Crunch time: how England’s battle for Champions League places is shaping up

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Particularly positive here are the fixtures with Aston Villa (Sunday), Chelsea (18 April) and Liverpool (2 May): three chances for Manchester United to seriously damage the Champions League qualification prospects of the three teams currently directly below them and enhance their own. After his first defeat as United’s head coach in the most recent game, at Newcastle, Carrick will receive his first experience of the sharp end of managing a club when the stakes are high should his team go down again against Aston Villa at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Jamie JacksonRemaining fixtures: Aston Villa (h), Bournemouth (a), Leeds (h), Chelsea (a), Brentford (h), Liverpool (h), Sunderland (a), Nottingham Forest (h), Brighton (a) Pos Team P GD Pts 2 Man City 29 32 60 3 Man Utd 29 11 51 4 Aston Villa 29 5 51 5 Chelsea 29 19 48 6 Liverpool 29 9 48 7 Brentford 29 4 44 Aston VillaReasons for optimism: With nine games to go, Villa are three points better off than Chelsea and Liverpool. They have looked defensively brittle over an extended period; the previously imperious Ibrahima Konaté has made numerous mistakes and their ability to defend set pieces has been questionable throughout, which is problematic when so many teams do their damage from them.

At the other end, profligacy has become an issue, which came to the fore in the midweek Champions League loss when they failed to score from any of their 15 shots, and have the lowest conversion rate (10.48%) of the current top six in the Premier League. Their final two away games are against Champions League qualification rivals, Manchester United and Aston Villa, which could prove significant.