Top five projections updated after Tuesday night drama - Newcastle's path now clear?

Opta have released their updated top five predictions for the Premier League following Manchester City's 2-1 victory against Aston Villa last night.

There are currently five teams fighting for the final three spots in the top five and a place in next season's Champions League as well as a significant bonus fee for competing.

Chelsea and Nottingham Forest are battling against Newcastle, Villa and City as we currently sit in fifth but with one fewer game played than last night's teams.

Opta's updated predictions

Villa's defeat at the Etihad could prove to be a huge result for us, especially after our big defeat on Saturday evening which closed the five point gap we had previously held against our opponents to just two.

Now, we could re-open that gap again with a win against Ipswich at the weekend, and Opta are backing us to get the job done with a 77.5% chance of finishing in the top five.

According to the table, City are pretty much all but confirmed with a 95.52% chance, Forest have a strong chance with 81.39% while Chelsea and Villa will be relying on others to drop points with a 29.06% and 16.5% chance respectively.

Next two home games huge

Something that could be a key factor is our home games - we still have three to play at St James' Park against Ipswich, Everton and Chelsea with the latter being a massive chance to break away and boost our hopes of UCL.

We should be targeting three wins out of three in those fixtures and then getting a result at either Brighton or Arsenal away should just about be enough to secure our spot.

It could very well go down to the final game of the season when we face Everton while Chelsea will visit Forest, a game that will have massive implications in the race.

The key thing is that it is all in our hands and having qualified for the tournament just two years ago we know what it will take to get their again.