Tottenham Hotspur currently occupy fifth place in the Premier League, with Aston Villa just above them in the all-important Champions League spot. There is a small chance fifth place could be enough to get access to Europe’s top competition, though, and here’s how.
Ordinarily, only the top four teams in the Premier League are granted a place in the Champions League for the following season. However, with the competition expanding next year, extra places are up for grabs.
Those two extra spots are decided by UEFA’s coefficient ranking system, which is determined by how well the teams representing each nation perform in European competitions this year.
With Manchester City and Arsenal falling at the quarter finals of the Champions League, and Liverpool and West Ham suffering a similar fate in the Europa League, England are now behind Germany in the coefficient charts.
The success of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, and Bayer Leverkusen’s run to the semi-finals in the Europa League, have pushed the Bundesliga ahead into the all-important top two in the charts.
Italy’s Serie A has already secured an extra place in the Champions League for next term. The Bundesliga currently sits on 17.928 coefficient points, and the Premier League is third with 17.375 points.
Tottenham are currently in fifth place in the league, six points behind Aston Villa, but with two games in hand. Suffice to say, a fourth-placed finish is far from guaranteed, but Villa could help Spurs out in that regard.
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How can the Premier League get five Champions League places?
Villa need to progress past the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League and win the whole thing for England to stand a chance. Meanwhile, it would take a catastrophic downfall for the German sides to make the swing in fortunes possible.
German teams just need to secure two more wins from their remaining games in Europe. One win and two draws would also be enough to end the contest.
Spurs Web Opinion
I can’t see German teams failing to get the required results to put things beyond doubt, to be honest, and I also don’t think Villa will win the Conference League. We simply have to control our own fate and win the games we have left to get into the top four.
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