With just two English clubs making Champions League knockouts, can the Premier League still claim to be the best?

THE greatest league in the world? You’re having a laugh.

After just two English clubs reached Monday’s draw for the Champions League knockout stage, can the Premier League really claim to be the strongest on the planet?

ReutersManchester United crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday night[/caption]

Especially when all four Spanish sides topped their groups in Europe’s elite club competition, with Germany and Italy both boasting three teams through to the last 16.

The failures of Manchester United and Newcastle to progress – and to crash out of Europe altogether after finishing bottom of their groups – has led to England’s lowest representation in the knock-out competition for 11 years.

With Uefa revamping the Champions League next season – and offering two extra places to the nations with the best ‘coefficient’ rankings in a baffling new 36-team ‘Swiss model’ format – Premier League clubs were expecting to receive five entries to the top table next term.

But with both Uniteds flopping, that is now extremely unlikely, as both the Bundesliga and Serie A are ahead of England’s top flight in those rankings.

Erik Ten Hag and Eddie Howe might have hoped that a fifth-place Premier League spot would be enough for Champions League qualification but in all likelihood, they have shot themselves in the foot for next season as well.

Their best hope is that the remaining English teams in Europe thrive, while German and Italian clubs struggle.

That means Manchester United will be quietly urging their bitter rivals Manchester City and Liverpool to live up to their billing as favourites to win the Champions League and Europa League respectively.

The nature of Uefa’s coefficients mean that England’s remaining European teams – City and Arsenal in the Champions League, Liverpool, Brighton and West Ham in the Europa and Aston Villa in the Conference League – must perform significantly better than their Italian and German counterparts to turn it around from here.

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GettyCopenhagen progressed from United’s Champions League group[/caption]

But while the performance of English clubs in Europe isn’t matching our league’s indisputable financial dominance, are standards really dropping?

It is unlikely, especially given that City and West Ham collected two of the three European pots this May.

Newcastle were Champions League rookies, with a lengthy injury list and the toughest of all groups, alongside Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan.

Yet they still came within half an hour of qualifying before Milan’s comeback at St James’ Park scuppered their hopes on Wednesday.

The Red Devils are a shambles – and it is almost unprecedented for an English club to make the top four one season, then nosedive so spectacularly the next.

Danish champions FC Copenhagen qualified in front of them, despite operating on around five per cent of United’s playing budget.

But the great counter-argument to the idea of a Premier League decline, is that the English top flight is so competitive, possessing so much strength in depth, that it saps the physical and mental energy of its top teams like no other.

Howe referenced player ‘fatigue’ before the defeat by Milan and it is difficult to argue with that excuse, as there is no let-up in the Premier League.

GettyNewcastle were also dumped out of Europe this week[/caption]

Mid-table sides in England certainly have greater quality and resources than corresponding clubs in Spain, Germany, Italy or France.

England boss Gareth Southgate – certainly no mindless tub-thumper for the Premier League – has consistently stated his belief that English players operating in Europe’s other major leagues are not being tested consistently to the same level as those on home soil.

Clubs from Spain, Germany and Italy are more likely to rest players for a domestic league fixture in the build-up to a crunch Champions League fixture than any English clubs.

They can also be afforded greater rest periods than Premier League sides, with a Friday night fixture often thrown in before a Champions League game the following midweek.

English arrogance about the almighty status of our league has to be tempered by Man Utd and Newcastle performing so poorly.

But there’s little wonder that the old ‘Big Six’ were so keen to join a breakaway Super League.

Because, in all likelihood, some English clubs are merely becoming victims of the Premier League’s wider success.