Update: |How Man City can finish outside top five and still qualify for Champions League as major boost confirmed News

Manchester City have just been handed two safety nets in their aims to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Arsenal’s surprise (and very impressive) win over Real Madrid might have had some Manchester City fans looking enviously at the Emirates, but it also confirmed that the Premier League will have five places in the Champions League next season.

That is undoubtedly a boost for City, who currently sit sixth and are firmly among the chasing pack for Champions League qualification. Opening up a fifth spot to directly qualify for the League Phase next season offers a little bit of insurance if City were to fall short of their top four ambitions.

There are currently two points separating Chelsea in fourth and Aston Villa in seventh, while Newcastle could go three points ahead of Chelsea and four above City if they win their game in hand.

So Arsenal’s victory to ensure the Premier League gets an extra Champions League place is a positive for City, and they could even get a further safety blanket with a surprise scenario that would see sixth place qualify.

The Premier League earned its fifth place through UEFA’s European Performance Spot rankings, which take into account each nation’s performance in Europe’s three competitions over the season. With more sides remaining in Europe than any other league, the Premier League has been top of the coefficient rankings all season. Arsenal’s win means the third-placed nation – Italy – now cannot catch England.

So the Premier League will earn an EPS place no matter what, however, UEFA also award a guaranteed League Phase place to the winners of the Champions League and Europa League. Arsenal and Aston Villa remain in the Champions League with Manchester United and Tottenham still in Europa League contention.

Arsenal are ten point ahead of City in sixth so unlikely to need to win the Champions League to qualify next season, but Aston Villa are seventh and still have two routes to stay in the competition in 2025/26. And if they were to finish in the top five while also winning this year’s Champions League, they would earn their place in next season’s edition and the EPS spot would go to the next highest finisher – sixth.

This situation almost happened last season when Borussia Dortmund finished fifth in the Bundesliga and finished as runners-up in the Champions League to Real Madrid.

Similarly, in the extremely unlikely event that United or Spurs won the Europa League while finishing fifth, City could also sneak into the Champions League in sixth.

Pep Guardiola and his squad are targeting the top four and would consider fifth even more of a disappointment. However, it is reassuring to know that there are possible safety nets if they fall short in a difficult season.

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