Update: |Manchester United could hand Man City a Champions League lifeline News

Manchester City are sixth in the Premier League, but know a top five place will likely earn Champions League football next season

Manchester City slipped to sixth in the Premier League following their dire draw with rivals Manchester United on Sunday.

The result allowed Newcastle United to leapfrog the Blues when they eased past Leicester City on Monday night. As things stand, Pep Guardiola’s side will be playing Europa League football next term for the first time in more than a decade.

But City will hope to finish the campaign strongly to chase down a place in the top five. Fifth place is almost certain to be enough to earn Champions League football next season – and that target could be confirmed this week.

The additional places in the top tier of European football are given to the two leagues with the best average coefficient scores. The Premier League missed out last season when Serie A and the Bundesliga claimed the spots.

But this time around it would require a remarkable set of results to prevent England being in possession of one of the extra places.

The Premier League has five representatives remaining in Europe and leads the coefficient table with 24.250, ahead of Spain on 21.678.

Italy (19.937) and Germany (17.921) are the only other two countries in with a chance of finishing in the top two but both are down to three sides. La Liga has four.

It all means that this week’s quarter-finals across the three European competitions should provide the certainty that fifth in the Premier League will get Champions League football next season.

Arsenal and Aston Villa face testing ties against Real Madrid and PSG respectively and will then meet in the last four should they both progress, meaning points could be difficult to come by in the Champions League.

But Manchester United and Tottenham cannot meet until the Europa League final and both will fancy their chances of overcoming Lyon and Frankfurt respectively in the last eight despite the domestic struggles.

In the Conference League, Chelsea are huge favourites to lift the trophy and face Legia Warsaw this week.

English clubs would need to suffer a catastrophic set of results this week to deny fifth place in the Premier League a Champions League spot and even then teams from Italy would need to progress, with Germany too far adrift to chase down top spot.

Last season, England lost four of their remaining five teams at this stage and a similar outcome would open the door for Italy and Serie A, but come next week the Premier League should have the certainty of fifth spot returning Champions League football.

That would provide a fillip for City, who have stumbled through large swathes of this campaign and are by no means certain of finishing in the top four or five.

The Blues have on paper a kinder run-in then some of their rivals but Guardiola’s side will need to rediscover some form if they are to overhaul Newcastle or Chelsea.