Chelsea made it back-to-back wins in the Premier League last time out when they picked up a much-needed victory against Leicester City at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues were forced to work very hard for the three points, and were shellshocked in the first half when Cole Palmer missed a penalty for the first time in his career as a Chelsea player.
It was Marc Cucurella who struck the crucial blow, as Chelsea returned to the top four ahead of a number of crucial league games.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 1 |  LiverpoolLiverpool | 29 | 21 | 7 | 1 | 69 | 27 | 42 | 70 |
| 2 |  ArsenalArsenal | 28 | 15 | 10 | 3 | 52 | 24 | 28 | 55 |
| 3 |  Nottm ForestNottingham Forest | 28 | 15 | 6 | 7 | 45 | 33 | 12 | 51 |
| 4 |  ChelseaChelsea | 28 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 53 | 36 | 17 | 49 |
| 5 |  Man CityManchester City | 28 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 53 | 38 | 15 | 47 |
| 6 |  NewcastleNewcastle | 28 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 47 | 38 | 9 | 47 |
| 7 |  BrightonBrighton | 28 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 46 | 40 | 6 | 46 |
The Chelsea Chronicle have predicted Chelsea will do enough to secure Champions League qualification based on what is expected to be required to finish in those coveted league places.
The Blues were very much expected to beat Enzo Maresca’s former side last time out, especially as they had made lightwork of Southampton the week before.
- READ MORE: Enzo Maresca hoped star could ‘help’ Chelsea this season, the last three games he’s done just that
Chelsea internally delighted with win over Leicester City
However, it seems the victory has been viewed internally as more important than many would realise based on what the data at Stamford Bridge is suggesting about this season.
According to Matt Law, the Blues see the amount of points they have just moved to being the minimum they needed at this stage of the season to be on track for Champions League qualification for the upcoming campaign.
He told ‘London is Blue’: “I’m going to give you a little exclusive. I know internally at Chelsea they have been doing a little bit of data modelling over the last few weeks, and the data modelling they came up with suggested that they needed at a minimum to finish before the international break with at least 49 points.
“So the Leicester win, albeit not convincing and not particularly impressive in many respects, has been viewed as very important internally because they’ve hit what their data modelling suggested a bare minimum they needed to be on going into that international break to really give them a good chance of Champions League qualification, so that win was viewed as a big win.”
It was claimed earlier this season that the target for Maresca was to finish in the top four, with that looking almost assured at the back end of 2024.
However, recently Maresca has been labelled ‘untouchable’ by Chelsea, squashing any talk that he could be sacked depending on where the Blues finish this season.
Chelsea league placement could impact Strasbourg ownership
One of the success stories of Todd Boehly and BlueCo’s ownership of the club has been the acquisition of Strasbourg as a sister club to Chelsea.
A number of Blues loanees have been performing well for the Ligue 1 side, with there being a realistic future at Stamford Bridge for Andrey Santos and Djordje Petrovic.
However, two sides under the same ownership cannot compete in the same European competition, and Strasbourg are firmly in the race for qualifying for next season.
Boehly will need to freeze ownership in the French side should they finish higher in the league than Chelsea, otherwise the Blues will be relegated to the next level of European football.
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