Race to Europe and the battle to survive come down to the final day

The race for Europe is heading for a thrilling finale, with nine teams battling for four remaining places in three European competitions.

Here, we explain the state of play and look at what's at stake ahead of the final day of the Premier League season on Sunday.

Champions League spots

Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Aston Villa are guaranteed a top-five finish and will all play in the Uefa Champions League - Europe's elite club competition - next season.

Usually, only the teams who finish from first to fourth in the Premier League table qualify for the Champions League. But this season, the Premier League will earn a fifth Champions League spot - as it did last season for the first time.

This is because England (ie the Premier League) will again claim one of two European Performance Spots (EPS) available through Uefa’s coefficient table, which measures how clubs from each country perform as a collective across European competitions.

Villa have actually qualified for the Champions League through two different routes - first through their league position and also by winning the Uefa Europa League on Wednesday. The knock-on effect is that the SIXTH-placed Premier League team could get into the Champions League (more on this below).

Liverpool look set to take the fifth Champions League spot, sitting three points ahead of sixth-placed AFC Bournemouth - who only have three points to play for - and six goals ahead on goal difference. Liverpool host Brentford on the final day, while Bournemouth visit Nottingham Forest.

Even if Bournemouth miss out on a top-five finish, they are guaranteed a top-seven place - with the top eight teams qualifying for Europe - so they will play in Europe next season for the first time in their 127-year history. They have secured at least a place in the Uefa Europa League - Europe's second-tier club competition.

Sixth-placed team could be upgraded to Champions League spot

As it stands the sixth-placed team, which is currently Bournemouth but could be Brighton & Hove Albion or Liverpool, will qualify for the Europa League.

However, the sixth-placed team would be upgraded to a Champions League spot if Aston Villa drop below Liverpool into fifth place in the final table on Sunday. This is because, as Europa League winners, Villa wouldn't need the European Performance Spot that is awarded to the fifth-placed team, so it would drop down to sixth.

Thrilling battle for final two European places

The teams who finish seventh and eighth will qualify for the Europa League and Uefa Conference League respectively and all of the clubs down to 13th place are still in contention for one of those spots.

The race is so close that Chelsea jumped three places into eighth place on Tuesday by beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1.

Uefa Europa League

Two Europa League places are awarded to English clubs.

One of them is set to go to the Premier League's sixth-placed team (with the caveat that sixth place would be upgraded to a Champions League spot if Villa finish fifth, as discussed above).

The other is initially given to the FA Cup winners but Man City have won that competition and don't need the Europa League place (because they have qualified for the Champions League instead), so the Europa League spot will instead go to the team finishing seventh.

Crystal Palace, who are 15th, would also qualify for the Europa League as Uefa Conference League winners if they beat Rayo Vallecano in the final on 27 May.

Uefa Conference League

The team who finish eighth will qualify for the Uefa Conference League.

The Conference League place is initially awarded to the EFL Cup winners. But, just like the situation above with the FA Cup, Man City don't need the Conference League spot they earned for winning the EFL Cup, because they have qualified for the Champions League instead.

The Conference League place will therefore go to the highest-ranked team in the Premier League who have not already qualified for Uefa competitions.

With the top five teams qualifying for the Champions League, and the sixth and seventh-placed teams currently due to get a Europa League spot, the eighth-placed team will get the Conference League place.

Relegation battle: Why more points than usual are needed for safety

We have rarely seen a Premier League relegation fight like the one between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.

Whichever of the London clubs drops into the Championship is likely to do so with the most points of any relegated team since 2015/16, when Newcastle United went down with a tally of 37.

West Ham currently occupy 18th place, the final relegation spot and have 36 points from their 37 matches. Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers have already had their relegation confirmed.

Spurs are two points and one place above their relegation rivals, after losing their penultimate match 2-1 at Chelsea on Tuesday. A win there would have made them mathematically safe.

In most Premier League seasons, both Spurs and West Ham would be breathing easy by now with their respective points tallies of 38 and 36.

Since the Premier League was reduced from 22 to 20 teams in 1995/96, the average points tally for the team finishing in 17th place, safe from relegation, is 34.5.

The number of points clubs should aim for in order to stay in the Premier League - "the magic number" - is often said to be 40. But this tally has only been needed in one of the 30 seasons since 1995/96 - in 2010/11, when Wolves stayed up with 40 and Birmingham City went down with 39.

The club who currently hold that record in a 38-match season are West Ham. They were relegated from the Premier League after finishing with 42 points in 2002/03.

That season, the Hammers lost only one of their last 11 games and earned more points in their last eight than any other relegated team in Premier League history (15).

The next-highest points tally for a relegated team is 40, recorded by Sunderland in 1996/97 and Bolton Wanderers in 1997/98.

The quality of this season’s relegation fight is in sharp contrast to last year, when Leicester City went down in 18th place with only 25 points - 11 points fewer than West Ham have now in 18th place, with one match still to play.

Leicester were 13 points adrift of safety, with Spurs occupying 17th place - as they do currently.

The Foxes were the third team in five years to finish 18th with fewer than 30 points, following Luton Town with 26 in 2023/24 and Fulham with 28 in 2020/21.

The two teams who are fighting to avoid filling the final relegation place have been in contrasting form recently.

West Ham have been beaten in three consecutive matches since their last win, 2-1 against Everton on 25 April. Sunday's 3-1 loss at Newcastle for Nuno Espirito Santo's team followed their 1-0 home defeat to league leaders Arsenal and 3-0 reverse at Brentford.

Spurs' four-match unbeaten run came to an end against Chelsea. Prior to that defeat, they had drawn twice at home, to Brighton & Hove Albion and Leeds, either side of back-to-back away victories over Midlands clubs Wolves and Aston Villa.

Roberto De Zerbi's side have therefore picked up eight of the last 15 points they were playing for, while West Ham have collected only four points in the same period.