Why Tottenham's hopes of Champions League qualification could be given huge boost this week

The Premier League's European teams have a crucial week ahead as they fight for England's fifth spot in the newly expanded Champions League. Thanks to UEFA changes, the Champions League will grow to 36 teams and adopt a «Swiss model» league system from next season.

Two additional spots are reserved for the top two performing nations across all three UEFA competitions in the current campaign. As the current last 16 stage of the Champions League finishes, and with parallel stages in the Europa League and Conference League, England stands third in the table, just behind Italy and Germany.

But now, instead of just Manchester City and Arsenal participating post-Christmas, all six remaining Premier League teams will play this month. When the quarter-finalists are confirmed, it will be much clearer if England is going to secure an extra spot, or whether the battle for the normal top four positions will intensify even further.

Manchester City will spearhead the English effort, completing their last 16 tie against Copenhagen following their initial 3-1 win in Denmark, whilst Arsenal's home leg against Porto looms next week. However, Liverpool, West Ham, Brighton and Aston Villa all have games on Thursday, creating opportunities to catapult England into the coefficient table's top two — and boost Tottenham's chances of Champions League qualification in the process.

It's even possible for as many as seven Premier League teams to qualify for the Champions League in a querk opened up by Liverpool beating Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final last month, although that's an extremely unlikely circumstance.

Every victory in the competition earns two points, while a draw gets one point. There are also extra points for reaching certain stages of