More bad news for Arsenal as England's fourth Champions League spot at risk

Dinamo Disaster: Olivier Giroud is dejected as he trudges off in Zagreb
ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/Getty Images
James Benge17 September 2015

The travails of Arsenal, Liverpool and the Manchester sides in the Champions League could cost the Premier League its fourth Champions League spot in the coming seasons.

Only Chelsea managed to win their opening European fixture this week, with an embarrassing 2-1 loss for Arsene Wenger’s side against Dinamo Zagreb ending a dreary week for England’s representatives in Europe’s premier competition.

With West Ham and Southampton already eliminated from the Europa League the Premier League is at real risk of slipping down the Uefa coefficient ranking and losing its fourth Champions League spot to Serie A.

This could have a potentially disastrous impact for Arsenal, who have finished in fourth place in the Premier League in six of the last ten seasons.

After success in the mid-2000s English clubs have made little impact in either of the continental competitions in recent years, with last season being the second time in three years that no English side made it to the quarter finals of the Champions League.

By contrast Italian sides are emerging from the doldrums of Europe, with Juventus reaching the Champions League final against Barcelona in May. The Italian champions, who were winless in their opening Serie A games, continued their European success with a 2-1 win over Premier League leaders Manchester City on Tuesday.

And thanks to two Italian sides, Fiorentina and Napoli, progressing to the semi-finals of the Europa League Serie A earned 19 coefficient points to England’s 13.157.

Uefa rankings for club competitions
Country 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 Pts
Spain 20.857 17.714 23.000 20.214 4.357 86.142
Germany 15.250 17.928 14.714 15.857 3.857 67.606
England 15.250 16.428 16.785 13.571 3.250 65.284
Italy 11.357 14.416 14.166 19.000 2.166 61.105
Portugal 11.833 11.750 9.916 9.083 2.500 45.082
France 10.500 11.750 8.500 10.916 3.250 44.916

These points are collated over a five season period before setting the ranking two seasons ahead – therefore the performance of clubs from 2011/12 to 2015/16 with dictate the ranking for the 2017/18 season.

England currently sit just 4.179 points ahead of Italy in third place and the gap could further shrink when Italian clubs’ dreadful 2011/12, and Chelsea’s European Cup victory, is removed from calculations.

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It means that there is a very real risk that, unless English clubs improve in both the Champions League and Europa League, the Premier League will lose its fourth spot at the top table. As further seasons of English success are removed from the rankings their grip on the fourth place that has become so critical to the league will loosen.

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