Chelsea’s top-four hopes face Spurs test

Chelsea host Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday with an aim to extend the visitors’ 28-year wait for a league win at Stamford Bridge and keep their hopes of Champions League football next season alive in the process.

Spurs sit five points above the English champions in the fourth and final Champions League place with just eight games of the campaign to go.

Missing out on the top four would almost certainly seal Chelsea manager Antonio Conte’s fate with speculation already rife over the Italian’s future and who trigger-happy owner Roman Abramovich could look to as his successor.

However, Conte remains hopeful that Chelsea can make up the lost ground caused by four defeats in their last six league games. “If we win, we go very close to Tottenham,” said Conte. “Otherwise, we continue to stay not so close and, with seven games to go, it will be difficult to take a place in the Champions League.”

LONDON:

WENGER IN FOCUS

Arsene Wenger may have lost his voice before Arsenal’s home match with Stoke City but the discussion over his future is unlikely to be silenced just yet.

At the end of the season Wenger will be halfway through a two-year contract many Gunners fans felt should never have been handed in the first place to a man who had not won the Premier League since 2004.

Arsenal will kick off in sixth position, 13 points adrift of fourth-placed local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, and therefore in danger of missing out on the Champions League for a second successive season.

Today’s matches: Arsenal vs Stoke City (6 pm); Chelsea vs Tottenham Hotspur (8:30 pm)