Man City's Champions League fate could be sealed as rivals face make-or-break Premier League week

Manchester City’s battle to secure a top four place in the Premier League will intensify when top flight football returns next week.

City are currently fifth, a position likely to earn qualification for next season's Champions League with England well-placed to receive one of the two additional spots given to the best performing nations in European competition.

Pep Guardiola’s side have been mainstays of the Champions League for more than a decade but their participation in next season's competition remains in doubt amid mixed form.

City missed a chance to put distance between themselves and their rivals when losing at Nottingham Forest and failing to beat Brighton earlier this month.

But, following the FA Cup quarter finals this weekend, City will hope to capitalise on a favourable fixture list while many of their rivals will take points off each other.

City resume their league campaign with a home game against Leicester City - the first of four successive matches against bottom half sides.

Only Newcastle can match that run, although the Magpies have five matches to play in the same timeframe and the last of those is against Aston Villa.

Unai Emery’s side also face Brighton and Forest in the coming weeks and have to contend with a Champions League quarter final with PSG.

Fulham, currently eighth, have trips to Arsenal and Bournemouth coming up and also welcome Liverpool and Chelsea to Craven Cottage in a daunting run.

It means the five sides directly below City, and Chelsea in fourth, all have at least one match against their direct rivals. City, who don’t have to play any of the top seven between now and the end of the season, will hope to profit.

"Until the end, I think so," Guardiola told reporters when asked of his