The biggest losers from the mid-week Champions League action might not have been Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool or even Tottenham after all. Instead, it could prove to be Manchester United who are left ruing the poor performances of English clubs the most.

Across six matches involving English teams, zero mustered up a win of any kind. In the other games that didn’t end up as defeats, Newcastle drew valiantly with Barcelona, while Arsenal huffed and puffed during a 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen.

Based on this week’s showings, there’s a very real chance that no English sides will be left in Europe’s most premier competition by this time in seven days. If that does prove to be the case, it would represent a nightmare scenario for United.

That’s because United would’ve been relying on their Premier League rivals progressing far in the Champions League as insurance, should they finish outside the immediate four qualification spots. England had been dominating the UEFA coefficient standings heading into the knockout stage, in no small part due to nine clubs negotiating the league phase and qualifying for the last-16 in the Champions, Europa and Conference League.

But if as many as four clubs – across all three competitions – crash out next week, it could represent a damaging blow, with the Italian, Spanish and German top flights lurking just behind. As it stands at the end of play on Wednesday, the standings read:

The good news for United is that the top two nations will be granted an extra Champions League spot, meaning it would most likely need a late surge from the German or Italian teams to knock England out of the top two. The bad news is that what looked like a previously unassailable spot at the top of the standings is a little shakier for the English teams right now.

It ramps up the pressure to finish inside the top four, as they don’t want to be relying on factors out of their control to get back into the Champions League. Three points currently separate United in third to Chelsea in fifth, meaning it’s likely to be a tight race right until the end.