Do you have a feeling that the Europa League finals in the 25-26 season may also be a civil war in the Premier League?

Compared with the Champions League draw that attracted worldwide attention, the Europa League draw seemed to have been completed quietly. Indeed, the Europa League has long been a second-tier European competition, because most of the top clubs will play in the Champions League, while the Europa League seems to be of insufficient quality.

In my impression, the Europa League in the past few years has only been in the 2023-24 season, and it has a bit of a star flavor, because the two giants Liverpool and AC Milan are among them. Then there was Bayer Leverkusen, who was in hot form at the time, which increased the attention of the Europa League. Last season, there were fewer top teams in the Europa League, and this season there are even fewer top clubs. If you look through the list of participants, you really can't find any top teams. This season, the Europa League can only rely on a few strong second-tier teams from the five major leagues to support its appearance. Since there is no top team, let's reduce the dimensionality and find the top team among the second tier. There is a feeling that although the Europa League finals of the 25-26 season have not yet started, the final finals may still be a civil war in the Premier League. This starts from last season. Manchester United and Tottenham, brothers in the Premier League, may have thought of going together in the middle of the season, that is, giving up the league and betting heavily on the Europa League. How bad their performance in the Premier League is, how good their performance in the Europa League is. In the end, the two teams met in the final, and Tottenham won 1:0. Manchester United's gamble failed and they lost everything. Manchester United and Tottenham are considered the down-and-out aristocrats in the Big 6, or in other words, they are about to be kicked out by the Big 6. But such a team, in the Europa League, once they get serious, they actually have such strong combat effectiveness and aggressiveness. This is the energy tempered by the involution environment of the Premier League.

So when comparing the second-tier teams in the five major leagues, or the leading teams in the second group, the Premier League is definitely dominant. For example, last season Manchester United eliminated Lyon and Athletic Bilbao. Yes, although the Red Devils can't beat PSG, the strongest team in Ligue 1, or Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Atletico Madrid, the strongest player in La Liga, they can still do it against Lyon and Bibao. Of course, this is limited to Lyon today. In fact, it is not difficult for you to find two teams that stand out among the top 36 of the Europa League - Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. If the schedule is coincidental and the knockout divisions are reasonable, then it is not ruled out that the two teams will meet in the final. Aston Villa's strength has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years. In fact, they came to play in the Europa League, which is a bit downgraded. After all, they were still playing in the Champions League last season and even defeated Paris Saint-Germain. Although Nottingham Forest should have played in the UEFA Europa League, based on their performance in the Premier League last season, they are definitely qualified to play in the UEFA Europa League. They were ranked third last season and were on track to qualify for the Champions League. It’s just that the chain started to fall off in the second half. In fact, it’s not just this season. If the Premier League continues to be in this involution, in the future, the Europa League finals will be reserved by Premier League teams, and it may even become the norm. Nowadays, the scale of the big6 is increasingly unable to summarize and describe the intensity of competition in the Premier League. Even Brighton, Brentford, Fulham, and Bournemouth have begun to rise. They all currently have the ability to impact the European war places. Brighton has also been shortlisted for the Europa League before. Therefore, in the next few years, it is not ruled out that these teams will enter the Europa League, UEFA Champions League, and even the Champions League. Of course, if Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest really meet in the Europa League final, it is basically certain that their Premier League results this season will not be better. After all, their multi-line combat capabilities and lineup thickness cannot be compared with Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, and Arsenal. By the way, from a historical perspective, if Villa and Forest play in the Europa League final, the standards are really not low. Don't forget, they are all former Champions League champions.