Chelsea and Liverpool are faltering, so could Brighton, Brentford or Fulham make Europe?

You'd have got long odds on Brighton, Brentford and Fulham being above Liverpool and Chelsea with less than half a season left. It shows what can be achieved with top-class strategy, recruitment and management.

While the big guns are currently struggling to gel, their smaller rivals are reaping the rewards of patient club-building. They were all in the third tier at one time.

Success usually depends on the vision of the ownership, buying and selling the right players at the right time, and finding a talented manager who fits in with the club ethos.

Get those three things right and European football can be a realistic ambition even if you're playing in a stadium that is dwarfed by Anfield or Stamford Bridge.

BRIGHTON

They have established an excellent worldwide scouting network that has found gems in different marketplaces, from Japan (Kaoru Mitoma) to Ecuador (Moises Caicedo).

It's been lucrative too. The Seagulls sell high - £165million for Marc Cucurella, Ben White, Yves Bissouma and Leandro Trossard - and reinvest wisely.

Chairman Tony Bloom deserves credit for sticking with manager Graham Potter when he was being criticised for having a similar record to his predecessor, Chris Hughton.

Bloom never wavered because he saw the playing style was evolving. And when Potter did leave for Chelsea, he knew who he wanted next; Italian Roberto De Zerbi who had worked wonders with another smaller club, Sassuolo.

De Zerbi has been a welcome addition to the Premier League, engaging and energetic.

He buys into the Brighton philosophy of pushing as high as possible without risking the club's long-term future. They brought in money for Trossard in January but blocked any sale of Caicedo.

'I put myself in the club's way of thinking,' says De Zerbi. 'I think of the money like it is mine. I don't want the club to have any problems with finances. But I'm also ambitious.'

BRENTFORD

Unlike Brighton, their market has traditionally been lower-league clubs or Scandinavia where owner Matthew Benham also runs Danish club FC Midtjylland.

Brentford have bought and sold Ollie Watkins, Said Benrahma, James Tarkowski and Neal Maupay. And as they've risen through the leagues, the data has found successors.

Ivan Toney signed after he'd been voted League One Player of the Year for Peterborough. Christian Norgaard and Mathias Jensen were successful through the link with Midtjylland.

Benham says: 'I've always been of the opinion that decisions are best made not by an all-powerful leader, but by consensus. A group in which everyone is allowed to have their own independent thoughts.'

Brentford have been ruthless in the past. Mark Warburton was sacked despite doing well because he wasn't perceived as a long-term for the 'modern' recruitment strategy.

When they hired Thomas Frank, they gave him a proper chance. The Bees blew a chance of automatic promotion on the final day of the season at Stoke but Frank stayed and took them up the following year. He'd now be coveted by a lot of clubs.

FULHAM

It's taken them longer to find the right balance and stop becoming a yo-yo club but their collegiate system of using statistics plus the eyes and ears of their scouting department and manager bore fruit last summer.

Midfielders Andreas Pereira and Joao Palhinha have been unqualified successes after joining from Manchester United and Sporting Lisbon.

Fulham have also found the right manager in Marco Silva having been relegated in their two Premier League seasons under a combination of Slavisa Jokanovic, Claudio Ranieri and Scott Parker.

Owner Shahid Khan wanted experience after the Parker era and flew to Portugal to persuade Silva who had worked in the top-flight before with Hull, Watford and Everton.

The jury was out on Silva after his dismissal at Goodison Park but he's been a perfect fit at Craven Cottage, winning promotion and now in the top half having been pre-season favourites for relegation.

Silva has got Aleksandr Mitrovic firing – he'd once tried to the Serbian striker at Watford so the player knows he's admired – and they are also using the London angle. It probably made it easier to sign players like Bernd Leno and Willian, who have both played in the capital before.

CHELSEA

Their fans hope a huge transfer outlay, more than £300million spent in January alone, will pay off. But there are no guarantees.

There currently looks lack of balance in their squad despite the money spent with with the only fit recognised centre-forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang not fancied by Graham Potter.

For many years, Chelsea's merry-go-round of managers worked because the squad was stable and club invariably bought the right players.

With an ownership change and Todd Boehly in charge, that isn't automatically the case any more, we'll have to wait and see.

Thomas Tuchel was sacked earlier this season but instead of coming into a well-oiled machine, Potter has inherited a group that needed a major overhaul.

The risk is they may have jumped in too quickly and bet the bank on Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk becoming world stars.

LIVERPOOL

A once surefire transfer policy is creaking. Sadio Mane's replacement Luis Diaz has been injured.

At £64million, Darwen Nunez has to be a starter but his presence as a centre-forward who likes to play off the shoulder means a change in style for the entire team.

Naby Keita may be released on a free this summer having cost £52million. Cody Gakpo has struggled coming into a struggling team.

'This season has been nowhere near good enough,' accepts defender Andy Robertson. 'You can tell we're not as confident in front of goal and in defence we are a bit open.'

Even Mo Salah is down on his luck and hasn't scored in his last five games as he sticks to a more restrictive role on the right.

Liverpool will have to back Klopp big in the summer. At least one of Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice or Mason Mount in midfield is a minimum requirement.

I predict come the end of the season, assuming the top five is Arsenal, City, United, Spurs, Newcastle in some order, Brighton will finish 6th and Liverpool 7th.