I think the importance of the Champions league is all about the 40m and the other money it brings in, this is absolutely vital to all the big clubs in Europe (except a few like us). Players will come to non champs league clubs if they are title challengers, if they are in a decent league and pay top dollar. We have all of that!
So I reckon 4th or 5th makes no where near as much difference as we think to the players we can get and to our chances of challenging for the league and FA Cup this next season (for me it is these domestic trophies I want!)
Where it does make a difference is to our prestige and to really big signings which our owners want (though I actually would prefer to go for the next generation rather than the current one).
It is not like the Gillingham game where defeat could have been catastrophic or the SToke game when it nearly was, or Luton which spelt the end to what had been our best era.
Besides we are better man for man, we are at home, we have a manager who has done it at the top level and we are playing a team who are probably in recent times renowned as even bigger chokers than us....
EASY