The Premier League’s top five teams all failed to win over weekend as the race for European football intensifies.
Just six points separate Chelsea in fourth and ninth-placed Brighton, while Nottingham Forest in third are only four points ahead of the Blues.
Manchester City and Chelsea both missed the chance to boost their hopes of Champions League qualification after being held to goalless draws on Sunday.
City were unable to get past Manchester United at Old Trafford while Chelsea’s poor away form continued against Brentford.
On Saturday, Aston Villa boosted their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League with a hard-fought victory over third-placed Forest.
The win lifted Villa into sixth place, one point behind City and two behind fourth-placed Chelsea.
Carabao Cup winners Newcastle – who have two games in hand on Chelsea, City and Villa – could climb to fifth and go level on points with Chelsea if they beat struggling Leicester City on Monday.
Villa have now won their past seven matches in all competitions – the first time they have done so since 2019 – and head into Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against newly crowned Ligue 1 champions Paris St-Germain with the wind in their sails.
As for Forest, they remain on the brink of a first European campaign despite suffering an eighth league defeat of the campaign at Villa Park.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Brighton’s hopes of securing continental football took a hit as they lost 2-1 at nine-man Crystal Palace, while Bournemouth are winless in their past six games after drawing 2-2 at West Ham.
