This is the first Champions League season to feature six clubs from one nation and history will be made if all six of England’s representatives go through.
Back in 2017, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham all progressed, making England the first country to have five teams in the knockouts of the competition.
However just two of those sides – Liverpool and Manchester City – got beyond the last 16, while the Reds went all the way to final after knocking City out in the quarter-finals.
In the final, Liverpool were beaten by Real Madrid.
According to Opta’s predictions, Arsenal have a 99.8% chance of progressing to the knockouts, with Manchester City on 97.4% and Liverpool on 95.5%.
However, the predictions model is a little less confident over the automatic progress of the other three sides with Newcastle on 82%, Chelsea on 80.8% and Tottenham on 72%.
Former Liverpool midfielder Stephen Warnock told BBC Sport: “I’d say at the moment it is [significant what English teams are doing], but it doesn’t matter what goes on at the moment because we saw what happened last year, when Liverpool were dominating and finished top of the league stage – and then they were suddenly knocked out by PSG who had been rubbish up until then.
“So I just don’t see at the moment, unless you get knocked out, what effect it is going to have and it does not mean the English teams are going to get through the knockout stages because it all depends on the draw, and how you are set up later in the competition.”
