Premier League risks losing Champions League place after Man Utd and Newcastle form | OneFootball

The Premier League would be at risk of missing out on an extra Champions League place next season should Manchester United and Newcastle United fail to make it out of the group stages of this year’s competition.

The group stages of the Champions League are changing next season with the introduction of a ‘Swiss-style’ format, while four additional teams will be added to take the number of clubs to 36.

That means there will be four extra places up for grabs, with Uefa awarding two of them to the countries who collectively performed best in Europe in the previous season.

This is calculated by Uefa’s association club coefficient table and an average score is produced by dividing the total number of points won throughout the year by the number of clubs involved.

Uefa awards points for group-stage wins and round-of-16 participation and if applied last season, England would have finished in the top two along with the Netherlands. The Premier League’s coefficient was boosted by Manchester City winning the Champions League and West Ham winning the Europa Conference League.

There are eight Premier League clubs competing in Europe this season and Manchester United and Newcastle United’s performance in the Champions League group stages could potentially hit England’s association club coefficient average.

England are currently fifth in this season’s table, behind Turkey, Belgium, Germany and Italy. Premier League clubs would usually accrue more points as a result of their performance in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, but Erik ten Hag and Eddie Howe’s sides are currently at risk of early exits.

Manchester United, who sit bottom of Group A with two rounds remaining, will be out if they lose to Galatasaray in Istanbul next week, while Newcastle, who are bottom of Group F, are also on the verge of being knocked out ahead of their trip to Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday. There would be an even greater hit to the coefficient if they finish fourth in the group and fail to even reach the Europe League play-off round.

The Premier League’s coefficient for this season should be helped by a number of teams who look set to extend their European campaigns beyond Christmas, however. Manchester City are already through to the Champions League last-16 while Arsenal require just a point at home against Lens on Wednesday to join them.

In the Europa League, both Liverpool and West Ham sit top of their respective groups while Brighton are also in a strong position with two rounds of matches to go. Aston Villa are also on the verge of reaching the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League, with Unai Emery’s side considered to be the favourites to win the competition.