How finishing seventh in the Premier League could earn Champions League qualification | OneFootball

All to fight for during Premier League run-in, with plenty of European places potentially up for grabs

Premier League clubs have learned that finishing seventh in England’s top flight could be enough to secure qualification for next season’s Champions League.

Much has been made of English teams’ early exits from Europe’s premier cup competition after Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle all suffered last-16 defeats this week, leaving Arsenal and Liverpool as the sole remaining British representatives in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Usually, only a top-four finish in the Premier League is enough to outright guarantee a Champions League spot the following season.

However, England still boasts the best UEFA coefficient score - which ranks nations based on how well their teams perform in Europe - of any participating country due to their results in the continental competitions thus far.

There is also already a sizeable enough gap to the next best-placed nations, namely Spain and Portugal, that just one more draw by any English club in European competition is needed to ensure England finishes in the top two and thereby earns a European Performance Spot (EPS), granting an extra place in the Champions League next season.

In that scenario, the top five teams in the Premier League at the end of 2025/26 would all qualify for the Champions League in 2026/27.

It gets even easier for English clubs to achieve that goal given there are five of them in total still competing in Europe this term, with Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest reaching the Europa League quarter-finals and Crystal Palace doing the same in the Conference League in addition to Arsenal and Liverpool at the top table.

So, five English teams qualifying for the Champions League next season is highly likely. We also know six is a possibility, as that’s how many entered the competition at the beginning of the current campaign.

But what about seven?

It’s also possible, but will require silverware from both Liverpool and Villa.

Dominik Szoboszlai has been one of Liverpool’s leading lights this season

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Premier League title favourites Arsenal would have to endure an historic collapse to fall as low as fifth in the table now, but there’s a scenario where fellow UCL challengers Liverpool finish fifth domestically and also win the Champions League.

If that happens, combined with Villa dropping from their current Premier League position of fourth down to sixth but managing to win the Europa League, then UEFA would delegate an extra Champions League spot to England which be awarded to the team that finishes below Villa - i.e., seventh - in the Premier League.

Aston Villa skipper John McGinn’s return to fitness could help his side go all the way

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Everton, Brentford, Fulham, Brighton, Newcastle and Bournemouth are all separated by just a handful of points in positions seven through 12, meaning there is still plenty to play for during what promises to be a fiercely-contested season run-in.