REVEALED: How Liverpool, Brighton and Co are saving the Premier League’s hopes for a fifth Champions League spot next season – after Man United and Newcastle finished bottom of their groups

The Premier League's hopes of securing an extra place in the Champions League next season received a much-needed boost after all four English teams in the Europa League and Conference League won their groups.

The English top flight suffered a major blow on Wednesday after Newcastle followed Manchester United by being dumped out of the group stage of the competition with just two sides left in the competition. The progress this season had a direct knock-on effect for next year.

The European competition format will change to a Swiss competition system from next season, as we say goodbye to the traditional group stage that we have become accustomed to over the years.

Instead of eight groups of four teams playing each other twice, 36 clubs – four additional teams – are each drawn against eight teams, four of which play at home and four away.

Of those four new teams, two will be assigned to the leagues that finish highest in the coefficient tables, which are based on the performance of teams in European competitions.

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England currently sit third in that standings, but the impressive showing of English sides in the Europa and Conference Leagues has done wonders for their Premier League hopes next season.

Italy led the race with 14.00 points, followed by Germany (13.64), England (13.63) and Spain (12.69), with these four leagues being the most likely contenders as they have the most to begin with have teams in Europe.

However, unlikely fifth-placed Czech Republic has overtaken the leaders, closing the gap on LaLiga to just 0.69 points after a strong run of results in the Europa League and Conference League.

Slavia and Sparta Prague both reached their groups, the former as winners, in the Europa League, with Viktoria Plzen storming their Conference League group.

This coefficient is a numerical value assigned to a division with the intention of quantifying its strength on the continent, determined by its competitive results.

For every win in a continental competition, two points are awarded to a team, one draw and of course no points for a defeat.

Bonus points are awarded for reaching certain stages; four for playing in the group stage, five for the last sixteen and one for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final in the Champions League.

For the Europa League it is four for winning the group, two for finishing second and one for reaching the knockouts, and in the Conference League it is two for topping the group, one for reaching finishing second and one from reaching the semi-finals and the final.

Each team's totals are added up and an average is taken at the end of the competition. Therefore, the leagues with the most teams have the best chance of securing a spot.

The fact that Liverpool, Brighton, West Ham and Aston Villa all won their groups gave the Premier League a much-needed boost with fourteen extra points.

England appeared to be falling behind Italy ahead of Thursday's round of fixtures, with the gap widening to 1.01 coefficient points, but that has now shrunk to 0.01 points against Germany, with Italy overtaking the Bundesliga into first place .

Fiorentina and Atalanta won their groups, with Roma coming in second place after Napoli, Inter Milan and Lazio all progressed through their Champions League groups.

As for Germany, Freiburg narrowly missed out on first place in the Europa League against West Ham, hence England's swing in the rankings, while Bayer Leverkusen cruised through their group and Frankfurt finished second.

Manchester City and Arsenal were the only two Premier League teams to reach the last 16 in the Champions League, where the most points value is available, which could damage English hopes in the long run.

As it stands, every Serie A team that entered European competitions this season is still in contention, although AC Milan will face a Europa League play-off to remain in that competition after dropping out of the Champions League .

That leaves six teams from the Premier League (of eight) and Bundesliga (of seven), while LaLiga has five teams of seven, but four sides won their Champions League groups, massively increasing their coefficient, while Villarreal did the same in the Europa League.

Paris Saint-Germain are the only French team left in the Champions League, with Lens in the Europa League play-offs, while Marseille, Toulouse and Rennes will also have to endure a play-off to get into the competition to stay. However, Lille did win their Conference League group, the only victory for French teams.