Gabriel Agbonlahor predicts who will grab final three Champions League spots as Chelsea drop to sixth

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Former Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor has predicted who will make up the rest of the top five, with Chelsea one club battling for a spot.

Liverpool are virtually guaranteed first place and are about to clinch the Premier League title, while Arsenal are expected to finish in second.

The Gunners doing so would leave just three Champions League spots to fight for, with Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Aston Villa all competing with each other.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
2	ArsenalArsenal	33	18	12	3	61	27	34	66
3	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	33	18	6	9	53	39	14	60
4	NewcastleNewcastle	33	18	5	10	62	44	18	59
5	Man CityManchester City	33	17	7	9	64	42	22	58
6	ChelseaChelsea	33	16	9	8	58	40	18	57
7	Aston VillaAston Villa	33	16	9	8	53	47	6	57
8	B’mouthBournemouth	33	13	10	10	52	40	12	49
9	FulhamFulham	33	13	9	11	48	45	3	48

Enzo Maresca does not seem too optimistic about Chelsea’s chances, and neither does Agbonlahor.

• READ MORE: Three winners and three losers from Chelsea’s victory over Fulham with £29m ace now in danger of losing his spot

Gabriel Agbonlahor does not think Chelsea will finish in top five

Chelsea were able to beat Fulham 2-1 last weekend, moving into the top five temporarily.

However, following Forest’s own 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Monday, Maresca‘s men dropped out of the Champions League spots.

And Agbonlahor is not expecting them to finish there come May, predicting his beloved Villa to grab fifth place.

“Third I’m going to go with, I just think Manchester City’s fixtures are the best out of all of them,” the former England international said on talkSPORT. “Manchester City, third. I’m going to go with Newcastle to get fourth and I’m going to go with Villa in fifth place.”

Chelsea are still in the Conference League, so winning that would soften the blow of missing out on Champions League qualification if things do pan out that way.

However, this season will still have to go down as a failure. The objective going into the campaign was sealing a return to Europe’s elite competition.

Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali will not be happy if Maresca fails to deliver that, which is a real possibility.

Chelsea’s final five fixtures

What makes things worse for Chelsea is their remaining games. The Blues do not have one easy fixture coming up.

Maresca’s side play Everton next, who have already taken points from them this season. The score was 0-0 when the two teams faced off at Goodison Park in December.

After that, Chelsea take on Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester United and Forest.

With Newcastle and Forest both being their direct rivals, those are not games Chelsea can afford to lose. But with the form that the Blues are in, you would have to worry for them.