Arsenal are set to earn more money from the Premier League than Chelsea this season, despite finishing seven points behind them in the table.

The Premier League revealed the 2017/18 figures for prize money on Thursday, with Arsenal set to bring in just over £142m for the campaign. That figure is made up of five different payments, so let’s take a look at each of them.

First, there’s the ‘Equal Share’ payment. That one is pretty self-explanatory, as all 20 teams receive the same amount of money from it. This year, that was £34,812,558. As well as that, there’s a ‘Central Commercial’ payment of £4,838,892, for the commercial revenue the Premier League brings in, which is also split equally between every club.

The only other equally-shared payment is for ‘International TV’. Again, this one is self-explanatory, and comes to £40,771,108 per club.

The final two payments are different for each individual club. There’s the ‘Merit Payment’, which is based on the position you finish in the league. Arsenal finished sixth, so they earned £28,969,020.

That’s more than anyone below them (down to West Brom with just under £2m) and less than anyone above them (up to Manchester City with just under £39m).

Finally there’s the ‘Facility Fees’ payment, which is based on how many of your matches were televised in the UK. For Arsenal that was 28, meaning they earned £32,650,495.

By comparison, Chelsea only had 26 matches on TV, so they earned less. The difference was enough to offset the Blues’ higher league finish, and leave them slightly below Arsenal overall on £141.7m.

Top six by total payment in 2017/18

  1. Manchester City – £149.4m
  2. Manchester United – £149.8m
  3. Tottenham Hotspur – £144.4m
  4. Liverpool – £145.9m
  5. Chelsea – £141.7m
  6. Arsenal – £142m

It seems bizarre that Manchester United will earn more than City despite finishing so far behind in second, but that’s the way the current system works.

Feel for Burnley, who will only net £119.8m, more than £20m below Arsenal and almost £10m below Everton in eighth (£128m). Clearly their impressive campaign wasn’t enough to make Sky and BT want to televise more of their matches.