued to look increasingly muddied, the most intriguing contest appears to be the race for the final Champions League place.

In recent years this has always been an intriguing battle and one that usually goes to the last game of the season. In the end though, it is always the self-titled “Big Four” of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United who always seem to make it in the end. The one year that Everton actually usurped their city neighbours, Liverpool went on to win the Chamions League itself so were allowed into it the following season in any event. Spurs also looked like they could crash this new world order until their final games of the season at West Ham which they lost meekly amid allegations of food poisoning centred on a dodgy lasagne.

This year the candidates for the 4th place are Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester City and once again Spurs. The last weekend was seen as pivotal in deciding the outcome of this contest as the two favourites met at the City of Manchester Stadium. What transpired in actual fact was one of the most boring games of the season as these two simply decided not to attack the other and settle for a 0-0 draw. This therefore gave very little away in terms of who will triumph (if you can call finishing fourth a triumph). I will therefore endeavour to give an insight into who I think will claim the final coveted Chamions League place.

Firstly Ason Villa, who are seen by many as the outsiders. I would tend to agree with that as they have the Carling Cup final to focus on this weekend and are in with a good chance of doing well in the FA Cup. They should not though be discounted completely as they have a very good manager and a team that when all are available is a match for any other. Their spine of Friedel, Dunne, Milner, Petrov and Agbonlahor is extremely good. My one doubt with them though is where will the goals come from as I wouldn’t call messrs Agbonlahor, Heskey and Carew prolific. I know they scored five at the weekend but that was against the truly hapless Burnley and a home win against them is no more difficult than kicking away a blind man’s stick. I therefore think they will just come up short due to a combination of other disctractions and a lack of a real cutting edge in the tougher games.

The next team to consider is Liverpool. Liverpool fans went into this season with expectations of ending their long wait for a League title having run their freinds from Manchester so close last season. However, havig sold Alonso and replaced him with the either injured or not very good Aquillani they seem a shadow of the team of last season. Fundamentally, I just think that Liverpool are not very good. They have a good goalkeeper, a very good attacking midfielder (although even Mr. Gerrard has struggled for form this season), and a world-class striker. However, when this striker is injured (which he seems to be quite a lot) they are left with David N’Gog who I think would even struggle to get in the Portsmouth team (based on what I have seen of the quite impressive Dindane and Piquionne). Senor Benitez has wasted money on a string of average players such as Riera, Degen, Kuyt, Lucas and the aforementioned Aquillani and for Liverpool to achieve their goal of winning the league again I feel they will have to dispense with their manager and start again. In terms of finishing fourth, I think they will come up short in this race as well due to their reliance on just two players to score goals and a not so rigid defence (mention it quietly but it looks to me like Jamie Carragher’s legs are going). I am going to stick my neck out and say they will finish bottom of the four meaning a final position of 7th and the boot for Benitez,

From Liverpool to Manchester (City not United). In my opinion his team should be comfortably in the top four and even battling for the title so they have disappointed this season. Adebayor is inconsistent, Toure and Lescott look vastly over priced and I won’t even mention the farce that was Robinho. I do though think they will finish 4th in the end. Their squad is certainly stronger than their rivals and once Tevez and Bellamy are back the goals should be easy to come by. I remain unconvinced by their manager though and think if they are going to live up to their aim of becoming a global super-club they should have paid Mourinho what ever he wanted to manage them. If this had been the case this race would now be over. However, it isn’t but I do think City will finish 4th.

Finally, ‘Arry’s Spurs. For some reason Harry Redknapp is a media darling who can do no wrong as a manager. I am afraid I don’t really buy this. He has spent an absolute fortune at Spurs and the minimum that he should be doing as a result is challenging for 4th place. Spurs are very good on their day as their 9-1 win over Wigan showed back in November. They are though very inconsistent as they have been beaten twice by Wolves and never really convince in tricky away games “up north”. I do though think they will finish 5th in the end but this is more down to Liverpool’s ineptitute and Villa’s other commitments rather than a glowing recommendation of the Spurs team.

Therefore my final prediction for this race is as follows:

4. Manchester City
5. Tottenham Hotspur
6. Aston Villa
7. Liverpool.

Fell free to point out the nonsense of this prediction in May but as with earlier seasons I think this race will be up for grabs until then.

Next week I shall try to make some sense of the relegation battle – good lord!