When fifth place can qualify for Champions League as Man City face Real Madrid - boost for Newcastle United

The battle for Champions League qualification

Manchester City and Arsenal are already guaranteed Champions League qualification but things are far from certain for the teams immediately below the top two. Newcastle United sit third, level on points with Manchester United in fourth and a point ahead of Liverpool in fifth with a game in hand.

Brighton & Hove Albion, Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa are also hoping to secure European football for next season though only Brighton still have an outside chance of Champions League qualification.

Could fifth place qualify for the Champions League if Manchester City win it?

This season five English teams are allowed to qualify for the Champions League – a maximum of four via Premier League positioning plus the winner of the Champions League or Europa League if they finish outside of the top four.

But with no English representatives remaining in the Europa League and Manchester City guaranteed to finish inside the Champions League places in the Premier League, only the top four teams will qualify for next season’s Champions League as usual.

The only way fourth place would not be enough to qualify for the Champions League this season would be if a Premier League side were to finish outside of the top four and win the Champions League as well as an English side finishing outside of the top four and winning the Europa League.

Premier League rules state: “In the event that a Premier League club win the UEFA Champions League and another win the UEFA Europa League and neither of these clubs finish in the top four of the Premier League, the club lying fourth in the table will drop into the UEFA Europa League group stage.”

But no more than four teams can qualify for the Champions League on league position alone, meaning fifth place will enter the Europa League regardless of whether Man City win the Champions League.

This will change for next season as a result of the new Champions League format allowing the two countries with the highest UEFA coefficients to enter an additional team to the competition.

Every Premier League European qualification variable explained

Manchester United and Manchester City are the two remaining teams left in the FA Cup.

An FA Cup win for Manchester City, who are guaranteed to finish in the Champions League places, would see the Europa League place drop to sixth in the Premier League while seventh place would get the Conference League spot.

The same goes for Manchester United, who are guaranteed to finish in the top six so their Europa Conference League place achieved by winning the Carabao Cup drops to seventh place.

West Ham United can’t finish in the European places this season but could qualify for the Europa League by winning this season’s Europa Conference League. The Hammers would qualify for the Europa League as an ‘additional club’ so it would not impact the qualification positions in the Premier League.

So, in more simple terms:

Top four = Champions League group stage

5th = Europa League

6th = Europa League

7th = Conference League

West Ham United if they win Conference League = Europa League