Chelsea welcome champions Liverpool with top five hopes on line

LONDON - Premier League champions Liverpool are in line to receive a guard of honour at Stamford Bridge on Sunday but any pre-match pleasantries will quickly be put to one side with hosts Chelsea desperate to boost their top-five hopes.

Liverpool wrapped up the title with four games to spare last weekend with a 5-1 hammering of Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield while Chelsea eked out a 1-0 win over Everton that kept them in the thick of the battle for Champions League qualification.

The Premier League having an extra spot in next seasons Champions League might ordinarily have given the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea a little more leeway, but the reality is five clubs are chasing three places.

With second-placed Arsenal, who have 67 points from 34 games, looking safe for a top-five finish, the scrap for third, fourth and fifth has become the only story in town for the remaining weeks of the top-flight season.

Sixth-placed Nottingham Forest eased some of the pressure on Chelsea ahead of their clash with Liverpool as they suffered a 2-0 home defeat by Brentford on Thursday when victory would have catapulted them into third place.

Newcastle United (62 points from 34 games) are in a strong position before Sundays trip to Brighton amp; Hove Albion while outgoing champions Manchester City (61 from 34) can ill-afford any slip-up on Friday at home to a Wolverhampton Wanderers side who have won six successive league games.

Seventh-placed Aston Villas season is in danger of petering out after falling at the quarter-final stage of the Champions League and in last weeks FA Cup semi-finals, and they know anything other than a win against Fulham in Saturdays early kickoff could end their top-five hopes.

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In the early months of the season, Chelsea gave every