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How many Champions League places will the Premier League have next season?

Manchester United and Tottenham may need to rely on strong performances from respective rivals Manchester City and Arsenal in the Champions League if England is to earn an extra spot in next season’s revamped competition.

The Champions League is being expanded to a 36-team tournament from 2024/25 and two of the extra four places will be awarded to countries whose teams perform best in this season’s European competitions.

As confirmed by Uefa on their website, England currently sits third in the race, behind Italy and Germany, which would mean Serie A and the Bundesliga receive a fifth Champions League place next season.

Aston Villa currently hold fourth place in the Premier League - the final automatic spot as things stand - with Tottenham in fifth and Manchester United in sixth position.

Fifth place would guarantee entry to next season’s Champions League should England finish into the top two of this season’s Uefa club coefficient table. The standings are worked out by the total number of club coefficient points obtained by each club from an association divided by the number of clubs from that association.

If applied last season, England would have finished in the top two along with the Netherlands. England’s coefficient was boosted by Manchester City winning the Champions League and West Ham winning the Europa Conference League.

This season, Italy are top with a score of 15.571, Germany are second on 14.500 and England are third on 13.875. France are next with 13.250.

The current Uefa standings (last updated 27 February) (Uefa)
The current Uefa standings (last updated 27 February) (Uefa)

Both Manchester United and Newcastle United crashed out of the Champions League group stages before Christmas but Manchester City and Arsenal made it through to the last-16, with Liverpool, Brighton and West Ham also reaching that stage in Europa League.

Villa could boost their own chances by progressing far in the Europa Conference League, with Unai Emery’s side also through to the last-16.

Liverpool face Sparta Prague, while Brighton take on Roma, and and West Ham play German team Freiburg.

Brighton and West Ham could therefore boost England’s coefficient while denying Italy and Germany, respectively.

Aston Villa were drawn against Ajax in the Europa Conference League, meanwhile.

Arsenal lost the first leg of their last-16 tie against Porto but will be hopeful of overturning that 1-0 defeat at the Emirates on Tuesday 12 March.

Manchester City will take a 3-1 lead into their return leg against FC Copenhagen the week before.

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s victory in the Carabao Cup final means seventh place will now carry entry to the Europa Conference League, assuming the Reds finish in the top four.