Premier League to get fifth Champions League spot

Premier League is guaranteed to secure a top-two finish in UEFA's coefficient table this season The Premier League is set to gain an extra UEFA Champions League spot for a second consecutive season after Arsenal's 1-0 victory at Sporting on Tuesday night guaranteed that England would finish in the top two of UEFA's coefficient table, which measures how clubs from each nation perform across European competitions this season. According to UEFA, the two leagues with the highest "average points" by the end of the campaign "will each earn one automatic place in the (Champions League) league phase – the 'European Performance Spot' for the club ranked next-best in their domestic league behind those clubs that have already qualified directly for the league phase". Arsenal's win in Lisbon took England's average points to 25.031, which cannot surpassed by any nation outside the top two of the rankings. UEFA coefficient rankings* Association Ave. pts Clubs remaining/at start Total pts England 25.031 5/9 225.125 Spain 20.281 6/8 162.250 Germany 19.714 3/7 138.000 Portugal 18.900 3/5 94.500 Italy 18.714 2/7 131.000 *Source: UEFA; as of 14:30 GMT, 8 April. Scroll across to see full table With the Premier League's top four guaranteed automatic entry into the Champions League's league phase, that would mean fifth place would also qualify. Fifth-placed Liverpool are currently in pole position but only three points separate them from Merseyside rivals Everton in eighth, with Chelsea and Brentford sixth and seventh respectively, in what is shaping up to be an exciting end to the season. See: How Premier League clubs qualify for EuropeTwo Premier League teams remain in the Champions League quarter-finals. Arsenal and Liverpool, who play at Paris Saint-Germain. With Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest both reaching the quarter-final stage in the Europa League, and Crystal Palace doing likewise in the Conference League, five Premier League clubs are still competing in Europe. By contrast, the three countries who are outside the top two spots - Germany, Portugal and Italy - only have two or three clubs who are still earning them points. Premier League clubs' remaining ties in UEFA competitions Champions League quarter-finals8 Apr Paris Saint-Germain v Liverpool14 Apr Liverpool v PSG15 Apr Arsenal v Sporting (1-0 on agg.) Europa League quarter-finals9 Apr Bologna v Aston Villa; Porto v Nott'm Forest16 Apr Aston Villa v Bologna; Nott'm Forest v Porto Conference League quarter-finals9 Apr Crystal Palace v Fiorentina16 Apr Fiorentina v Crystal Palace How does UEFA's coefficient table work? UEFA calculates which two leagues will be rewarded with the extra European Performance Spot by adding up coefficient points based on the performances of clubs from each league across the Champions League, Europa League and UEFA Conference League, and then dividing those points by the number of clubs from each league who STARTED this season in a European competition. It means the various leagues are competing against each other in a ranking called the "association club coefficient". Every win for a club in any of UEFA's club competitions this season earns each league two points, while a draw gets one point, and there are no points for a defeat. On top of that, bonus points are awarded according to where each club finished in their European league table. These are weighted according to the competition. For example, finishing top of the table in the Champions League gets you 12 bonus points, while the equivalent position in the Europa League gets six, and the top team in the Conference League earn four points. Arsenal finished top of this season's Champions League league phase table so they earned the maximum number of bonus points. Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea and Man City all secured double-digit bonus points too, courtesy of finishing in the top eight, while Newcastle (12th) earned 9.25 points. Additional bonus points are awarded for reaching each round from the last 16 onwards. These are also weighted according to the competition. Bonus points added per round Competition Bonus points Champions League 1.5 Europa League 1.0 Conference League 0.5