The Premier League could boast seven clubs in next season’s Champions League if all the right pieces fall into place.
Last term saw an unprecedented six English outfits qualify for Europe’s premier competition; five by their league position, while Tottenham earned their place in the league phase after winning the Europa League.
Yet that inflated contingent could grow even more this year, with the Premier League appearing as one of the more prominent beneficiaries to the competition’s expansion to 36 teams that came into effect at the beginning of 2024/25.
As with every season, the top four clubs in the Premier League table are guaranteed a spot in the 2026/27 edition – but like last year, England is on course to earn an additional place.
That elusive fifth spot is earned by being one of the best-performing two nations in each season’s European club competitions and as things stand, England are comfortably ahead of Germany, Portugal, Spain and Italy in performance.
It means England are nailed on to seal that extra place, which would see the top five qualify for next season’s Champions League rather than the just the traditional top four. Newcastle were the team that benefited from this last term, whose final-day loss didn’t mean as much as it might have after the Magpies were leapfrogged by Chelsea into fourth.
It’s a realistic expectation that the Premier League will have a quintet of Champions League berths by the end of the campaign. Spots six and seven, however, require some optimistic hypothetical thinking to come true.
The Premier League will earn a sixth spot at Europe’s top table if an English club outside the top five wins this season’s tournament.
An English club lifting the trophy is far from out of the question, with all six competing Premier League sides finding themselves in the last-16.
The winner of the Champions League would guarantee themselves a spot in the next campaign, as is always the case – but if that club has already qualified for the following edition via league position, that country will not get an extra spot.
So it falls to one of the league’s underperforming clubs to conquer the continent, and the English top flight isn’t exactly starved of those. Tottenham, in the thick of a relegation battle, and Newcastle are both in the bottom half of the table despite still being in European contention, while Liverpool and Chelsea are currently battling it out for fifth, meaning one could miss out on qualification come the season’s end.
On top of that, the winner of the Europa League is also awarded a place in the Champions League, which assuming all of the above takes shape would bring the Premier League’s tally of qualified teams to the magic seven.
Aston Villa, who finished second in the league phase, are currently favourites to lift the title and will resume their European charge against Lille in the last-16.
However, Villa are currently third in the Premier League so would need Europa League glory to come at the expense of their top-five finish to the deliver a seventh qualification spot to England.
But the burden is not just on the Villans.
Nottingham Forest, who are languishing at the other end of the Premier League table, also find themselves in the knockouts after dispatching Turkish heavyweights Fenerbahce in their play-off tie.
Should Forest win the Europa League, they would ensure that English teams take a record-breaking seven of the 36 spots in next season’s Champions League.