Four spots, 10 teams - how Champions League race is gearing up

Marc Cucurella, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ollie Watkins all scored winning goals for their clubs at the weekend

Chelsea moved into the top four as the race for European football continued on Sunday.

The Blues edged to a 1-0 win over struggling Leicester after Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Aston Villa all boosted their hopes on a dramatic Saturday.

Forest tightened their grip on third place with a hard-fought 1-0 victory against fellow Champions League hopefuls Manchester City.

Brighton came from behind to beat Fulham at the Amex Stadium, dealing a blow to the Cottagers' own European dreams.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa have thrown their hat back in the ring with a narrow victory at Brentford.

Those three wins have further shuffled the chasing pack as the competition for a place in one of the three European competitions on offer continues to heat up.

BBC Sport looks at who stands where in the race to secure Champions League football - and why England may have a fifth spot to fill next season.

How does the Premier League table stand?

Forest were the big winners on Saturday as they attempt to return to Europe's top table for the first time since 1980-81.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side scored through Callum Hudson-Odoi in the 83rd minute to pull four points clear of Manchester City.

On Sunday, Chelsea sent City down to fifth spot thanks to Marc Cucurella's second-half effort, while Arsenal - a distant second to league leaders Liverpool - needed Declan Rice to equalise to secure a point at Manchester United.

Sixth-placed Brighton are drawing ever closer to the top four after making it four wins on the bounce in the league, with Joao Pedro's stoppage-time penalty delivering all three points.

The Seagulls move up to sixth and are only a point behind Manchester City, with the two clubs set to meet in the league on 15 March.

Aston Villa's return to winning ways at Brentford, courtesy of a strike from Ollie Watkins, saw them move above Fulham, Bournemouth and Newcastle to climb from 10th to seventh.

Unai Emery's men are only a point behind Brighton as they look for a third successive campaign in Europe.

Bournemouth and Newcastle are eighth and ninth respectively, with the Magpies having at least one game in hand on all of the teams above them.

Which positions guarantee a European spot?

The standard positions that earn European places in the Premier League are:

Champions League: Top four

Europa League: Fifth

A second Europa League spot is awarded to the FA Cup winners, and the Carabao Cup winners earn a Europa Conference League play-off spot.

If the FA Cup winners secure European qualification by other means, then the sixth-placed team in the Premier League takes that spot.

Similarly, if the EFL Cup winners earn a European place by another route, then England's Conference League place passes on to the sixth-placed team.

And if both domestic cup winners gain European spots by other means, then the Europa League place goes to the team in sixth, and the Conference League spot to the side in seventh.

How do countries earn an extra Champions League spot?

Each country's league earns a coefficient ranking based on how their teams perform in Uefa's three men's club competitions: the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League.

Coefficient points are earned through match results - two for a win and one for a draw.

The points earned by clubs from the same domestic league are added up and divided by the number of clubs the league has in Europe.

For example, if the Premier League had 100 points, that would be split by the number of teams playing in Europe (seven), giving England a coefficient of 14.28.

This season, bonus points are available to clubs playing in the Champions League, which is advantageous to leagues with more clubs competing in it, such as Germany and Italy.

Countries that finish in the coefficient table's top two earn an additional Champions League spot for the following season.

Those spots are awarded to the teams who finish in the first position below the standard Champions League allocation in those leagues.

In the Premier League, the top four clubs automatically qualify for the Champions League via league position, so any additional place would go to the team in fifth.

Additional spots for the 2024-25 Champions League were given to Bologna and Borussia Dortmund, who finished fifth in Serie A and the Bundesliga respectively.

Who is leading the coefficient table? Could England get a fifth Champions League spot?

At present, the Premier League is in the driving seat, with six of its seven teams reaching the last 16 across all three Uefa competitions.

Manchester City's defeat by Real Madrid is the only blot on the landscape for England, with Spain in third place for now.

However, Italy, who are second, endured a dismal time in February with AC Milan, Atalanta and Juventus all losing in the Champions League knockout play-off round - limiting Serie A's opportunity to gather more points.

Germany's prospects appear difficult with Bayern Munich and Dortmund in the same half of the Champions League draw.

Likewise France. Paris St-Germain and Lille are the representatives remaining in the Champions League, with Monaco and Brest exiting at the play-off stage. Lyon, in the Europa League, are the only other French side left in European competition.

Portugal has two of its five teams remaining but lost Sporting and Porto in the Champions League and Europa League play-offs.

What about the Europa League winners?

England could end up with six Champions League teams next season.

The winners of the Europa League are also granted a Champions League slot.

Under previous rules, any single league could only have a maximum of five clubs in the Champions League. However, that rule has been scrapped.

This season, any team who win the Europa League but do not qualify for the Champions League via their domestic league position will go into the Champions League.

This raises the possibility of Manchester United or Tottenham, both through to the knockout stage of the Europa League but languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League, qualifying for the Champions League alongside the top four or five.

'Premier League can't take anything for granted' - analysis

By the time Uefa's three club competitions reached their quarter-final phase last season, the Premier League was well placed to claim one of the two coveted European performance slots.

But the elimination of Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and West Ham shredded those hopes, with Aston Villa's exit in the semi-finals of the Conference League confirming the failure as Italy and Germany benefited.

The speedy collapse of those hopes means no-one will take anything for granted this time around.

However, England is in an even stronger position this season. It would now take a complete capitulation for the Premier League's fifth-placed team not to qualify for next season's tournament.