The intriguing possibility of Brentford, Bournemouth or Brighton playing in next season’s Champions League.
Indeed, it has arguably gone now from possibility to probability of this becoming reality.
Thursday night saw the Europa League second legs played out.
Freiburg won 3-1 at home and that made it a 4-3 aggregate victory against Sporting Braga.
More importantly, Aston Villa smashed Nottingham Forest 4-0 at Villa Park for a 4-1 aggregate victory.
Unai Emery and his side progressing was key to the possibility/probability of Brentford, Bournemouth or Brighton playing in next season’s Champions League.
Aston Villa are huge favourites to win in that Europa League final against the Bundesliga side.
If that happens AND Aston Villa finish fifth in the Premier League, then whoever finishes sixth in the Premier League will be playing Champions League football next season.
Premier League table as at Friday 8 May 2026
With three rounds of matches to go, it looks odds on that it will be Bournemouth, Brentford or Brighton that end up in sixth spot. For sixth spot to get Champions League football, it also needs Liverpool to stay ahead of Aston Villa.
These are the remaining Premier League games for the teams involved:
Liverpool – Chelsea home (9 May), Villa away (15 May), Brentford home (24 May)
Aston Villa – Burnley away (10 May), Liverpool home (15 May), Man City away (24 May)
Bournemouth – Fulham away (9 May), Man City home (19 May), Forest away (24 May)
Brentford – Man City away (9 May), Palace home (17 May), Liverpool away (24 May)
Brighton – Wolves home (9 May), Leeds away (17 May), Man U home (24 May)
To add extra spice to the whole thing, Aston Villa play their Europa League final on Wednesday 20 May in Istanbul. So if indeed they do win that final and the Premier League fixtures in these next two rounds of Premier League matches also work out in favour of it. Then on the final day of the season you could have the likes of Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton all knowing that their results on May 24 will decide which of them gets to play Champions League football.
You also have the bizarre possibility that Brentford could end up needing to lose on the last day of the season to get Champions League football! It is only if Villa finish fifth that sixth place gets Champions League, assuming that Villa also win the Europa League. So Brentford could potentially need Liverpool to win on the final day of the season to finish above Aston Villa and thus give Champions League football to whichever team ends up sixth.
Very little is ever straightforward in football these days…