Liverpool and Arne Slot given clear warning as Champions League worry emerges
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Liverpool still have work to do to secure Champions League qualification and there is good reason it is far from guaranteedAnd then there were three. With 35 of 38 Premier League games played, now only a trio of clubs can leapfrog Liverpool and prevent the Reds securing Champions League qualification for a third successive season.Manchester City's late equaliser at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday evening may probably not be enough to stop the league title heading to Arsenal for the first time in almost a quarter-of-a-century, but it was sufficient to ensure Everton can no longer catch their cross-city neighbours.Earlier in the day, a woeful Chelsea performance saw them slump 3-1 at home to what in effect was Nottingham Forest's reserve team and meant they also cannot finish any higher than sixth.And with Fulham and Sunderland also failing to win, the pool of teams to which Liverpool will occasionally be looking over their shoulder diminished significantly over the weekend.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE!
All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook pageOf course, with Aston Villa also losing - dismally at home to relegation-threatened Tottenham Hotspur - Liverpool remain ahead of the Midlanders in fourth place on goal difference.With the top five qualifying for the Champions League next season, both the Reds and Villa have a six-point buffer to Bournemouth, who are a point ahead of Brentford with Brighton a further one adrift.It means Arne Slot's side need four points to be mathematically sure of a top-five berth although acquiring three points would leave Bournemouth needing to overturn a goal difference deficit of nine over the final three games to deny Liverpool.Only four times in Premier League history have the Reds taken fewer than the latter tally over the final three games, the most recent of which was last season when only two points were taken with the title having already been won.There was a similar return in 2006/07 with Liverpool concentrating on a forthcoming Champions League final date with AC Milan, while only one point was accrued in the dismal finales to the 2014/15 and 1999/2000 campaigns.That season at the turn of the millennium should act as a warning to the Reds. They went into the final three games in a Champions League qualification berth but a home defeat to Leicester City, a goalless Anfield stalemate with Southampton and, on the final day, a 1-0 loss at Bradford City which kept the Yorkshire team up was sufficient to see Liverpool usurped by Leeds United.A late-season slump, then, is very much not beyond the realms of possibility, even if the Reds very much have their destiny in their own hands.The remaining games, though, are not straightforward.
Brighton would appear to have the easier fixtures with home games against Wolves and Manchester United sandwiching a trip to Leeds United, although anything less than three wins would render their top-five challenge redundant.Brentford could see their hopes end at title-chasing Manchester City on Saturday before they entertain Crystal Palace ahead of their Anfield trip, while Bournemouth also face City but at home, either side of trips to Europe-chasing Fulham and lowly but in-form Forest.Slot was right at the weekend to determine the job isn't done yet. But while Liverpool are firm favourites to finish in the top-five, the trend of this season has been if there is a pothole in the road, the Reds have shown unerring regularity in finding it.