Maurizio Sarri has said that his Chelsea team cannot chose between winning the Europa League or finishing in the top four when it comes to securing a spot in the Champions League next season, and must go for both as the stakes grow higher.

The results went for Chelsea this weekend with defeats for all three of their rivals in the race for third and fourth place – Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Manchester United – which means that if Sarri’s team beat Burnley at Stamford Bridge on Monday night they will leap into third for 24 hours at least. Spurs play on Tuesday, with Arsenal and United in action a day later on Wednesday.

Fourth place should be enough for a spot in the Champions League. Only in a scenario when both the winners of the Champions League and the Europa League finished outside the top four would the fourth-place team be denied a place in the Champions League. Arsenal and Chelsea both find themselves in the semi-finals of the Europa League with the winners of the final in Baku on May 29 guaranteed a place in the Champions League next season.

Sarri said: “At the moment we cannot choose. We have to try in the Premier League, we have to try in the Europa League. But we want to win the Europa League because it is a very important competition, not because of going in the Champions League. So we have to try to get top four. It’s not easy for us because we only play four matches but we have to try.”