Why some Premier League teams will be cheering on Man City at Wembley
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While Aston Villa's progress to the Europa League final will have been cheered by Champions League-chasing Bournemouth, Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford, the outcome of Saturday's FA Cup final between Man City and Chelsea also has significant European consequences for several other Premier League clubs.Villa are fifth in the Premier League and if they finish in that position and win the Europa League, sixth place in the Premier League will also qualify for next season's Champions League. Also See: Live Premier League table Watch FREE Premier League highlights Got Sky?
Get instant access with no contract Who qualifies for Europe?Thanks to England's strong UEFA coefficient ranking, the Premier League has been awarded an extra fifth place in the Champions League for next season.So currently, the top five teams in the Premier League go into the Champions League in addition to two Europa League qualifying places (the team finishing sixth and the FA Cup winners) and a single Conference League space (Carabao Cup winners).Man City have already secured a Champions League spot, so their Conference League place as Carabao Cup winners will be passed on to the next highest finisher in the Premier League who hasn't qualified for Europe. How does winning the FA Cup affect things?If Chelsea, who currently sit ninth in the table, win the FA Cup, they will qualify for the Europa League.If they finish sixth, then the Europa League spot via Premier League position would go to seventh, and the Conference League spot would go to eighth.However, if the Blues end up outside the top seven, they will just take up their spot in the Europa League as FA Cup winners, with no extra European place given to the Premier League.Meanwhile, if Man City are victorious at Wembley on Saturday afternoon, Pep Guardiola's side - who are guaranteed a top-seven league finish - will pass on their Europa League spot to seventh, and eighth would qualify for the Conference League.If Crystal Palace win the Conference League, they qualify for the Europa League - in addition to the above.
But if Villa win the Europa League...Villa finish third or fourth: The Premier League's top five go into the Champions League, sixth into Europa League, seventh into Conference League - and then factor in the knock-on impact of the FA Cup winner.Villa finish fifth: The extra Champions League spot would be passed on to sixth and the Premier League would give up its Europa League spot for league position.Villa finish sixth: The top five teams would qualify for the Champions League through league position and Villa would qualify through the Europa League. The Premier League would also give up its Europa League spot through league position in this scenario.In either of those last two scenarios, if Chelsea win the FA Cup and remain outside the qualification places, they would take England's one remaining Europa League spot.If Man City win the FA Cup, the Europa League spot would be passed on to seventh.So the Premier League could have NINE places in Europe next season: six in the Champions League, two in the Europa League and one in the Conference League.A final-day conundrum?There are lots of moving parts and possibilities... but one is that Brentford or Brighton may prefer to LOSE on the final day.Brentford's last fixture is at Liverpool.