Best of the Rest: Can Tottenham, Liverpool, or Southampton crack the top 4?

Chelsea. Manchester City. Arsenal. Manchester United. Rinse and repeat. The Premier League, for all its breakneck excitement, is rather monotonous when it comes to the clubs that ultimately reach the Champions League.

Will that change this season? We examine if the three teams with a realistic chance of cracking the top four really have what it takes to supplant one of the perennial powers.

Tottenham

There are a few ways that Tottenham could finish in the top four and all of them involve a meteor. All jokes aside, knocking one of Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, or Manchester City out of the four Champions League positions shouldn't be easier this year than in the past few.

Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, and Hugo Lloris are all known commodities who should perform as well as last season, but in order for the Spurs to finish top four, Mauricio Pochettino's boys will need Nacer Chadli to become a world-class player, and for the deep midfield pair of Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason to take a significant step up in class.

Consistency is key for Tottenham's performances over a 38-match season, where a 5-3 win over champions Chelsea is cancelled out by a poor home performance against a struggling side.

Tottenham's 2014-15 goal differential of plus-5 was 20 goals behind that of fourth-place Manchester United, and would need to be significantly improved upon if the North Londoners have any chance of finishing in the top four. - Michael J. Chandler

Liverpool

Like Tottenham, Liverpool has been mired by inconsistency. For the second consecutive summer, manager Brendan Rodgers has brought in a slew of new faces, and if the Reds are to finish in the top four, they'll have to avoid the growing pains last summer's signings experienced.

Merseyside's newest No. 9, Christian Benteke, will need to have an injury-free campaign littered with goals, Roberto Firmino will need to be world-class, and Daniel Sturridge will need to return from a debilitating hip ailment to regain the form he exhibited when paired with Luis Suarez. And that's just the attacking core.

Also like the Spurs, Liverpool will need to improve on a dismal goal differential, as a plus-4 is more fitting of a mid-table club fighting for a Europa League berth than a team with top four aspirations. - Michael J. Chandler

Southampton

Few would have included Southampton in top four conversation prior to last season thanks to the mass exit from St Mary's Stadium. Yet the club emerged as the biggest surprise in England's top flight, hovering around the top teams for a majority of the 2014-15 campaign.

Replacing integral players will be Ronald Koeman's mission once again, as Southampton was dealt a blow with yet another series of departures for a second consecutive season.

Dusan Tadic, Jay Rodriguez, Victor Wanyama, and Sadio Mane are just a handful of players needed to produce if Southampton has any hope of coming close to repeating last season's seventh-place finish.

Hardly anyone will doubt Southampton's chances of capturing a European spot again. However, the drastic change in expectations from a year ago could weigh heavily on Koeman as he attempts to improve on a thoroughly impressive debut season in the Premier League.

Meanwhile, a place in the top is a prospect few could imagine as the gap between England's elite and Southampton appears insurmountable.