Right after the first phase of the Champions League this season closed, almost no television program lacked experts praising the dominance of English clubs. There have even been debates about whether that is good for European football or not.
However, these are clubs from the Premier League - a league that has not had any representatives reach the Champions League final in the last two seasons. And only one English team reached the semi-finals in those two seasons.
Usually, dominance must be measured by a prolonged advantage for a considerable period of time. Since the Premier League was born, English clubs have won the Champions League 7 times, while Spanish clubs have won 13 titles.
In the Europa League/UEFA Cup, the situation is even clearer when English teams have only won 5 times, while Spanish representatives have won 12 championships.
This raises the question whether everyone is also ignoring the fact that the Premier League only contributes two of the top 20 players in the 2025 Ballon d'Or list? Gianluigi Donnarumma and Viktor Gyokeres are named in the list, but their achievements come from Paris Saint-Germain and Sporting Lisbon, not from English football.
In fact, the Premier League has many good players, but many of the best stars in the world do not play here. The best striker today? Maybe Harry Kane or Kylian Mbappe - one plays football in Germany, the other in Spain.
Even a club can build an excellent squad without any players who have played in the Premier League. However, it is still affirmed that the Premier League is the most competitive league in club football.
Yes, it is a very competitive league, but not necessarily better than other major leagues in Europe. It is often said that in the Premier League, any team can defeat any opponent on any day.
In theory, it's true. But in reality, that's not entirely true.
Last season, the top 3 teams in the Premier League played a total of 114 matches and only won 12 matches. Of which 4 wins were when they faced each other. Meanwhile, the top 3 teams in La Liga also played 114 matches but won 21 matches.
The European ranking coefficient of English teams is very high because Premier League clubs often go quite deep in continental cup tournaments. This is largely thanks to the superior financial strength of the league, allowing many teams to spend heavily in the transfer market.
It is undeniable that the Premier League is the richest league in the world - and far surpasses other leagues in revenue. However, European football giants such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain can still compete fairly in terms of finance as well as many other aspects.
That partly explains why 6 English clubs could not win a single match in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 this week. Among the four defeats, up to 3 were heavy defeats.
Players who have played in many different countries all admit that the Premier League is the most physically demanding league in European football. That is probably undeniable.
But whether that will help teams better prepare for the challenges in the Champions League knockout rounds is still an open question.
Of course, the Premier League still has the opportunity to bring many representatives to the Champions League quarter-finals this season. Arsenal is expected to overcome Bayer Leverkusen, while Liverpool is assessed to have the ability to reverse the situation after being led by Galatasaray by one goal at Anfield.
If two teams reach the quarter-finals, it would be a remarkable achievement. But at the same time, it could also be a reminder that the Premier League is not exactly as strong as many people think.
