Premier League official announcement Newcastle, Aston Villa & West Ham will love - Spurs won’t

Next season, eight English sides will compete in European competitions. Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United and Newcastle United make up the top four sides competing in the 2023-24 Champions League group stage.

Fifth place Liverpool and sixth placed Brighton & Hove Albion will be joined in next season’s Europa League by West Ham United. The Hammers finished 14th in the Premier League but qualified for the competition following their Europa Conference League win.

Aston Villa complete the list of eight Premier League sides competing in Europe next season after qualifying for the Conference League with a seventh placed finish.

And the Premier League’s official Twitter account marked the accomplishment with a graphic showing all eight clubs with the caption: “Eight #PL teams will compete in European competitions next season.”

It’s the first time eight English clubs have qualified for Europe in the same season since the 2010-11 season. That season saw the traditional four teams qualify for the Champions League while four also competed in the Europa League following Birmingham City’s League Cup win, Stoke City’s FA Cup final appearance and Fulham’s UEFA fair play ranking.

These days, none of those methods would grant Europa League qualification with the League Cup winners entering the Conference League instead while now only the FA Cup winners earn a Europa League place. If the winners have already qualified for Europe based on league position, the Europa League place drops to the highest ranked Premier League side who hadn’t already qualified.

UEFA fair play was also scrapped at the end of the 2015-16 season.

Next season will be West Ham’s third consecutive European campaign while Brighton prepare to compete in Europe for the first time. It will be Newcastle’s first time in the Champions League group stage since the 2002-03 campaign and Villa’s first time back in Europe since 2011-12.

It also marks only the second occasion since 2003 that Chelsea have not featured in European competition, the other being the 2016-17 campaign. Tottenham Hotspur have also missed out on qualifying for Europe for the first time since the 2008-09 season.