4 English teams have played in the Champions League this week, all four have been hotly tipped to not only progress from the group stages but also to have a very good chance of winning the trophy. It’s almost taken as a given that Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd will be there or there abouts!

So what the hell happened this week? Three draws and a loss saw the English teams lose the opportunity for early qualifying from the group stages. Of those 3 draws you could only say that Man Utd actually deserved that much, playing attach v defence against a resilient Celtic team that highlighted United’s lack of ability to create clear cut chances. Without Rooney they look a shadow of the team.

Arsenal in turn (who play Manchester United on Saturday) just about scraped a 0-0 draw with. No doubt Arsene Wenger will look to injuries in his front line but it’s not much of an excuse when you’re playing a Turkish team at home. Liverpool on the other hand have nobody else other than the ref to thank for their draw. 1 nil down in extra time and Steven Gerrard jumps to the ground whilst stretching for a header and gets a penalty. He gets a lot of penalties does good old Stevie G doesn’t he? If he was of another ethnic background he’d kop all sorts of shit for the way he throws himself to the ground in the penalty box but I suppose that’s a whole different rant for a different day.

Chelsea were soundly stuffed away to Roma. Strange as it sounds there’s probably no real shame in that, Roma are a good team. But that’s part of the problem with English teams in the Champions League. We just assume that we can go anywhere we like and roll teams over. Sorry boys, but the top level of European football isn’t that easy. I think last year was more of a blip with 2 English teams in the final, not a pattern for things to come. I was looking at a poll on another football website that asked the question “Do the Megabucks English Teams have an unfair advantage in Europe?” About 70 percent of the people that answered said yes! If that’s the case then judging by this weeks performances I think we need even more of an advantage.