Mourinho Names Blades’ As One Of Five Champions League Contenders

Mourinho Names Blades’ As One Of Five Champions League Contenders

Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho believes the London cub have five rivals for the battle for fifth place in the league table.

As things stand, Manchester City’s European ban means that the team that finishes fifth will get their place in the Champions League next season, and Mourinho believes Sheffield United are among the contenders:

“When we speak about fifth, Wolves, Sheffield [United], Manchester United, Arsenal and Everton look to the table and week after week say, ‘we can do it’ and they can. So it is going to be very hard.”

Looking at the Premier League standings, you can’t really argue against Mourinho’s claim. The Blades are just one point off fifth, and just two points off Chelsea in fourth ahead of the Blues’ game against Manchester United this evening.

Following Arsenal’s comfortable 4-0 victory versus Newcastle last night, the Gunners remain tenth in the table but are also within six points of Spurs.

City’s ban has certainly made things very interesting in the battle for European places, and tremendous credit has to go to manager Chris Wilder, who has guided his team to such extraordinary heights despite many having put them down as relegation candidates at the start of the season.