Arsenal and PSG will battle for Champions League glory in Budapest on Saturday, but next season’s competition is already beginning to take shape with teams discovering their seeding.
The Premier League will have five representatives in next season’s competition, with champions Arsenal joined by Man City, Man United, Aston Villa and Liverpool.
Performances from English clubs in Europe this season saw the Premier League land one of the European Performance Spots – with the other going to La Liga.
The Premier League’s additional spot was taken by Liverpool, with Arne Slot’s side confirming their fifth place finish in the top flight on the final day.
Had they leapfrogged Aston Villa into fourth, the Premier League would have secured a sixth berth owing to the Villans winning the Europa League last week.
Qualified teams will be placed into seeded pots, based on their UEFA club coefficients, for the 36 team league phase draw.
Premier League winners Arsenal will be in pot 1 for the Champions League league phase draw
Unai Emery’s Aston Villa are set to be in pot 2 after their Europa League triumph this season
Michael Carrick’s Man United will be in pot 2, but have the lowest co-efficient of the Premier League sides in next season’s competition
Clubs will be required to play two matches – one home and one away – against teams from each of the four pots.
Liverpool, Man City and Arsenal will each be placed in pot 1 owing to their impressive performances in European competitions over the past five seasons.
With teams from the same nation unable to play each other in the league phase, they are guaranteed to be facing two of Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, PSG, Inter Milan, Barcelona or Atletico Madrid.
Both Aston Villa and Man United will be placed into pot 2 for the draw.
The newly crowned Europa League winners have now climbed above Man United in UEFA’s five-year coefficient rankings.
It follows Aston Villa’s three consecutive seasons in European competition, which has seen them reach the Conference League semi-finals and Champions League quarter-finals before their triumph last week.
Despite making the Europa League final last season, Man United’s ranking has dropped in recent years after last-16 and group stage eliminations from the Champions League – as well as not featuring in Europe entirely this season.
Aston Villa and Man United are set to be joined in pot 2 by Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting Lisbon, Porto, Club Brugge, Real Betis and PSV Eindhoven.
Seven of the nine pot 3 teams are already known, with Feyenoord, Lille, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Shakhtar Donetsk and Galatasaray assured of their places in the pot.
Seven places in next season’s competition remain up for grabs through the qualifying rounds, with two teams being placed in pot 3 and the remainder in pot 4.
Slavia Prague, Stuttgart, Como and Lens have already secured their places in the next season’s Champions League, with the four teams provisionally in pot 4.
Como, managed by Cesc Fabregas, will be competing in European competition for the first time in the club’s history.
