What if Chelsea, Liverpool and Aston Villa all miss out on Champions League qualification?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an absurd thought, yet one that now appears distinctly possible following Chelsea\u2019s abject 3-0 capitulation at Everton.<\/p>\n
Liverpool have taken one point from their last three games, against bottom of the actual table Wolves<\/strong><\/a>, bottom of the form table Tottenham<\/a><\/strong>, and now Brighton<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Aston Villa have stopped altogether, running entirely out of steam after an outlandish and admirable attempt at inserting themselves into the title fight. They\u2019ve managed just nine points from their last 10 Premier League games<\/strong><\/a> and are being kept in contention by the struggles of their bigger rivals.<\/p>\n And Chelsea, since highlighting the sheer scale of Villa\u2019s collapse at the start of this month have struggled past Wrexham in the FA Cup, been crushed home and away by PSG, lost at home to Newcastle and now been humbled at the Hill Dickinson by an Everton side now firmly involved in an increasingly unhinged Champions League fight.<\/p>\n With fifth place being a) almost certain to deliver Champions League football<\/strong><\/a> and b) a spot that nobody apparently wants, their could be a hilarious conclusion to the season.<\/p>\n Everton have now joined your Brentfords, your Newcastles and the Fulhams of this world in a genuine top-half royal rumble for those remaining Champions League spots. Everton are now only three points behind Liverpool, Brentford could move within one if they beat Leeds tonight, Fulham are only five off and Newcastle will be within five if they beat Sunderland. If Sunderland win that, they\u2019ll only be six points behind fifth.<\/p>\n There is now an entire plausible scenario in which Everton\u2019s final game of the season at Tottenham features one team needing the points to stay up and another needing the points to qualify for the Champions League. The last decade or more of Premier League history would not lead you to the right role for each team there.<\/p>\n Everton were brilliant here, every bit as good as Chelsea were bad. They were the better side in every imaginable way, from goalkeeping to defending to midfield control to finishing.<\/p>\n The first goal was a delight, Beto applying a sumptuous finish to England new boy James Garner\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> precision throughball as Wesley Fofana, for neither first time nor last, floundered desperately in the face of the Portuguese\u2019s running and endeavour.<\/p>\n It actually came in the middle of Chelsea\u2019s one and only good spell in the game after Everton\u2019s bright start appeared in some danger of petering out.<\/p>\n Any idea that Chelsea might bounce back was extinguished by the mandatory Robert Sanchez error early in the second. He remains a baffling goalkeeper, a man who exudes a sense of calm even as everything goes wrong.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a good kind of calm. It\u2019s not a reassuring kind of calm. It\u2019s the calm of a man who simply doesn\u2019t understand the gravity of his situation. He nearly got himself in a first-half pickle before \u2013 after more Fofana struggle \u2013 Beto got a shot away that somehow squeezed through the keeper and trickled over the line before he could remedy the situation.<\/p>\n The third goal, to complete the basic details, was another beauty but that again was marked by both Chelsea incompetence as well as Everton excellence, in keeping with the whole vibe of the day.<\/p>\n The run from Iliman Ndiaye was a fine one, and this time at least no blame could be laid at Robert Sanchez\u2019s door for a shot arced into the very top corner. But who was the isolated, exposed right-back Ndiaye had so easily exposed along the way? Moises Caicedo.<\/p>\n It is taking no credit away from an exceptional Everton performance front to back to note that this was a day that perhaps featured a new low for Liam Rosenior\u2019s increasingly shambolic Chelsea reign.<\/p>\n Error-strewn and confused throughout, Chelsea have looked as bad as anyone in the country \u2013 Spurs included \u2013 over recent weeks. Their record across the last four games in Premier and Champions League now reads played four, lost four, with two goals scored and 12 conceded.<\/p>\n There is a genuine case now that Rosenior should not survive the international break. Not even Captain LinkedIn<\/strong><\/a> is likely to mess up an FA Cup quarter-final against Port Vale, but everything that comes after that is just too important to be entrusted to an over-promoted company man whose every performative action has become an unwelcome and unwanted distraction.<\/p>\n He was writing notes again at 2-0 down here. It was 3-0 by the time they were delivered.<\/p>\n After Port Vale, Chelsea face both Manchester clubs at the start of a run-in that also features games against what are now possible European rivals in Brighton and Sunderland as well as Liverpool, and clashes with relegation-fighting Nottingham Forest and Tottenham who, on this evidence, should absolutely fancy their chances if the status quo remains.<\/p>\n