Feature: Premier League, The Best in Europe?

Should I say, ‘Farewell, AVB.’?
Image via Daylife

Everyone knows Napoli or AC Milan are not an easy team to play against. So when both Arsenal and Chelsea arrived in Italy, I am pretty sure most of their fans were hoping for a  draw. ‘Just, don’t lose this game.’ was probably what they were thinking. But guess what? Both teams lost their games in the most unacceptable way.

Being the last two England teams that stay in the Champions League, shouldn’t have given Chelsea or Arsenal too many pressure, because, you see, the two Manchester teams, at the top of Premier League table, couldn’t even make it out of their group. But at least these two teams look good to qualify to the next round in Europa.

Arsenal’s performance last week, was more than shocking. Some even said it was the worst Arsenal that they have ever seen. I couldn’t agree more with that statement. Frankly, I really want to ask those players if they know what they were doing? Because they were not defending properly, not attacking properly (Did they even try to attack?) and didn’t do anything right, except walking or maybe running on the pitch throughout 90 minutes. They deserved that big 4-0.

With that big 4-0. I am 90% sure Arsenal will not be able to make it to the quarter-final. Prove me wrong but with their recent performance and Henry leaving the team, I really don’t think they can turn it around. Plus, the ‘February curse’ seems to be true. We all saw what happened last season, when everyone thought Arsenal was in the run for all champions, the League Cup, FA Cup, Champions League and even Premier League. Arsenal lost the League Cup champion to Birmingham; then lost the chances to become other champions, one by one. It was shocking as they were performing very well. However when Birmingham grabbed the trophy from their hand at the very last moment, Arsenal’s players just seem unable to recover.

The past weekend, after the 4-0 loss to AC Milan, again Arsenal proved unable to recover, as they lost 2-0 to Sunderland and was kicked out from the FA Cup. It is very likely that they will be left with Premier League to fight for, which, they can only have chance for the top four but not the champion. No wonder Gunners keep wondering, ‘Where do we go from here?’

On the other hand, Chelsea’s situation isn’t any better. Many fans were hoping the arrival of Villas-Boas will bring them some trophies. However, now Chelsea is the 5th at the Premier League table and  draw Birmingham in FA Cup during the weekend, which require a rematch to see if they can qualify. In the Champions League, they were leading 0-1 but in the end lost 3-1 to Napoli. Although they have a greater chance than Arsenal to qualify for the quarter finals, it is still unacceptable to throw away a lead and ended up losing three goals.

Surely AVB is under a lot of pressure now. If Chelsea couldn’t make it for the quarter final, most probably we will see AVB leaving Chelsea. We have also checked back the record till 2001/2002 season, and within the past ten seasons, at least two England teams got into quarter finals except for 2005/2006, that only Arsenal was in the quarter finals. The fact is, for the past ten years, Premier League teams have been dominating the Europe league, the best time was 2008/2009 season, Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool were all in the quarter finals, taken up half the spot. Yet, this season, there may be ZERO England team in quarter finals.

The question here is, what happened to England teams this season? Or is it because other leagues have been improving, while Premier League is still at the same place? Man Utd has been struggling with their new keeper and young players; Man City has been struggling to form their best team with all the star players they have, yet, they are still the Kings in the Premier League. However, when it comes to the Champions League, Man Utd can’t even beat Basel. This gives us something to think about - Is Premier League still the best league in Europe as they claimed?