Battle for Europe: how the Premier League’s places will be decided
The top four teams are guaranteed places in the group stage. Manchester City and Manchester United have qualified and two of Chelsea, Liverpool and Leicester will join them.
What do Chelsea, Liverpool and Leicester need?
A win at Aston Villa would guarantee Chelsea third place. Liverpool, at home to Crystal Palace, are fourth and level on points with Leicester but with a goal difference superior by four. So to secure fourth Leicester must take more points than Liverpool or win at home to Tottenham by a margin four goals greater than Liverpool achieve against Palace. They and Liverpool have each scored 66 times. Leicester would also qualify if they win and Chelsea draw or lose.
What if Chelsea finish fifth and win the Champions League?
Chelsea would also get a place in the Champions League group stage and the Premier League would have five representatives in the tournament.
What impact would that have on Europa League places?
It would mean only the club finishing sixth would go into the Europa
League, entering at the group stage. In all other circumstances two clubs will go into the Europa League group stage. Leicester are guaranteed a spot if they don’t finish in the top four – as FA Cup winners/fifth-place finishers; if they do finish in the top four, the clubs in fifth and sixth will get those Europa League places (other than in the Chelsea scenario outlined above).
What about the new Europa Conference League?
The club finishing seventh will enter Uefa’s third-tier competition at the play-off round, regardless of anything else that happens. It starts next season and will, like the Europa League, be played on Thursdays. This place is theoretically for the Carabao Cup winners but Manchester City won that so the spot passes to the highest-ranked Premier League team not qualified for a Uefa competition. That is currently Tottenham.
Who can finish sixth?
One of West Ham, Tottenham or Everton will end there, although Everton’s
chances are extremely slim. They are three points behind sixth-placed West Ham with a goal difference inferior by eight and visit Manchester City on the final day.
What about seventh?
Arsenal come into the equation at this point. Theoretically Leeds too, but it would take a highly improbably series of results. One of West Ham, Tottenham, Everton and Arsenal can be expected to end seventh.
What are Sunday’s key fixtures?
Arsenal v Brighton, Aston Villa v Chelsea, Leicester v Spurs, Liverpool v Crystal Palace, Manchester City v Everton, West Ham v Southampton. All 4pm BST kick-offs.
And the table now? What if Manchester United win the Europa League?
The Europa League winners are rewarded with a Champions League place, but United have secured that anyway by finishing second and nothing will change.
So, in short …
The Premier League has seven places in Uefa competitions. That is provisionally four in the Champions League, two in the Europa League and one in the Conference League. But if Chelsea grab a fifth Champions League spot, a Europa League berth is sacrificed.