The race for European places feels like the most exciting narrative left in this season's Premier League, with a fifth Champions League spot for English clubs all but guaranteed.

Nottingham Forest boosted their hopes of qualifying for Europe's top competition with a 1-0 victory over Manchester United at the City Ground on Tuesday.

Nuno Espirito Santo's sides remain third in the Premier League with an eight-point lead over fourth-placed Chelsea, who host Tottenham on Thursday, and a Champions League place appears to be in their grasp.

Data analysts Opta now have Forest at 82% to finish in the top four and more than 93% for a top five position, through their prediction models.

A brilliant run in the FA Cup has also contributed to Forest's stellar season as they booked their place in the semi-final, where they will face Manchester City, with victory over Brighton on Saturday.

BBC Radio 5 Live pundit and former Tottenham midfielder Andy Reid said Forest are in a "strong position" to qualify for next year's competition but that there is still a "long way to go".

As for the Forest camp, they're not getting ahead of themselves.

Captain Ryan Yates said: "We have got the FA Cup to focus on and we have got the league. We are at Villa Park Saturday and they're flying. We take each game as it comes."

Espirito Santo was even less interested in entertaining discussion of Forest achieving those dreams, saying: "Let's focus on the next one. It is day-by-day."

Manchester City, Newcastle, Brighton, Aston Villa and Bournemouth are all in action on Wednesday with just five points separating fourth to 10th place in the table.

Newcastle's Carabao Cup win has secured them a Conference League play-off spot - which would be bumped down to the next highest-ranked team in the Premier League who have not already qualified for Europe, if Newcastle qualify for the Europa League or Champions League.

That has started a conversation about how European spots could, in theory, reach as far down as 11th in the table.

In the fairly unlikely chance that that happens, this is how it could work:

Another six Premier League matches will take place on Wednesday and things could, and will probably, all change again.

There will be no change to the top three with Liverpool, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest clear of the chasing pack.

Just five points separate Chelsea in fourth place and Bournemouth in 10th and Enzo Maresca's side don't play until Thursday, when they take on Tottenham, which could allow Manchester City, Newcastle and Brighton all to leapfrog them in the table.

Both Newcastle and Brighton are locked on 47 points while City sit just ahead on 48 and victories in their respective matches - Newcastle face Brentford, Brighton host Aston Villa and City entertain Leicester - would move them all above Chelsea.

Brighton's match against Villa could prove pivotal to both teams' hopes of European football next season with Unai Emery's side pushing for a second consecutive Champions League campaign.

Bournemouth are without a win in four Premier League matches but victory against relegation-threatened Ipswich Town could see them creep into the top six.

Each country's league earns a coefficient ranking based on how their teams perform in Uefa's three men's European 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 places 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.