As the competition for top-five places intensifies, football writer Ben Bloom assesses each team involved in the race to qualify for the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League.
Just three Premier League matches remain for each top-flight club, and the battle for the UEFA Champions League spots is as tight as ever.
The six teams beneath champions Liverpool are currently separated by just seven points and two of them - Newcastle United and Chelsea, who meet this weekend - have the same points AND goal difference (GD)!
With only four of the six contenders able to join Arne Slot's side in next season’s leading European club competition, the final few weeks of the campaign will have major repercussions for all.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
35 | +33 | 67 |
| 3 |
Man City
MCI
|
35 | +24 | 64 |
| 4 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
35 | +21 | 63 |
| 5 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
35 | +21 | 63 |
| 6 |
Nott'm Forest
NFO
|
35 | +12 | 61 |
| 7 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
35 | +6 | 60 |
Not only does each Premier League position provide around £3 million more in prize money, but the additional revenue from competing in the Champions League is significant, not to mention the prestige and attraction for top players that it generates.
Here is why qualification is so important to each club.
2nd: Arsenal - 67 points (GD +33)
Remaining fixtures
Having returned to the Champions League last season after six years away, Mikel Arteta’s side upgraded their 2023/24 quarter-final exit with defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in this year’s semi-final.
It was a tough loss to take after coming close, but ultimately failing, to mount a serious challenge to Liverpool’s Premier League title march. That means another season without silverware.
With their recent focus on European duties, Arsenal have picked up just one Premier League win in five matches, but they have not relinquished second place since Christmas and are on track to finish there for the third successive season.
Having come within touching distance of domestic and continental glory yet again, it would be an unthinkable late blow to not qualify for the Champions League next season, as they hope to attract the final few pieces of the jigsaw they need in the transfer market to ascend to top spot.
3rd: Manchester City - 64 points (GD +24)
Remaining fixtures
Having been Premier League champions in six of the seven seasons prior to this one, there is little salvaging of a campaign in which Man City's title aspirations were extinguished by the turn of the year and they suffered an early Champions League exit.
A return to Europe’s top club competition is a bare minimum for Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering side, who had appeared to be in a worrying decline through November and December.
City’s traditional strong late-season form has kicked in and they are back up to third, unbeaten in seven league matches, with an FA Cup final lying in wait.
Guardiola, who has committed to the club for two more years, knows a summer rebuild is required.
After such a traumatic campaign, the security of Champions League football would halt any fears of more severe problems at the club.
4th: Newcastle United - 63 points (GD +21)
Remaining fixtures
Newcastle’s sole Champions League quest of the past two decades pitted them against the might of PSG, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan last season.
Unsurprisingly, they failed to advance from the group, but they are intent on returning to the competition and becoming regulars in it.
The Magpies' EFL Cup triumph in March marked the end of a 56-year trophy drought, and everyone associated with the club will hope that success marks a watershed moment in their aspirations to establish themselves among the Premier League’s elite.
Doing so would also help to stave off suitors for the likes of star striker Alexander Isak, who is routinely linked with a move elsewhere.
5th: Chelsea - 63 points (GD +21)
Remaining fixtures
After a tumultuous couple of years, Chelsea are hoping to return to the upper echelons of the Premier League.
Just four years since they beat Man City to win the 2020/21 Champions League, Chelsea have slipped down the pecking order with recent 12th-place and sixth-place finishes, and have now spent two seasons outside of Europe’s top club competition.
A potential UEFA Conference League triumph would be scant consolation for a club whose large stature exceeds that competition.
Instead, it is Champions League football that is required to cement Enzo Maresca’s status at the helm of a club he took charge of last summer.
Maresca has won over swathes of the Stamford Bridge faithful, but a top-five finish would relieve any time constraints over developing his project at the club.
6th: Nottingham Forest - 61 points (GD +12)
Remaining fixtures
That Forest are even in the conversation for Champions League football was unthinkable when they narrowly avoided relegation last season.
Yet after the improbable became distinctly possible over the course of an excellent season, it would be a bitter blow to see their grip on a top-five spot slip away at the death.
Following four months in third place, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have faltered of late with three defeats in their last five outings.
An opportunity to shake up the established elite is in danger of fading, but they face two sides in the bottom four next.
They have only once (in the 1995/96 UEFA Cup) played in Europe during the Premier League era, while it is even longer since they were part of the continent’s top-tier competition, in the 1980/81 European Cup.
7th: Aston Villa - 60 points (GD +6)
Remaining fixtures
Villa’s ascent under Unai Emery has been striking, with the Spaniard taking the club from relegation candidates when he took over in 2022, to a Champions League quarter-final last month.
Defeat against PSG ended their first top-tier European campaign for more than 40 years, but the club want to compete regularly at the highest level going forward.
Qualifying for next season’s Champions League would likely be a key factor in determining whether loanees Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford join on a permanent basis.
Playing against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United in their last two fixtures could prove beneficial, with both sides fully focused on their crunch UEFA Europa League final showdown, which assures a SIXTH Champions League spot to English clubs.