Arsenal might curse Man City but it gives them a Champions League chance
If Arsenal and Liverpool can take any solace from Manchester City’s Premier League dominance, it is that they are in a far better place than most actual champions to win the Champions League.
City’s two challengers have no choice but to be absolutely, ludicrously, almost perfectly brilliant in their bid to topple the four-time reigning champions. While that has not been quite enough domestically, it prepares them better than most champions when competing in Europe’s elite competition.
The Premier League has forever been lauded as the best and most competitive league in the world, but is it really? The most lucrative, sure, but competitive across the board? Absolutely not. But the competition at the top of the table is white hot, even if City have won six of the last seven league titles.
That seems at face value like a contradictory statement, but Arsenal amassed 89 points last season and Liverpool 82. Not to mention Liverpool somehow finishing second with ninety-f**king-seven points and again with 92. Although the eventual winner is almost always the same, there is usually a title race to enjoy with City and one or two others playing at a ridiculous level.
Man City have their critics and all of their incredible work could be undone if found guilty of their 115 financial charges but their unparalleled success has been the driving force in creating the three best teams in the country and three of the top six clubs in world football. Without City pushing Arsenal and Liverpool, the Gunners would not be anywhere near as spectacular, while Jurgen Klopp would not have been pushed to such dizzying heights.
On Tuesday night, Arsenal comfortably beat a Paris Saint-Germain side that has won 10 of the last 12 French league titles. PSG should have a Champions League crown by now but have ultimately been held back by the lack of competitiveness in Ligue 1.
There have been one or two truly great sides – Kylian Mbappe’s AS Monaco come to mind – who have competed with PSG but not one that was consistently feared in European competition. During City’s spell of domestic dominance, there have been several English semi-finalists and even winners in Liverpool and Chelsea. And in Spain, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid have all been in contention.
Germany and Italy have bucked the trend of Spain and England’s dominance, but only to an extent. Borussia Dortmund finished as runners-up last season and Inter the year before, but Serie A does not have the same glitter as it did two, three, four decades ago, while the Bundesliga is played at a high standard but truly world-class players do not appear to be moved by Bayern Munich anymore.
That is unless you are Harry Kane and desperate for a trophy (that’s yet to come), or Kim-min Jae, who didn’t have a better offer on the table, and certainly not from Manchester United.
The standard in Germany and competitiveness in Italy helps their clubs in Europe. Bayer Leverkusen and Dortmund were finalists last season, while Eintracht Frankfurt won the Europa League in 2022. And there are several progressive teams in Serie A, not least Inter, who are a real force to be reckoned with under Simone Inzaghi. And Atalanta and AS Roma recently won continental competitions.
There are simply better teams in Spain, England, Italy and Germany than in France, which is why PSG are always caught on their heels in the Champions League. As are, to a less significant extent, Celtic, who bully clubs every week in Scotland but always get beaten in Europe. It’s almost like playing St Johnstone and Ross County can’t prepare you for FC Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund.
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But when it comes to your Dortmunds and Barcelonas, Liverpool and Arsenal are incredibly well prepared. That is not solely down to having bigger transfer budgets, but because Man City’s superiority has forced them to do everything in their power to become teams that would have romped home in the league without the blue behemoth.
Mikel Arteta and Arne Slot’s sides will quite rightly fancy their chances in the Champions League. The former has already brushed aside one of the favourites in PSG, while the latter were successful away to European juggernauts AC Milan. Arsenal are a better and more experienced outfit now than last season, when they buckled at their first sighting of a super-club.
Arsenal are constantly evolving and improving with Man City doing the exact same. They will be hoping (and not without reason) that competitiveness evolves them all the way to their first Champions League trophy. And if not them, maybe Aston Villa…