Five of six English Premier League teams competing in the UEFA Champions League 2025-2026 campaign have qualified to the round of 16 stage of the competition automatically.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspurs finished among the top eight spots to progress to the next stage of the competition following the conclusion of the preliminary round of games.
Newcastle United is the only EPL team that failed to qualify automatically to the next round and would have to win its playoff tie against a yet to be determined opponent to make further progress in the tournament.
Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham ranked first, third and fourth in the standings respectively while Chelsea ranked sixth and Man City ranked eighth.
Mikel Arteta’s ended the group stage with the best record as the Gunners won all eight games including beating Kairat Almaty 3-2 in the final round of games.
Chelsea beat Napoli and former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte 3-2 in Italy while Man City grabbed a 2-0 win over Galatasaray to clinch the final automatic qualification spot.
Champions League top eight teams
Arsenal
Bayern Munich
Liverpool
Tottenham Hotspur
Barcelona
Chelsea
Sporting CP
Manchester City#CitiSports pic.twitter.com/8zIo4g9DmN— Citi Sports (@CitiSportsGHA) January 28, 2026
