I'm not so sure that one year of poor showings in Europe really proves anything. The EPL slump in Europe was inevitable, as it happens to every league from time to time (Serie A post Calciopoli). Chelsea for example are an old team at the end of their cycle and in many ways remind me of what Inter Milan is going through. The only team that you could criticize for not going though is City who were beaten by an out of form, 5th place Napoli. In my opinion you can thank Roberto Mancini for that one.

Anyone else think that the Europe League is a joke? Nobody cares about it in Italy.

yeah i feel the same, more or less. though the competition needs to be upped in La Liga so that Barca/Real aren't the only 2 dominating teams anymore. But even regardless of this, i've seen middle tier spanish teams (like villareal, bilbao, occasionally osasuna, malaga, atletico) that play far more beautiful and creative football than chelsea, liverpool, arsenal and a host of other top tier english teams at the moment. the passing is more fluid, they take more risks. the epl, just like the english national team, is overrated.

valencia and sevilla used to be something. i think football in general was better in quality 5-6 years ago.

strictly as a competition the premier league is better than la liga.

^ke, ke I was wondering if I could lay odd on that response.

goal line tech coming to a league near you...

and possibly not relevant to the FA, but nary a word about tech in their latest musings

I should have added, who on earth rates the England national team anymore, anyway? Other than myopic morons in the darkest corners of England, and their number are dwindling (the bulk might remain morons, but I'd wager on this point few are as myopic as before).

i agree. i think you see more elements of the game play out in england. helps that its 50 degrees year round and you can run all day.

My Spanish roommate does not even rate La Liga. Everyone remembers the days when it was a more competitive league and today it is completely unbalanced.

As a competition i agree, the Premier League is far better than La Liga and more balanced. La Liga is fast turning into another Scottish Premier League with Barcelona and Real Madrid becoming like Rangers and Celtic are to Scottish football, such a duopoly can't be good for the overall standard of there league. However i feel the Premier League although more competitive and exciting as the smaller teams can beat the big teams is overrated by the media in this country as the results in Europe are showing. If the likes of Athletic Bilbao who are 30 points behind Real Madrid, can beat the best this country has to offer so convincingly What does this say about the Overall standard of our game? Although football goes in cycles and no team or nation has a divine right to win, i feel the overall standard of our top teams is declining. Only four years ago in 2008, three of the four Champions League Semi-Finalists came from the Premier League, whilst this year we will be lucky if any Premier League team gets into the Quarter-Finals, that is quite a decline in a relatively small time. Yes it may be a blip this season, but the top teams in England need to do a lot of work to ensure this does not become a regular thing.

You may find this article interesting.

The standard of the league is down, but I think you could make a good excuse for most of those teams except Manchester City. They spent the money, brought the players in and should have progressed to the group stages. I blame Mancini who is an overrated coach still riding off the triumphs of post Calciopoli Inter.

Also, it is important to point out that Real Madrid had been getting spanked in the Champions League for years up until last season when they beat Tottenham. Like I said, cycles. EPL should be back after a season or two and keep in mind the United loss was in the Europa League...that's the tournament that Bundesliga teams take seriously.

To be fair to City, they definitely had the hardest group of the competition this year, and one of the hardest I can remember in recent memory. They also managed to get 10 points, which 9 times out of 10 should be enough to get through. Porto topped their group with 9 points, Inter with 10, and several other teams made it through with less than that. I think they were perhaps a little complacent and couldn't quite manage some necessary results but I think they unlucky.

Sunderland v L'pool, a very scrappy contest today.

As too was the Chelsea vs Stoke game I watched.

Wheels coming off for Spurs. Standard.

True the wheels are coming off at Spurs, i think the uncertainty surrounding Harry Redknapp position is not helping Spurs at the moment. All the media seem to be interested in at the moment, is When will Redknapp be named the New England Manager, i think because of this Redknapp may have taken his eye off the ball at Tottenham. At the beginning of the season i had a bet with an Arsenal fan saying Spurs would finish above the Gunners in the Premier League, a few weeks ago i thought i was onto a winner, now i think Arsenal might snatch third place as they will only be a point behind Spurs if they win on Monday. Just my luck.