The Premier League’s European struggles continued with Tottenham and Liverpool suffering exits in the Europa League. Arsenal suffered a humiliating defeat at home to AS Monaco, so their chances of reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League are slim. Manchester City lost their first leg clash against Barcelona, while Chelsea were fortunate to come away with a draw in their first leg game. Everton were the only team to seal their place in the last-16 if the Europa League, and is caps what has been a miserable week for the English representatives in the European competitions.
The English Premier League is said to be the most competitive due to how any sides seem to take points off each other at the top of the table over the course of a season, but the Champions League and Europa League seems to always cause the sides to stumble up. A lot of the time it isn’t even to elite opposition. Liverpool would consider themselves a much strong outfit than Besiktas, but over two legs the Turkish club have seen past them, albeit via penalties. Tottenham had a tougher draw against Fiorentina, but the Italian Serie A side are fifth in their domestic league, so are they not just an Italian equivalent?
Why does England continue to fall short against the European sides in Europe? The Premier League has a good record of having a representative in the latter stages down the years, but the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, and Arsenal have continued to fall short in recent years, despite fighting for the domestic title through the course of a season. And the aforementioned have been outfoxed by much lesser teams on paper, and all three sides have had very experienced and successful managers in charge too.
With Arsenal and Manchester City having a tough task to win on the road against Monaco (3-1 agg) and Barcelona (2-1) at the very minimum to stand a chance of going through, their Champions League dream looks over for another season. And with Liverpool and Tottenham out of the competition, it means Chelsea (Champions League) and Everton (Europa League) could be the last two Premier League sides in Europe this season. For a league with so much money, and so much talent at the top level, it’s certainly a big disappointment to see lesser sides going further than the best team in the English top flight.
