Only six points separate Chelsea in fourth and ninth-placed Brighton, while Nottingham Forest in third are only four points ahead of the Blues.
Manchester City and Chelsea missed the chance to boost their hopes of Champions League qualification by being held to goalless draws on Sunday.
City were unable to get past Manchester United at Old Trafford, while Chelsea’s poor away form continued at Brentford.
On Saturday Aston Villa beat Forest to move one point behind City and two behind Chelsea.
Carabao Cup winners Newcastle, who have a game in hand on Chelsea, City and Villa, climbed to fifth and went level on points with Chelsea with victory over struggling Leicester City on Monday.
Eddie Howe’s side have won 11 of their past 15 league games, with only Liverpool (38) picking up more points in that time than the Magpies’ 33.
Villa have won their past seven matches in all competitions – for the first time since 2019 – and head into Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against newly crowned Ligue 1 champions Paris St-Germain with the wind in their sails.
Forest remain on the brink of a first European campaign since 1995-96 despite suffering an eighth league defeat of the campaign at Villa Park.
Brighton’s hopes of securing continental football took a hit as they lost 2-1 at rivals Crystal Palace on Saturday, while Bournemouth are winless in six games after drawing 2-2 at West Ham.
Newcastle’s EFL Cup win secured at least a Conference League play-off spot , although they could yet make the Champions League or Europa League.
If they do, the Conference League play-off place will go to the next highest Premier League team not already qualified for Europe.
That has started a conversation about how European spots could, in theory, reach as far as 11th in the table.
