Last season England missed in the race for five Champions League spots – but they are good and really in the hunt 12 months later.
It was Germany and Italy who secured the extra place last year, allowing Bologna to enjoy a rare campaign in the European Elite competition. In the Bundesliga it was Borussia Dortmund who benefited from the extra place.
A large number of Premier League parties will certainly hope that a fifth place will be offered on the top flight of England with different teams who want to land the wealth offered. Liverpool and Arsenal are clear as the top two and expect to end there, but among them the race is on.
The coefficiërangers and point system means that it is no case to just get an extra place to offer the winner of the Champions League. It is a general measure of how to perform competition in Europe – and currently that is good for England and the Premier League.
In the past decade, three different English parties won the Champions League – Liverpool in 2018, Chelsea in 2021 and Manchester City in 2023. The Reds also lost finalists twice.
The power of the Premier League is underlined by how Aston Villa is doing in their very first Champions League campaign ever. The side of Unai Emery finished in the top eight and enjoyed a memorable victory over Bayern Munich.
The coefficient scoring system
Ultimately, the two competitions with the best average coefficient scores get an extra place for next season. They can be won in the Champions League, the Europa League and the Europa Conference League. For example, Italy has benefited en masse from having Atalanta that the Europa League would win previous term, while Fiorentina were finalists in the Europa Conference League.
Each victory is worth two coefficient points, a draw will get you one point and you get nothing for a defeat – that is for each of the three tournaments.
The points obtained by all clubs are added together and that total score is shared by the number of clubs that a country in Europe has in the season. That gives the average of the coefficient and also means that countries such as Portugal, which may only have three or four teams, can compete with England, who can have eight.
Every victory and bonus point for someone like England and the Premier League is, when on average, worth less than for the other competitions if you have more teams in Europe. And if a few teams struggle, it went that your chances come the end of the season.
So if a country has 60 coefficient points and seven teams in Europe, the score 8,571 for the table – has been worked out as 60 divided by 7.
The new bonus points – in favor of Champions League performance
A new bonus point system has been introduced and means that the versions of a club in the Champions League are much more valuable than the other two European competitions.
Under the old system was the maximum bonus points for a club in the Champions League 12, and now it has risen by six to 18 years. In the Europa League it has risen from eight to 10 and in the Europa Conference League it went from four to six.
Every club participating in the Champions League only receives at least six bonus points to participate in the competition phase. In the Europa League you first have to finish to get six bonus points. While the European Conference League Top Spot you only deliver four points.
There are bonus points for reaching each of the knockout rounds, again weighed by competition. In addition to those high bonus points in the UCL for position, the teams that end in the top eight are another 1,500 to reach the round of 16.
So the use of Liverpool as a quick breakdown. They finished TOP in the Champions League League phase and earned 13,500 bonus points – 12,000 for first place, and another 1,500 for reaching the round of 16. Arsenal added 13,000 bonus points for ending third place. But Man City, who slept in the 22nd after qualifying, could only offer 6,750 bonus points.
However, a characteristic of how the Champions League is favored can be seen in some of the other English totals.
Manchester United (6,500) and Tottenham Hotspur (6,250) brought fewer bonus points in the Europa League, although they finished third and fourth respectively. Chelsea only received 4,500 bonus points, although they were the first to finish in the Europa Conference League League phase.
What does England look like right now?
In short – fairly good.
Every team from the Premier League that qualifies for Europe is still hunting. Liverpool is one of the favorites to win Europe's first prize, while Arsenal is likely to insist, since it might be their most realistic hope to land a trophy.
The side of Pep Guardiola is confronted with a heavy task in revising Real Madrid next week, which could end their hope for March.
Just like Arsenal, the Red Devils and Tottenham can win a lot of their energy in Europe. They have endured horrible Premier League seasons, but the victory in the Europa League would give them a place in the Champions League – which is almost further than them in the interior.
Chelsea are now huge favorites to win the Europa Conference League.
The Premier League heap is also helped by a few bad artists elsewhere. Germany still has only five of their original eight teams in Europe – Stuttgart and RB Leipzig among them. Spain and Italy have also lost one. France has lost two.
Which clubs are hunting for fifth place?
If we look at a top five – instead of a top four – then Brighton can feel that they have a realistic shot with 14 games of the season in the 10th. They are only seven points away from Man City in the fifth when things stand.
Nottingham Forest is third because they remain the surprise package of the season. There would be a number of brilliant nostalgia about them in Europe after their triumphs with Brian Clough.
Chelsea is in fourth place, although they have seen their results fall in recent months. Man City and Guardiola will be desperate to save their campaign after spent £ 200 million in January. There is an expectation that they will eventually hit top equipment again.
Newcastle, led by the goals of Alexander Isak, spent a year from the Champions League, but has enormous expectations. Villa wants to continue their European adventure after this season, while Fulham also continues to collect the results and are at a moving distance.
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