LIVERPOOL and Chelsea on Sunday secured their places in next season’s Champions League at the expense of Leicester City, on a dramatic final day of the Premier League season.

Chelsea could even afford to lose 2-1 at Aston Villa and still take fourth after Leicester was beaten 4-2 by Tottenham.

“There are no celebrations now around the dressing room,” Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said. “It’s a big relief.”

Jumping into third was a triumph reflecting Liverpool’s readjusted targets in a season of struggles and injuries after surrendering the trophy to Manchester City, while Manchester United was runner-up.

“From nowhere to the Champions League in five weeks — that’s a massive achievement,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said after Sadio Mane’s goals clinched a 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace. “I’m really happy for the Champions League. They don’t have to play without us.”

That sentiment wasn’t evident a month ago when Liverpool and the rest of the eventual top-four finishers were part of a hastily abandoned bid to split from the UEFA competition to launch a breakaway Super League.

Of the two other English rebels who tried to kill off the Champions League, Arsenal missed out on qualifying for Europe completely with a second successive eighth-place finish despite beating Brighton 2-0 and Tottenham will have to settle with contesting the new third-tier Europa Conference League after taking seventh.

It was just the type of wild climax to a domestic season that would have ended with a Super League locking in permanent places for 15 clubs, including the six from England, without the need for annual qualification.

Leicester, which wasn’t invited to join the breakaway, spent more days in the top four than any other team before dropping out after losing to Chelsea in the penultimate round. Ultimately those 242 days counted for nothing after surrendering the lead to Tottenham when a victory would have dislodged Chelsea.

“We are lucky Tottenham did the job for us,” Chelsea manager Tuchel said.(SD-Agencies)