Aston Villa played Freiburg on Wednesday night in the final of the Europa League.
Youri Tielemans with a superb volleyed goal from a corner kick routine to open the scoring on 41 minutes.
Then on the stroke of half-time an even better one as Emi Buendia curled a left foot stunning long range strike into the top corner.
Dominating the match, Aston Villa added a third through Morgan Rogers in the second half to seal an emphatic 3-0 victory.
Aston Villa fans weren’t the only ones celebrating.
The Europa League final victory now opens up the real possibility of six Premier League clubs qualifying for the Champions League.
This is how the Premier League table looks on Thursday (21 May 2026) morning:
Champions League
Before last night’s Europa League final it was already a case of Arsenal, Man City, Man U and Aston Villa guaranteed Champions League football via their Premier League places.
Either Liverpool or Bournemouth will fill the other top five spot.
However, the three points gap means that Liverpool have to lose at home to Brentford AND Bournemouth win at Forest AND the Cherries turn around a six goal GD disadvantage (and Liverpool have currently scored five more goals than Bournemouth). So Liverpool are pretty much guaranteed top five.
This is where it gets interesting though for fans of both Bournemouth and Brighton after that win for Villa in the Champions League final.
Bournemouth are guaranteed a minimum of Europa League as currently sixth and seventh place will give you that.
However, Villa’s win against Freiburg in the Europa League final means that if they now finish fifth in the Premier League, it means sixth place will get Champions League rather than Europa League (seventh gets Europa League regardless and eighth Conference League).
This brings Brighton into Champions League contention if sixth place qualifies for that competition. Brighton would end up sixth if they win at home to Man U AND Bournemouth lose at Forest.
For sixth place to get Champions League it needs now on Sunday to have Liverpool win at home to Brentford AND (ironically) Aston Villa to lose at Manchester City.
Europa League and Conference League
So whilst Bournemouth are guaranteed to get either Champions League or Europa League, four other clubs can get Europa League, Conference League or nothing.
These clubs are Brighton, Chelsea, Brentford and Sunderland.
Sunderland would get Europa League if they beat Chelsea AND Brentford fail to win at Liverpool AND Brighton lose at home to Man U.
Sunderland are guaranteed at least Conference League if they beat Chelsea AND Brentford lose at Liverpool. Sunderland’s poor goal difference means that a draw can’t give them European football.
In happier news, the Mackems can still finish as low as 12th if they lose to Chelsea AND Everton win at Tottenham AND there is a winner in the Fulham v Newcastle United match.
These are the ten matches in the last round of Premier League games with all of them kicking off at 4pm on Sunday.
Brighton v Man U
Burnley v Wolves
Palace v Arsenal
Fulham v Newcastle United
Liverpool v Brentford
Man City v Villa
Forest v Bournemouth
Sunderland v Chelsea
Tottenham v Everton
West Ham v Leeds
Relegation
The fight for rock bottom will be played out at Turf Moor. If Wolves win then they will swap places with Burnley.
The huge goal difference advantage that Tottenham have over them, means that West Ham can realistically only stay up if they win against Leeds AND Spurs lose at home to Everton. At least Chelsea’s win on Tuesday night has kept the Hammers’ hopes alive to the final day.
As for Newcastle United?
For Newcastle United the European dream is over due to Chelsea winning on Tuesday night. There again, the only possibility that had remained was a slight chance of Conference League qualification. Which at least for me provided a quandary of whether that competition is really worth getting into when balanced on how so much travel and so many extra matches might impact United’s domestic hopes next season.
So this Newcastle United season will now end with Eddie Howe’s team anywhere between 9th and 14th. A win at Fulham would guarantee at least top eleven and then finishing top half (9th or 10th) would need Sunderland failing to beat Chelsea and/or Brentford losing at Liverpool (and Newcastle turning around a three goal GD).