Not only Man City, Chelsea and Nottingham are competing to get UCL tickets next season, we also can't ignore Newcastle, Brighton and Bournemouth in this fight because these 3 teams can still reach the top 4 considering the points difference is not far.
This season the fight for the top 4 positions is the tightest compared to the fight for the championship title, this is because most of the top teams have experienced a decline in performance, only one team is really stable, namely Liverpool, making the Premier League less competitive in my opinion.
It has indeed started to be less competitive if we are only for the top of the standings, but for the fight for the top four zone as seen now, it is certainly still quite competitive, especially for Chelsea, Manchester City, and Newcastle. So all three must be able to do better in the current season so that they can enter the top four positions in order to get UCL tickets directly for next season. And now City and Chelsea are starting to try again for that position.