What Man City's FA Cup win means for Premier League places in Europe
Manchester City lifted the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Chelsea at Wembley on Saturday - earning a place in the Europa League in the process. But as City are guaranteed to qualify for the Champions League, the place in Europe for lifting the FA Cup will transfer to the Premier League. Meanwhile, a host of Premier League clubs will be backing Aston Villa to win the Europa League - as it could yet secure Champions League qualification for whoever finishes sixth.
Villa will take on Freiburg in Istanbul on Wednesday - just four days before the final day of the league season in England. Qualification for European competition has become pretty complicated in the past few seasons. This has largely been caused by Uefa's new European Performance Spots (EPS).
These are the extra places in the Champions League given to the two leagues with the best overall record each season. The Premier League has secured one of the two berths for 2026-27, with the Spanish La Liga claiming the other - just like last season. It means there will be at least eight English teams in Europe next season.
With Villa, Arsenal and Crystal Palace all in a European final, what could this mean for the rest of the Premier League? The logic of the EPS is simple. But other factors complicate matters.
It has two pillars: it is applied after all other considerations about domestic and European cup winners; it always provides one additional place to the overall allocation. So England was set to have seven teams in Europe before securing an EPS - but now will have at least eight. The teams finishing sixth and seventh will go into the Europa League The team finishing eighth will go into the Conference League The top five have pulled away in recent weeks, with the Arsenal (79 points), Manchester City (77), Manchester United (65) and Aston Villa (62 points) having booked their places in the Champions League.