It would really be disappointing if Chelsea cannot qualify for a place in the uefa champions league because the other teams around them aren't doing much better than they are currently doing, the one nil victory against Everton yesterday was a major buster yesterday, and if they can keep on grinding the results even though they are not in the best form, I don't think that anything is stopping them from not qualifying for the uefa champions league next season.
As for the likes of Newcastle united, Nottingham Forest, Aston villa and Manchester city they all are still in the fight for a place in the uefa champions league, and sincerely speaking, it's only Manchester city I can confidently bet on that they will secure a uefa champions league spot, the rest of the other teams will struggle to secure their spot if they are going to qualify in the first place, but one thing am quite certain of between now and the end of the season is that the top four race is definitely going to be as fascinating as ever between these teams that are aspiring for champions league football next season.
Your argument is not even valid considering other teams who compete for UCL are doing better than Chelsea. They would be at the third or second place if they were doing better. They bottled so much points in the easy games. They have only very hard fixtures remain at this moment.
They're still having a fight against Arsenal, which i believe they will miss three points. I'm also not sure they can beat Newcastle as well. They are not doing well since the middle of season.
If they don't qualify to the UCL, they must blame themselves about why missed so much points in the must win games.
I'm a Chelsea fan, but I think you're making some good points I'm not going to be praise Chelsea cause am a fan whereas they've not really been impressive lately, they really bottled lots of points and that's a fact if they have performed better than other teams we won't have been fighting for top five position currently, even Newcastle that was below us have got to the 3rd position, that's where we're supposed to be currently if we hadn't bottled some points, now we'll be hoping for Nottingham Forest to drop points so we'll remain in 5th position.
Chelsea's problem is a good striker, Nkunku and Jackson haven't been their best this season, they're not the kind of players that should be Chelsea's top 9 the aggregate from both of them can't even be compared to that of some strikers in other good teams. Jackson is trying to improve but Nkunku needs to be sold cause he's not helping the team, hopefully Chelsea would qualify for Champions League and attract quality players.