Europa League tussle: Who is most likely for seventh as race hots up between West Ham, Everton, Wolves and Watford

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West Ham United, Everton and Watford are the three teams battling Wolverhampton Wanderers for a potential place in Europe.

The Hammers have worked their way into ninth place in the Premier League with nine games to play.

Seventh spot, currently occupied by Nuno Espirito Santo’s newly promoted Wolves, will ultimately be the highest West Ham or indeed any club outside the top six can finish this season.

Seventh place is being dubbed the ‘best of the rest’ position.

Europa League race analysed

But it could yet hold the key to Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham, Marco Silva’s Everton of Javi Gracia’s Watford qualifying for the Europa League.

At the moment the Premier League gets four Champions League places and three Europa League places each season.

Two of the three Europa League places go to the winners of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup. The other goes to fifth place in the league.

As a result of Manchester City – bound for the Champions League by league position – winning the Carabao Cup, that Europa spot is awarded to sixth place in the league.

The top six is already sewn up.

West Ham and Everton hoping for all-Manchester final

Currently West Ham and Everton need either Manchester City or Manchester United to win the FA Cup in order to push the final Europa place down to seventh.

Wolves and Watford still have two bites at the cherry as both remain in the cup and face the Red Devils and Crystal Palace respectively in the quarter-finals.

Should both Manchester sides progress to the final West Ham and co will know whether seventh place is good enough for the Europa League by Sunday April 7.

If Watford or Wolves win the cup then the case is closed.

Obviously the Premier League is anything but predictable. But who has the toughest run-in and what are the likely final points totals for each of the four clubs?

West Ham

Run-in: Cardiff (A), Huddersfield (H), Everton (H), Chelsea (A), Man United (A), Leicester (H), Tottenham (A), Southampton (H), Watford (A).

Predicted final points total: 55 (Taking a highly optimistic 16 points from run-in).

Wolves

Run-in: Chelsea (A), Arsenal (H, TBD), Burnley (A), Man United (H), Southampton (A), Brighton (H), Watford (A), Fulham (H), Liverpool (A).

Predicted final points total: 56 points (Taking 13 points from run-in).

Watford

Run-in: Man City (A), Southampton (H, TBD), Man United (A), Fulham (H), Arsenal (H), Huddersfield (A), Wolves (H), Chelsea (A), West Ham (H).

Predicted final points total: 54 points (Taking 11 points from run-in).

Everton

Run-in: Newcastle (A), Chelsea (H), West Ham (A), Arsenal (H), Fulham (A), Man United (H), Crystal Palace (A), Burnley (H), Tottenham (A).

Predicted final points total: 47 points (Taking 10 points from run-in).

That would leave the final table looking like this:

7 Wolves 56 pts

8 West Ham 55 pts

9 Watford 54 pts

10 Everton 47 pts

That would be enough for Wolves to qualify for the Europa League IF a Manchester side wins the cup with Pellegrini’s Hammers just missing out.

The ideal scenario for West Ham, providing they do their own jobs, is for Wolves to progress in the cup, take their eyes off the ball in the league while Manchester City ultimately end up victors.

At least it makes things interesting for the remainder of the campaign.