Trio of Premier League clubs set to make their Europa League debuts | OneFootball

The 2026/27 Europa League kicks off later today with the Premier League potentially looking at a third competition winner in a row.

Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa were victorious in the respective 2024/25 and 2025/26 competitions but should there be another English team lifting the trophy this year then it will be from a first ever stab at Europe's second competition.

The trio of Bournemouth, Sunderland, and Crystal Palace are all competing in their first Europa League, although the latter of those clubs will feel like they should have been in the competition already.

The Cherries will begin their campaign away to Real Sociedad, Palace will welcome Lech Poznan, while the Black Cats host Dutch side AZ.

Those three new clubs also mean that there are now only three clubs currently in the Premier League who have not participated in the Europa League (or UEFA Cup) proper: Brentford, Coventry City, and Hull City. 

Of course, the Tigers did come close before making the preliminary rounds but were knock-out in the play-off round by Belgian side Lokeren, who ended up going bankrupt five seasons later.

Three in a row?

An English side utilising the financial might of the Premier League to win the competition once again could complete another series of three.

Only two countries until now have held on to the trophy for three seasons in a row: Italy (twice) and Spain.

Famously, Spain's treble of titles from 2014 to 2016 were all won by Sevilla so if an English club wins again then it will be just the third time different teams from the same country have won the competition in a row. 

Italy's first trio was lifted by Napoli (1989), Juventus (1990), and Internazionale (1991) before it happened again shortly after this time with a sequence of Juventus (1993), Internazionale (1994), and Parma (1995).

These potential sequences of three winners aren't worth thinking about for the Premier League's sides just yet – the first thing they need to worry about is getting three points on the board of the league phase.