The race to secure places in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League has been one of the most exciting and difficult to predict in Premier League history.
Here is all you need to know, and why nine Premier League teams have qualified for Europe next season.
How do teams qualify for European competition?
UEFA Champions League
The top five teams in the Premier League - one more than the traditional top four - have qualified for next season’s Champions League.
This is because, thanks to the performances of Premier League clubs in all of UEFA’s competitions this season, England is guaranteed a top-two spot in UEFA's association club coefficient rankings, which earns a "European Performance Spot" (EPS).
The five clubs who have secured the Champions League spots are Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Chelsea.
Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest agonisingly missed out on the final day, each losing their last match.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
38 | +35 | 74 |
| 3 |
Man City
MCI
|
38 | +28 | 71 |
| 4 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
38 | +21 | 69 |
| 5 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
38 | +21 | 66 |
| 6 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
38 | +7 | 66 |
| 7 |
Nott'm Forest
NFO
|
38 | +12 | 65 |
| 8 |
Brighton
BHA
|
38 | +7 | 61 |
| 9 |
Bournemouth
BOU
|
38 | +12 | 56 |
The Premier League will actually have SIX clubs in next season's Champions League - the top five teams in the league plus Tottenham Hotspur, who beat Manchester United 1-0 in the Europa League final on 21 May.
UEFA Europa League
English football traditionally receives two Europa League places.
One is traditionally awarded to the fifth-placed finisher in the Premier League, but this season it has gone to the sixth-placed team - Aston Villa - because England have received an additional fifth Champions League spot.
The other Europa League place goes to the winners of the FA Cup - Crystal Palace - after they beat Man City 1-0 in the final at Wembley Stadium.
The standings mean that Chelsea’s performance against Real Betis in Wednesday’s Conference League final will not impact on the Premier League’s allocation of European places.
If Chelsea win, the Europa League place due for the winners will not be reallocated to another Premier League club because the Blues are already in the Champions League, albeit they do have a choice of which competition they wish to play in, according to ESPN’s Dale Johnson.
UEFA Conference League
The winners of the EFL Cup qualify for the Conference League.
This season, Newcastle won the EFL Cup. But because they have qualified for the Champions League through their league position, the Conference League spot won through the EFL Cup is passed down to the league's seventh-placed team - Nottingham Forest.
What about the eighth-placed team?
There were two scenarios in which the eighth-placed team could have qualified for Europe on the final day of the season.
1) Chelsea finished seventh before winning the Conference League final next Wednesday
2) Chelsea finished sixth and Newcastle finished seventh. Chelsea then win the Conference League final next Wednesday
Since neither of those scenarios happened - Chelsea have finished fourth - there is NO European spot for the eighth-placed team, Brighton & Hove Albion.
