The Premier League will once again qualify at least five teams to the Champions League next season, with Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Sporting CP last night, thanks to Kai Havertz’s goal, making that official. English teams have been leading UEFA’s performance metrics all season, which is how the extra spot(s) are determined, so this was expected all along, but now it’s confirmed. (Just as last season.)
So that’s good news for us, provided we can put together a good finish to the season. The schedule is very
tough and out form very bad, but we finished strong in each of the last two seasons, under both Enzo Maresca and Mauricio Pochettino, so hopefully something similar can happen this year as well with Liam Rosenior in charge.
Should we fail to finish in the top-five, we’d have to make do with either the Europa League (sixth place; or winning the FA Cup) or the Conference League (seventh). Those qualifying positions could change if a team in that spot qualifies for the Champions League anyway. For example: if Aston Villa finish sixth but they win the Europa League, they would go in to the Champions League and then the seventh place team in the league would instead go to Europa. Same if, say, Liverpool finish sixth but win the Champions League this season. In theory, the league could in fact have seven teams in the Champions League (top five plus the two winners from this season).
