After 16 Premier League games, Aston Villa are on course to finish higher than last season.
Having qualified for the Europa Conference League after a seventh-place finish last term, Unai Emery’s men will be targeting the Champions League. Villa remain unbeaten at home so far this season and have achieved a total of 15 straight wins, including wins over Manchester City and Arsenal.
Villa are currently third in the Premier League and are just one point off second-placed Arsenal and two points from leaders Liverpool. If they can carry on their impressive performances from the first 16 games into the remaining 22 league fixtures, there is a very good chance Villa could be competing in the highest European competition next season.
The Champions League is set for a revamp at the beginning of the 2024/25 campaign as it expands to a 36-team competition. It has raised the possibility of five Premier League teams taking part in the competition next season.
However, an extra place for a Premier League team in next season’s Champions League is not guaranteed, though. Of four extra places up for grabs, two of those will go to the leagues which collectively perform best across UEFA’s three club competitions this term.
That will be worked out by UEFA’s association club coefficient table and an average score will be produced after dividing the total number of points won throughout the year by the number of clubs involved. Points are awarded by UEFA for wins and draws in the group stage, with bonus points awarded for getting to a certain stage of a competition.
England and Spain started with more teams in Europe than any other country after both seeing eight clubs qualify, thus meaning each win is worth slightly less to the coefficient as it gets divided by eight. That is why it is so important that Premier League teams advance from their groups and go as far as possible in Europe.
One English team who has been eliminated from Europe is Manchester United following their defeat to Bayern Munich on Tuesday evening. Erik ten Hag’s side finished bottom of their group.
As their European exit will have an impact on England’s association club coefficient average, it could get even worse for England and the Premier League as Newcastle were also eliminated from the competition. They were defeated 2-1 at home to AC Milan and also finished bottom of their group.
This has caused another major hit to the coefficient. With both teams out of Europe altogether, UEFA coefficient calculations put England in third place behind Germany and Italy. England are in third with a coefficient average of 11.88 and Spain are not too far behind in fourth on 11.81.
England will now have plenty of work to do in the knockout phase if they are to overhaul one of the two countries above them and claim an extra Champions League berth.
When it comes to Villa trying to qualify for the next season’s edition of the Champions League, a top-four finish is going to be the only way of guaranteeing a place in Europe’s premier competition in 2024/25 at present. There are certainly no guarantees that fifth would be enough for a Champions League finish, especially following United and Newcastle’s European exit.
