Europe a step too far for England’s finest

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore does not like it when people label the English top flight the ‘best league in the world’. It is possibly the richest and most sought-after global football brand, but being the best is not something Scudamore has ever claimed. And judging by the recent form of ‘his’ clubs in the Champions League, he has never been more right.

Arsenal and Chelsea’s European defeats this week leaves them both facing challenges to qualify from the Champions League group stage and with neither Manchester club currently looking like world beaters, there is a serious danger England will lose one of their four places in the tournament to Italy for the 2017-18 season.

The coefficient rankings are dull at best, though, and what is more pressing for managers Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho, is how to arrest a slide in form at international level.