While the domestic season continued to excite and enthral over the weekend, a huge week lies ahead for the remaining English clubs in European competition. Arsenal nearly pulled off probably what would’ve been the  greatest comeback in Champions League history in a valiant performance, going 3-0 up in the first-half on Tuesday night against AC Milan but failing to add to the scoreline in the second half and going out of the competition 4-3 on aggregate. Now the responsibility of keeping English pride intact lies with Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs, City and United.

However, the chances of that don’t look too promising. Chelsea have a two-goal deficit to overturn at Stamford Bridge in order to get to the quarter-finals of the Champions League after being outclassed in Napoli, losing 3-1. Manchester United too have a mountain to climb, this time in the Europa League; on Thursday night Athletic Bilbao were totally dominant, scoring three away goals at Old Trafford and leaving the Red Devils with a massive task of having to score at least two goals at the cauldron of noise that is San Mamés. Manchester City probably have the best chance of making their way into the next stage of the Europa League, having only conceded one goal despite being the better side against Sporting Lisbon.

With all three English clubs potentially on the brink of going out of European competition in what would be a disastrous turn of events in English football, it leaves many wondering how the chances of English clubs in Europe have managed to fall into such a decline. Manchester United were in the Champions League final a year ago against Barcelona at Wembley and now find themselves nearing an early exit from the Europa League, having already failed to top or even finish second in the group stages of Europe’s finest club tournament.

This comes after a spell of dominance over European competition by English clubs beginning in 2005, with Liverpool winning the Champions League for the fifth time in their history, beating AC Milan on penalties. Middlesbrough reached the UEFA Cup final in 2006, Liverpool lost in the 2007 Champions League final to 2005’s losers Milan, who beat Manchester United over two legs in the semi-final too.

Manchester United won the Champions League in 2008 beating fellow English club Chelsea, with Liverpool also getting to the semis that year. United again reached the final in 2009 only to be beaten by Barcelona, as was the case in 2011 also. Fulham also staged a miraculous run in the Europa League in the 2009-10 season only to lose to Atletico Madrid in the final. However, come the end of this week, could this spell of dominance be brought to an end, and what has brought this about?

Of course, there are a number of obvious reasons why this season English clubs’ performances in the European side of the game have been utterly underwhelming – the chaos at Chelsea, Manchester City’s first time playing in the biggest club tournament in football, Arsenal’s somewhat mediocre side – however, this does not excuse such poor performances.

Both Chelsea and Manchester City have poured a lot money into their sides, so to see both teams exit so early on is inexcusable, while Arsenal should not be finding themselves in the position where they are 4-0 down after only the first leg, even if their side is not of the quality it used to be.

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