It was a night so bad for Premier League sides in the Champions League matches.
Premier League have gone from being the best in the world to the one of the poorest on the continent.
Manchester United, Arsenal endured terrible night and City fell at home to Italian giants Juventus on match day one in the Champions League.
Why are English clubs under performing in Europe? And is there really a risk of losing that fourth Champions League spot?
Arsenal and Chelsea slipped to defeat on another night of Champions League embarrassment for the English elite, proof that the glory days are over.
The Premier League’s finest have so far played six group games in Europe’s biggest tournament and five have ended in defeat. Manchester City and Manchester United play their second games on Wednesday having both lost their first.
How the mighty have fallen. In 24 group games last season the Premier League’s four representatives – substitute Liverpool for Manchester United – lost only six games.
And in the Champions League years between 2003-04 to 2011-12, the most English defeats in a Champions League group stage was five – a figure already equalled this season.
From 2005, when Liverpool famously came from three goals down to beat AC Milan on penalties in Istanbul, the power of the Premier League cast a giant shadow over the Champions League – now the aura has been stripped away and those who once ruled are reduced to the ranks.
Arsenal were defeated finalists against Barcelona in Paris in 2006 and even though AC Milan got revenge on Liverpool in Athens the following year, Manchester United and Chelsea were also in the last four.
Manchester United won an all-Premier League final against Chelsea in Moscow in 2008, with Liverpool also semi-finalists, while both those finalists were in the semis again, along with Arsenal, in the following year before Sir Alex Ferguson’s side lost to Barcelona in Rome.
Slowly but surely, however, the Champions League has since been a tale of diminishing returns for the Premier League, overtaken not just by La Liga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, but also Bayern Munich and more besides.
United reached the final in 2011, while Chelsea won the Champions League almost freakishly against Bayern in their own Allianz Arena a year later but there was no Premier League presence in the last eight in 2013 and 2015, with only Chelsea reaching the semi-final in 2014.
The current win rate of English clubs in the Champions League group games is a dismal 17% – this is the worst at the same stage for 20 years, when it was also 17% in 1995-96.
In the entire group stage in 2008-09, when Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool represented the Premier League, three English teams reached the last four; they suffered only two defeats in the entire group stage.
Arsenal have been unseated by low rated Croatians Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos so far this season, while Chelsea have been beaten by FC Porto, Manchester United by PSV Eindhoven and Manchester City by Juventus respectively.
None of those teams would figure in anyone’s thinking as potential winners this season. Juventus won at the Etihad and, while they were last season’s finalists, they are struggling desperately in Serie A, sitting 15th with five points from six games.
Past reputations count for nothing. The Gunners may be most embarrassed of all. They are bottom of Group F and look in serious trouble before they have even faced their two toughest games against Bayern Munich.
Olympiakos arrived at Arsenal on the back of run of 12 straight losses in England and had never won a Champions League game on this soil. The record has now been set straight.
The Premier League can bill itself as the best in the world and boasted the richest summer transfer window in history in 2015, with outlay passing £870m, the total calendar year spending also soared past £1bn for the first time, but all these mega signings are yet to prove their worth in Europe.
Despite many multi-talented and hugely expensive squads, they have struggled to make an impact. They have not reached the last eight and too often look uncomfortable in their own Champions League skin.
Defeat by Juventus at home does not augur well for City this season, but the feeling remains that they must get better eventually.
The Premier League is in danger of losing a fourth Champions League spot in the 2017-18 Season if poor European performances continue.
New coefficient rankings, by which places are decided and calculated by performance over a five-year period, show England, are third behind Spain and Germany but Italy are closing in.
The top three ranked countries get four Champions League places.
There is urgent need for English clubs to get it right , but that grim record of five defeats in six group games so far does not send out a positive sign that things will get better.
Anthony Nlebem
