The strong showing of English clubs in this year’s European competitions means the Premier League is well placed to have five teams competing in next season’s Champions League.
With this year’s Premier League table being so tightly packed, teams like Fulham and Brentford have an outside but not impossible chance of playing in Europe’s elite competition next year.
ESPN breaks down how.
On what basis is it decided how many teams qualify from each country?
Two words — coefficient table.
The table tracks how the teams from each country perform in the three European competitions — Champions League, Europa League and Conference League. Countries ranked one to four to get four teams in the Champions League, the fifth rank gets three, six to 15 get two teams while the remainder get one.
The top two countries get an additional fifth team. Last year, those extra spots fell to England and Spain.
How is each country’s score on the coefficient table calculated?
A win is worth two points, a draw is one point and there are no points for a loss. There are also bonus points based on a team’s finish in the League Stage, as well as number of knockout round wins.
The total points accrued by each country’s teams is divided by the number of countries they have in European competitions. So, for England, that’s nine.
So, where are England on the table this season?
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England — 111.797 coefficient points
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Italy — 96.446 coefficient points
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Spain — 90.484 coefficient points
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Germany — 87.331 coefficient points
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France — 78.927 coefficient points
Who will take the fifth spot in next year’s Champions League?
It’s worth noting here while England are well placed to secure a fifth Champions League spot for next season, it has yet to be solidifed.
If/when that is confirmed, it could be a tussle between a handful of teams.
Chelsea are currently fifth in the Premier League, a point ahead of sixth-place Liverpool and three ahead of Fulham in seventh. Brentford, Newcastle United, Everton and Sunderland — all on 33 points — aren’t far behind. Manchester United, currently fourth on 38 points — too could find themselves dragged into this battle.