Chelsea, Leicester, Manchester United, along with outsiders Wolves and Sheffield United, are now competing for two places, rather than three after Manchester City learned that they will be competing in next season's Champions League.
Liverpool and City will be in next year's competition, while United can go third by winning their game in hand - against Southampton - on Monday evening.
Leicester are likely to be the team most concerned, despite being in the top four since September and appear to have a top-three finish, let along top four, wrapped up before the season went on pause.
Since the restart, Leicester have imploded, collecting only two wins from their last 11 league games stretching back to the end of January. Their final three games? Sheffield United, Tottenham and Manchester United on the final day. Not easy.
Making it all the more intriguing is the fact that another final-day match is between Chelsea and Wolves. Chelsea also face Liverpool, who are looking less impressive since wrapping up the title and already- relegated Norwich.
Wolves are in sixth place, four points off the top four, so the ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport has come as a blow to their Champions League ambitions.
Wolves' best chance of qualifying for the competition is now to win the Europa League, which earns entry to the Champions League. They are in the last 16 of the Europa League and will play the second leg against Olympiakos next month, with the score at 1-1 after the first leg.
Likewise, seventh-place Sheffield United needed City to lose its appeal to stand a realistic chance of a finish in the Champions League positions, a prospect that would have seemed fanciful for a team that was widely tipped for relegation at the start of the season.
Europa League qualification will be Sheffield United's target now, with seventh place possibly earning that reward if Manchester City, Manchester United or Chelsea win the FA Cup.
Tottenham, in eighth, are now likely to miss out on European football altogether unless result go their way.
