Aston Villa are looking to secure a Champions League spot this season.placeholder image
Aston Villa are looking to secure a Champions League spot this season. | Getty Images
Aston Villa’s latest boost in their goal to reach the Champions League, explained
Aston Villa have received a latest boost thanks to UEFA as Unai Emery’s side look to return to the Champions League for next season.
The Villans are continuing to go strong in third place in the Premier League but have seen their lead on the sides below them cut down by an inconsistent string of results, with just one win in their last five league matches. A run which was continued by a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth on Saturday, where Morgan Rogers scored his tenth goal of the season but was pegged back by 19-year-old Rayan on his first Cherries start.
Unai Emery’s side are back to nine points behind leaders Arsenal and with a serious push for the title appearing a long shot at present, Villa will look to maintain an advantage over Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool below them in the race for the Champions League, which Villa are hoping to return to after missing out on the final day of last season.
Aston Villa boost as five English clubs set for Champions League spot
Aston Villa look set to receive a boost in their Champions League hopes, as the Premier League looks likely to have five teams qualify for the competition through league position this season instead of the traditional top four. This comes as a result of UEFA’s latest coefficient table, which sees England hold a comfortable lead at the top ahead of the other major leagues in Europe.
As a part of the expanded 36-team tournament which began last season, two leagues are granted an extra spot in the league phase based on their performances in European competition the previous season. The Premier League finished in the top two of the coefficient table last season, meaning all of Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle United qualified for the Champions League through finishing in the top five, while Tottenham Hotspur became a sixth English club in the competition by winning the Europa league.
The formula to decide the awarding of the two extra European Performance Spots is worked out by adding up coefficient points based on the performances of clubs from that nation competing in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, and then dividing those points by the number of teams who started the season in a European competition.
The various leagues are competing against each other in a ranking called the ‘association club coefficient’. A win in any UEFA competition this season earns a league two points, a draw earns one point, and a defeat zero. Bonus points are then added for position in their European league table – Arsenal, for example, received 12 bonus points for finishing top of the Champions League – which are weighted based on the competition.
Additional bonus points are then received per knock-out round reached: 1.5 points per round in the Champions League, 1 point per round in the Europa League, and 0.5 in the Conference League.
What do Aston Villa need to do to reach the Champions League?
Of England’s nine teams which competed in Europe this season, none have been eliminated and six are through automatically to the last 16 courtesy of a top-eight finish in the league phase, including Aston Villa in the Europa League. Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace will all take part in a knock-out round after reaching the play-offs.
As of 29 January, England top the coefficient table with 188.625 points, an average of 20.958 per club. Portugal are surprise contenders to finish second and are currently on course to earn an extra Champions League spot, with an average 16.6 points per club and 83 overall, while Germany, Spain, Italy and France make up the top six.
Should Premier League sides continue to go strong and reach the latter stages of their various UEFA competitions – which looks likely at present – then the top five clubs in England will once again qualify for the Champions League.
Aston Villa currently have an eight-point buffer over sixth-placed Liverpool and are in a strong position to finish in the top five and qualify for the Champions League for the second time under Emery. They would also qualify automatically by winning the Europa League.
Continue Reading