The following diahorrea is from the Liverpool website:

Liverpool has four games left. Having taken maximum points from its last five, it is keeping pressure on Newcastle and Man United in the Champions League chase.

Liverpool managed to see out a narrow 1-0 win over Fulham at Anfield, making it 15 points from its last five games. This maximum tally has prolonged its Champions League hopes, even if every passing week narrows the window of opportunity.

The unfortunate reality for Liverpool is that neither Newcastle nor Manchester United seem to be majorly faltering. Erik ten Hag's have had one or two stumbles, but had built up a major buffer earlier on in the season, and chances to drop more points are dwindling fast.

But at the same time, this new-look Liverpool remains on track for 71 points, enough for a top-four finish in each of the last two seasons. It has closed to within four points of the Champions League, albeit with games in hand at play. And the remaining fixtures for the three rivals — Newcastle in particular — give potential cause for continued optimism.

In terms of what remains in Liverpool's hands, there are four games left to pick up as many points as possible. Meanwhile, Manchester United still has six games to play, while Newcastle has a run of five matches to the end of the campaign.

Liverpool: Brentford (H), Leicester City (A), Aston Villa (H), Southampton (A)

Newcastle: Arsenal (H), Leeds United (A), Brighton (H), Leicester City (H), Chelsea (A)

What is immediately clear is that nobody has the most straightforward of run-ins. Next up for Newcastle is a hugely challenging test against Arsenal. Losing that would effectively wipe out one of the games in hand, making things far more interesting. Following that up with a trip to Leeds — now with Sam Allardyce at the helm, trying to earn a seven-figure bonus for staying in the Premier League — is something of an unknown quantity.

After that, Brighton has been one of the teams to beat this season. Leicester currently looks unlikely to be completely clear of danger by the penultimate week of the season — especially if Liverpool manages to beat the Foxes — and so that could be a potential banana skin too. Ending away at Chelsea looks easy based on the form books, but the array of talent at Stamford Bridge is surely capable of producing a result at some point.

Perhaps more than Manchester United, then, Newcastle is the team to reel in, especially given that Eddie Howe's side has no experience seeing out a situation like this. But Erik ten Hag could run into problems, too.

It has the even harder challenge of having to face Brighton away from home, then faces a not-completely-safe West Ham side. Things get easier on paper after that, but two sets of dropped points would theoretically pile on the pressure.

Of course, it remains a massively uphill task for Liverpool. As things stand, Newcastle and Manchester United remain the overwhelming favorites for the final two Champions League spots. But the chase cannot be completely given up just yet, with plenty of scope for more twists and turns before the season is out.