There is another factor that will influence the positions of these teams: the "EPL vs. City" case. The decision has been postponed once again and will probably take place in the summer. But even the weakest punishment (compared to the number of violations committed by City) will mean a deduction of points. This means that City are possibly the clear underdogs in this race. Even a 6-8 point penalty (Everton and Nottingham were penalised this way last season) would put them behind all their rivals.
Up till date nothing has been done about the charges against Manchester City. The EPL has just been postponing back to forth and then back again. It seems they are protecting the club. They promised a decision will be made and nothing happened. Now we have entered another season that is almost coming to an end and still zero action has been taking. If it were any other club especially an underdog club, they would have made a decision so fast but as it is against Manchester City we should remove our mind there for now because they don't take it seriously. I am aware of how difficult it will completely sweep all the charges away at least a step should be taking by now. It's over 2 years to 3 years now.
TBH the point deduction you are talking about might just end up being a media fantasy. Until something has been done i won't buy all the plenty talk.
I think if City had finished the season outside the top 5 they would have had points deducted (it wouldn't have affected their Champions League spot anyway). But now that they are in the top 5, points deducted means they are out of the Champions League... maybe this is the only reason for this delay? Is everything really bought again and City will avoid any serious punishment? It's a shameful situation, but there is still hope that everything will be resolved as it should be - after all, most of the Premier League clubs were against fraud.