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After a dramatic win at Brentford on Saturday ensured Liverpool's Premier League title push got back on track, the Reds can go a long way to securing top spot in another league tonight.

Arne Slot's side have won six from six so far in the Champions League and are sitting pretty at the top of the standings.

They have already claimed memorable wins over Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid at home in this season's competition and face Lille at Anfield tonight knowing a draw would guarantee them a top eight place.

Win and they are assured of a top two berth and be rewarded by playing one of the two lowest-ranked qualifiers in the last 16.

Lille will be no pushovers, though. They've also beaten Real Madrid in this league stage and are currently eighth, level on points with Arsenal in third, after four wins, a draw and a defeat so far.

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Unai Emery's Aston Villa have made a strong start to 2025 domestically and victory at RB Leipzig before Christmas means they're in a good spot in the Champions League as well.

A famous win over Bayern Munich has been the highlight of their European campaign so far and they go into the last two games of the league phase fifth on 13 points.

But with just three points separating 17 teams, it could all change before the knockout places are finalised.

Villa are two points off Barcelona in second, level on points with third-placed Arsenal but only three ahead of Club Brugge in 19th.

Tonight's opponents Monaco are also among the teams on 10 points, currently sitting 16th, having dropped off with defeats in their past two games.

Both sides will be hopeful of making the top eight and know a good result tonight will go a long way to them achieving that goal.

Colin, Kent: Aston Villa are unhappy with the timing of West Ham's bid for Jhon Duran?? It's called the January transfer window, not the December or February window.

Given this is the first edition of the new format, it remains to be seen exactly how many points will be required to achieve a top-eight finish, or avoid elimination from the competition.

Before this season's competition, Opta calculated each team's projected points tallies and likelihood of progressing based on 50,000 simulations of the league phase.

They found that 16 points - potentially five wins and one draw from eight matches - would give a 98% chance of finishing in the top eight.

After gameweek five, Opta recalculated and said 16 points would now give teams an 87% chance of a top-eight finish.

Meanwhile, achieving 10 points - three wins and one draw, for example - would give teams a 94% chance of securing a place in the top 24.

However, any team collecting fewer than eight points can expect their involvement in European competition this season to come to an end.

Liverpool are the only team to win all their Champions League games so far and need just a point against Lille tonight to finish in the top eight.

Arsenal and Aston Villa are both inside the top eight and while a win in this penultimate round of fixtures would not mathematically confirm their qualification for the knockout phase, it would put them in a strong position to progress directly to the last 16.

Manchester City are 22nd in the table and only one point above the elimination places. Paris St-Germain, their opponents on Wednesday, occupy the final elimination place at present.

City cannot be eliminated if they lose in Paris as they could still save themselves in the final match round against Club Brugge next week. However, they will secure a play-off if they win and Stuttgart lose against Slovan Bratislava this evening.

Celtic are one place and one point above Manchester City. They face Young Boys who are yet to pick up a single point. A win would almost certainly mean they avoid the elimination places.

Here is the bottom half...

The table is so big that we have to split it into two graphics.

Here is the top half...

This the key question as so much still seems to be up in the air.

What we do know is that those finishing in the top eight automatically progress to the last 16, where they will be seeded.

They will await the winners of eight two-legged knockout play-off ties featuring the clubs that finish ninth to 24th in the league phase.

Those finishing between ninth and 16th will be seeded and face a team placed 17th to 24th, with the advantage of playing the second leg at home.

The clubs 25th or lower will be eliminated and will not gain entry in to the Europa League.

Simon Stone
BBC Sport's chief football news reporter

It has not been made clear why Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola opted to keep all his defenders - and even the players who could be defenders - out of the open section of training today.

Clearly, most of them will travel to France later for the Champions League encounter with PSG.

The feeling is there might be an injury Guardiola wants to keep quiet about and the best way to do that is to keep everyone away from the cameras - and presumably ensure everyone is on the plane to Paris.

I do remember every so often, Sir Alex Ferguson would keep someone back to make it appear they were injured, only for them to miraculously be named in the starting line-up the following day.

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Manchester City were in training earlier today, while Pep Guardiola will be holding his news conference this evening, once the team has arrived in Paris for Wednesday's crunch clash against PSG...

Alex Howell
BBC football news reporter at Arsenal's training ground

Mikel Arteta has been known to try alternative methods to get his ideas across to his players.

He used speakers to recreate the Anfield atmosphere at the training ground and reportedly hired pickpockets to keep his players aware.

In the open part of today’s session he played music as the team warmed up.

The Arsenal manager will be speaking shortly so it’s definitely something to ask him about.

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OK, we have less than an hour before Mikel Arteta's news conference so let's take a deep dive back into the Champions League as we build up to tonight's return of Europe's top-tier cup competition.

Remember, Aston Villa are in action in Monaco from 17:45 GMT, while leaders Liverpool host Lille at 20:00.

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Correct, Aston Villa fielded that team against Coventry in February, 1999. In the first six-and-a-half years of the Premier League there were 52 all-English starting XIs, but none in the 26 years since then.

Right, spoiler alert, we have some correct answers coming up to that question about the last all-English starting XI in the Premier League...

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Coming back to that interview with sport scientist Anton McElhone, who worked with Ange Postecoglou at Celtic.

He explained that Tottenham’s current injury problems were mirrored at Celtic before Postecoglou managed to get a squad in place that could cope with the rigours of his style of play.

“At Celtic after six months Postecoglou could rotate the front five at 60 or 65 minutes to keep the freshness for the 60-game season," said McElhone.

"We had a three-month period of sustaining injuries every week, mostly hamstring injuries. We had to get to the winter break to reset.

"As the players adapted to the demands of the system, the game fluctuation changed rather than that constant 'basketball' up and down the pitch, the team was able to control one half of the pitch more. So that stopped the centre-backs having to run in behind as often.

"As the game model and philosophy settled, that reduced injuries.

"At the moment, that is the problem at Tottenham. He has not got the squad.”

Keegan's Newcastle were not the last team to field an all-English starting XI, but that's not to say they didn't do it.

Arsenal

While there is no sign of William Saliba, there is some good news on the defensive front for the Gunners.

Riccardo Calafiori is out there with the group after missing recent games against Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester United.

Mikel Arteta said the Italian wasn't too far off a return and it certainly seems that way. Whether he is fit enough to start tomorrow night is a different matter, of course.

Ethan Nwaneri training will be a boost for them too. He hasn't featured since scoring in their draw with Brighton at the start of their month.

Alex Howell
BBC football news reporter at Arsenal's training ground

Ethan Nwaneri and Riccardo Calafiori in training for Arsenal. 15-year-old Max Dowman also with the first team. No William Saliba, Takehiro Tomiyasu or Ben White.

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