Premier League set to get 5th Champions League spot again | OneFootball

The Premier League is set to receive a fifth Champions League qualification place again this season, with England way ahead of the coefficient competition.

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Dale Johnson reports for the BBC that England are in a commanding position to receive one of the two extra Champions League qualification places this season, following another strong set of performances by the English clubs in Europe.

The Champions League’s League Phase came to an end on Wednesday, with five Premier League teams finishing in the top eight and the sixth (Newcastle United) finishing 12th.

Aston Villa sit second in the Europa League table at the time of writing, with Nottingham Forest also set to progress in 16th. Then Crystal Palace have already made the Europa Conference League play-offs with a 10th-place finish.

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The result of all that is that England currently have a coefficient average of 19.430, well ahead of their nearest competitors Germany (14.642), Spain (14.093), and Italy (13.785). All three have already had at least one team eliminated, and Spain have had two knocked out.

Given there are two places up for grabs, England’s coefficient would have to drop to third before they’d lose out. Johnson reports that Spain are effectively 20 wins behind England as it stands, a major gap to bridge.

So as it stands, the clear expectation is that the top-five Premier League teams will all qualify for next season’s Champions League, not just the top four.

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Of course, England currently have six teams involved in the Champions League, but the sixth team (Spurs) qualified through Europa League, not through their Premier League campaign.

If England want to have six teams involved in the competition again next season, they’d probably need Nottingham Forest to pull off an unlikely Europa League win.

Villa are also involved in the Europa League, but they’re already qualifying for the Champions League through the Premier League. So unless they drop down the table, a win for them wouldn’t offer England an extra sixth spot.

Sixth place in the Premier League wouldn’t get Champions League qualification even if Villa won the Europa League and finished top-five. The spot would instead go to the next European league in the coefficient standings still waiting for a qualification place.