Chelsea’s hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League took another huge blow as they suffered a 1-0 defeat at home to Manchester United
Chelsea’s Champions League hopes suffered a huge setback at the weekend.
Liam Rosenior’s side were beaten 1-0 by Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Saturday night after Matheus Cunha struck in the first-half. And a bad weekend got even worse on Sunday when both Liverpool and Aston Villa scored late goals to both pick up big victories.
Virgil van Dijk scored a stoppage-time header to win the first Merseyside derby at Hill Dickinson Stadium and boost Liverpool’s hopes of securing Champions League football next season. The centre-back shrugged off the grappling of James Tarkowski to power home Dominik Szoboszlai’s inswinging corner into the six-yard box in the 10th minute of added time to silence the home crowd.
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While over at Villa Park, Tammy Abraham scored a 93rd-minute winner to help Aston Villa boost their Champions League qualification hopes with a thrilling 4-3 win over Sunderland.
Chelsea now find themselves seven points behind Liverpool and 10 behind Villa with just five Premier League games remaining.
The defeat to United was Chelsea’s fourth league defeat in a row and the fourth game in which they have failed to score.
And, as a result, not only is the pressure mounting on Rosenior, but Opta believe the Blues will finish seventh in the final standings, with Bournemouth leapfrogging them into sixth.
The Blues now also have less than a six per cent chance of securing Champions League football next season, but despite his side’s poor run of form, Rosenior believes he still has the full support of Chelsea’s owners.
Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali last week said the club were still behind Rosenior and remained optimistic about long-term success under his management.
Asked if felt that support, Rosenior, said: “One hundred per cent.
“They have been supportive of me in our daily conversations, they have been magnificent in their support of me and the team.
“We’re aligned that we know we need to win games of football in the now, but that doesn’t go against what we’re trying to do, which is give consistent success to this club long-term.”
