The Premier League title appears extremely likely to be heading Manchester City’s way this season, with Pep Guardiola’s side currently 11 points clear at the top of the pile.
However, the race for fourth place is far from over as Arsenal, West Ham, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United all battle it out for a place in next season’s Champions League, while even eighth-placed Wolves have an outside chance of crashing the party.
The Hammers currently sit above the chasing pack but Sunday’s 3-2 defeat to Leeds United leaves them in a vulnerable position, considering they have played four more league matches than Spurs and two more than the Gunners, United, and Wolves.
Arteta himself has admitted that it hurts seeing rivals playing in Europe, with the north Londoners failing to qualify for any European competition last term.
Speaking back in September, he said: “It hurts a lot in the last few days to put TV on and see those teams there, and not see Arsenal there.
“It was painful. One hundred per cent. I don’t want to be sitting there with Arsenal out of those competitions.”
According to Football. London, a supercomputer from FiveThirtyEight has predicted the final table, with Mikel Arteta’s side on course to finish ahead of their rivals, according to the algorithm.
The table, which has City, Liverpool and Chelsea as the top three, in that order, forecasts Arsenal to finish fourth, Spurs fifth, West Ham sixth and United seventh.
Arteta’s men reportedly have a 41 per cent chance of qualifying for next season’s Champions League, seven per cent more than the Lillywhites and 30 and 31 per cent more than West Ham and the Red Devils, respectively.
The Gunners have failed to qualify for the coveted European competition in each of the last five seasons, with their last Champions League outing coming against Bayern Munich in February 2017 – a match they lost 5-1 following a Laurent Koscielny red card.
