English clubs are again struggling in the Champions League this season and the top flight can no longer be described as the best league in the world.
The self-proclaimed title of the ‘best league in the world’ has quietly faded from the Premier League lexicon over the last few years.
After all, it would be a hard label to justify following the all-Spanish Champions League final last season and the all-German final for Europe’s top prize in 2013.
Instead, we choose to talk to English football’s competitiveness and entertainment factor rather than its quality. That’s because the days of the Premier League’s dominance in Europe are long gone.
Between 2005 and 2009, England produced finalists every year in the Champions League. Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United all reached the final hurdle and twice Premier League sides conquered Europe.
English clubs remained competitive for a few more years, with United reaching the final in 2011 and Chelsea winning the Champions League in 2012.
Since though, only one team – Chelsea last season – has even made it as far as the semi-finals of the competition.
The drop in quality of English teams has been most marked in Manchester City’s performances. Having qualified from their group just once in three attempts, the Premier League champions are again staring down the barrel of an early exit.
City are supposed to represent the best we have to offer, yet they have just two points from their first three games in their latest Champions League campaign and manager Manuel Pellegrini has acknowledged that they need to win all of their remaining games, starting at home to CSKA Moscow on Wednesday.
Arsenal’s defeat away at Dortmund highlighted the Gunners’ usual weaknesses against high-quality European opposition and their Champions League campaigns have been played on repeat in recent seasons. We know how it ends – Arsene Wenger’s team will be knocked out early in the knockout stages as soon as they come up against a leading side.
Liverpool, back in the Champions League for the first time since the 2009-10 season, are fighting to make sure their return is not short-lived. With just three points from their first three matches and an away fixture at Real Madrid next, their chances are likely to hinge on their final group match at home against Basel in December.
Chelsea are the only side that have not struggled so far, and last season’s semi-finalists will fancy their chances of going far in the competition again - although winning the Premier League has become the priority for Jose Mourinho.
Even then, the Blues – so dominant domestically in the early part of the season – could only manage a draw at home with a struggling Schalke side in their Group G opener.
The Premier League simply isn’t that strong anymore. The World Cup winners and Champions League winners – the best players on the planet – are based in Spain or Germany. The last two players of the year in England are now playing for Real Madrid and Barcelona.
In 2009, the Premier League accounted for three of the four Champions League semi-finalists; but it will be a long time before that happens again.
While five Premier League players are on this year’s 23-man Ballon D’Or shortlist, three of them – Angel Di Maria, Diego Costa and Thibaut Courtois – are there because of their achievements with Spanish clubs last season.
When the Champions League was first introduced in 1992, English clubs were seen as complete no-hopers with no chance of winning the competition for several years.
The financial muscle of the Premier League means that won’t happen again. But the decline on the big stage is there for all to see.
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