Are Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea just too good for the rest of Europe?
Last year, when three of the ‘Big Four’ from the Premier League safely negotiated their way to the semi-finals of the Champions League, the English press drove itself silly trying to get the country to pat itself on the back for the greatness of English football. Here were England’s finest conquering all before them – surely more proof that the Premier League was the best league in the world?
Hogwash. The Champions League is hardly an indicator of the quality of the domestic leagues (even though the level of competition in the Premier League is quite high this season) – it is simply an indicator of how well teams can adapt to playing tactical football in two-legged knockout rounds.
This year, as last year, people are waiting with baited breath to see if two English teams will be paired up against each other in the quarter finals. Last season they avoided each other till the semis, before logistics forced Chelsea and Liverpool to pair up in yet another cup encounter and England had only one representative in the final (3 years running, surely we’ll hear about 4 times, 4 times finalists from the English press by May?).
Will Arsenal meet Manchester United? Will Liverpool meet Chelsea? Does it mean anything?
The Last 8:
- Arsenal
- Barcelona
- Chelsea
- Fenerbahce
- Liverpool
- Manchester United
- Roma
- Schalke
The first thing you notice in this list is the lack of Italians and Spaniards – Inter will (probably) be knocked out by Liverpool, Milan are already out courtesy of Arsenal and with due respect to Roma, they will not *scare* the English teams. Sevilla and Real Madrid lost at home, which leaves a Messi-less and misfiring Barcelona to contend with. And again, with due respect, Fener and Schalke don’t have anyone shaking in their boots, although a quarter-final game between those two will produce one very interesting semi final 
There’s a good chance a Premier League will be contesting the Champions League final in May 2008 at Moscow. Maybe even two, if they can keep United and Arsenal apart long enough 
But does it say anything about the Premier League itself? Hardly.
Topics: Arsenal, Chelsea, English Premier League, Liverpool, Manchester United, UEFA Champions League
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Sorry… so what was your point again?
March 6th, 2008 @ 16:25ummm…and the fact that a couple of lucky wins ever in the competition doesnt exactly show our quality. Milan have done better in the last three cups that the premiership combined, ever.
maybe this year though…maybe. but probably Barca.
March 6th, 2008 @ 16:32Thanks for reiterating who the last 8 are likely to be once Liverpool’s game next week is over but I was expecting an article that discussed exactly what the title suggested. Maybe you should have called it “Who are the last 8 teams in the CL likely to be?”
March 6th, 2008 @ 16:34dont knock off inter yet
March 6th, 2008 @ 16:42Based on your compelling arguement, I’m going to plump for a Fenerbahce v Schalke final
March 6th, 2008 @ 16:42hey, roma are favorites in my eyes. really, its the only team i’ll accept 2 lose 2.( lfc fan) n inter r not out YET.
March 6th, 2008 @ 17:52The 4 PL teams will be glad if they draw against Roma. I don’t think barca are that good either.. Chelsea and Arsenal have the best chance of winning it.
March 6th, 2008 @ 18:02rob – that the ‘big 4′ are benefiting from circumstances and are not, in fact, significantly better than other teams. And that England’s dominance in the last 2 seasons (last one and the current one) is no indication that the Premier League is the best league in the world.
i need to speak slower…
March 6th, 2008 @ 18:22I think ‘yes’. I mean look at La Liga: Real Madird and Barcelona are losing a lot of points, playing badly and we saw what happened to Real on Wednesday. Arsenal and Man Utd on the other hand are playing brilliantly in the league, for the most part, and having some success in Europe as well.
March 6th, 2008 @ 19:14For all you…arsenal did not win milan by fluke….just because milan are better on paper…that dont meanthere better on the night…and as you can see winning 2-0 over AC was just a matter of us playin AC off the park
March 6th, 2008 @ 19:31The Way I see it is
Arsenal v Roma
Inter v Barca
Man u v Shalke
Chelsea V Fenerbache
Thats wat i want the draw to be like
March 6th, 2008 @ 19:35And your point is what?….The thing about sports articles is that everyone has an opinion about any given topic. The objective of writing an article is to convey some point, more specifically an interesting point that’s…how shall we say…news worthy?
March 6th, 2008 @ 19:57The EPL’s Big Four are not “too good” for the rest of Europe, but they are bloody strong. None of the remaining non-English clubs would want to meet any of the EPL’s Big Four.
Each of the EPL’s finest, are strong contenders for the European Crown this season. The greatest threat to them will come from amongst themselves. Would Arsenal really want to face United? Would Chelsea really want to face Liverpool? The Big Four have nothing to fear from the likes of Barcelona, Schalke, Fenerbache or Roma except perhaps their own over-confidence.
Properly approached, I would back each of the Big Four to overcome the European opposition left in this year’s competition.
March 6th, 2008 @ 20:53It is interesting that England’s big four routinely do reasonably well in the Champions League, but best of the rest in England tend to fail in the UEFA cup.
Once again this evening we have Tottenham losing at home to PSV, Everton going down 2-0 in Fiorentina and Bolton drawing at home to Sporting Lisbon.
England’s top four are as good as the rest of Europe, or better, but as for the rest of the Premier League….
March 6th, 2008 @ 22:17It would be naive of EPL fans to think that PSV are easy opponents – top of their league, experienced in Europe, etc etc.
Tottenham are, well, Tottenham. They like making things hard for themselves, and the players just don’t have that sort of experience. They’ll get better though.
March 7th, 2008 @ 04:42I think that this shows part of the problem some fans have with the EPL. The EPL table can usually be split into 3 (or 4) sub-tables: the top 2, the European place contenders, the mid-table obscure clubs, and the relegation battlers.
One of the reasons for this is the amount of money that the top clubs have, for one reason or another (a Russian, a cup win, etc). Because of this difference in funds, the Champions League clubs (who have more money than the Vatican) are more likely to be successful against their opponents than the UEFA Cup clubs (who probably have money equal to their opponents).
What you end up with is four teams in the quarter finals of the Champions League and four teams that have a little bit of difficulty in the UEFA Cup.
March 7th, 2008 @ 07:08Another thing to consider is that the Champions League teams are usually rather constant. They are consistently near the top four, and have seen Champions League competition before. Just look at what happened with Everton. No CL experience, and they crapped out in qualifying.
On the other hand, the UEFA Cup spots change more. And with that change comes the lack of experience once again.
I’m done now.
March 7th, 2008 @ 07:12Adding to what Liviu said, I have to point out that the qualifying and group stages for the Champions League are horrifically biased in favour of established CL teams. You get seeded based on how well you’ve done in the past 5 CLs, so Everton got a difficult draw against Villareal and got beaten. Then Villareal got a difficult group (but still beat Utd, the bastards). The group stage only exists to ‘weed out’ smaller teams that have less marketing power around the world, thus denying them the opportunity to become big, international teams/brands.
Mourinho pulled off a miracle with Porto, and every year makes something like that less likely to happen. If United get knocked out, I’m with Zico and Fener. The Champions League really does need reform, just better thought than Platini’s proposals.
March 7th, 2008 @ 13:15Spot on, Ahmed, about the last 8 thing not being the indicator of the Premiership being the best in the world. I would rate the Spanish and the Argentines leagues above par and the Serie A at par with the Premiership.
March 7th, 2008 @ 13:56You’re absolutely right Ahmed. I’ve said that the CL is, as you say “hardly an indicator of the quality of the domestic leagues….- it is simply an indicator of how well teams can adapt to playing tactical football in two-legged knockout rounds”. Why don’t some people realise this?
Some people here are talking about the CL, that it should be reformed. I agree, but the biggest problem is the balance of money. There’s a HUGE amount in England, there’s 2 extremely rich clubs in Spain (Barca and Real), but the rest poor, 3 rich in Italy (Inter, AC, Juve), and not nearly enough money anywhere else. Clubs from Germany, France and Portugal for example, can only find and raise the talent. When the English and Spanish notice these players, they’re sold by the club so it can continue to run because it gets not enough more income (and a lot of these players are greedy too). How this can be resolved I don’t know, or if it will ever be. When are we ever going to see a German club win the CL again?!
Arsenal Man is right about Arsenal going through deservedly. They’re the only English that have ever played good at the mighty Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, and were superb the other day. Unlucky not to win by more.
Liverpool_Fan, you have brains saying we’re not out, so thanks. I wish all the Pool fans I know had brains, but none do!
March 8th, 2008 @ 19:31lets face it we all know that the premiership is the best league in the so we dont need to be proven by the champions league. An English teams gonna win it any way. We’re too strong!
March 11th, 2008 @ 17:12I dissagree with people who say it is not an indicator of the strength of your countrys league. There are no other countries that have four teams in their leagues that are so strong. I can only see 1 of the english teams winning the champions league, I think Man Utd most likely but would like Arsenal to win it.
March 13th, 2008 @ 11:33Also what the english league has over other leagues is the never say die attitude as I could not believe Inter’s approuch against Liverpool the other night. Inter are top of their countrys league but had absolutally nothing to offer, they looked like they had lost it before the game started, they didn’t even have a real go at Liverpool. No english club would of surrendered so cheaply at home when 2-0 down from the 1st leg.
I would prefer the final to be an english team against a team from another country but if they avoid each other I think theres a big chance it will be an all english final.