European slump
As Arsenal become the final British team to exit this season's UEFA Champions League, Adam Bate looks at the reasons behind the downturn in fortunes for Premier League sides in recent years
Thursday 14 March 2013 16:49, UK
Adam Bate looks at the reasons behind the recent downturn in fortunes for Premier League sides.
Arsenal's spirited performance ensured that at least Premier League interest in the UEFA Champions League didn't end with a whimper. But it has ended in March all the same. And so the inquest begins. For the first time since 1996, there will be no English team in the quarter-finals. As Arsene Wenger said in his post-match press conference in Munich: "It's a massive disappointment for English football. It's a massive wake-up call. The rest of Europe has caught us up." Reading too much into the fluctuations of a cup competition can be a tricky business. But surely not when the shift in fortunes is quite so marked. Three of the four Champions League semi-finalists in each of the seasons from 2007 to 2009 were provided by the Premier League. Chelsea may have emerged as surprise winners last season and Manchester United will bemoan a refereeing decision this time around but, looking at the bigger picture, the downward trend is unmistakeable. So what exactly has gone wrong? First for the caveat. Success is both cyclical and relative. Great teams will come and go, with the re-emergence of Juventus perhaps proving the point most emphatically. And right now it seems the very best that Spain and Germany has to offer has raised the bar. But that doesn't mean English clubs haven't been culpable in their own downfall.Defending
There has been a significant change in the Premier League in recent years. We have seen goals galore. Great for the neutral. But for managers of the league's elite teams, the real concern is that they've been going in at both ends. When Jose Mourinho led Chelsea to their first Premier League title in the 2004/05 season, the Blues conceded a miserly 15 goals from their 38 games. Eight years on from Chelsea's defensive masterclass, the name on the trophy will belong to Manchester United. And the contrast could hardly be more stark. United look set to canter to the crown this year having conceded more goals by the second week of November than Chelsea let in during the entire season. Defending has essentially become an afterthought.| PL Goals conceded by Top Three | |
| Season | Goals per game |
| 2012/13 | 1.07 |
| 2011/12 | 0.97 |
| 2010/11 | 0.90 |
| 2009/10 | 0.89 |
| 2008/09 | 0.66 |
| 2007/08 | 0.69 |
| 2006/07 | 0.68 |
