To the excitement of many fans, the English Premiership’s top six clubs have shown their excellence both domestically in the league and in European competition.
With four English teams making the quarter-finals of the Champions League and two making it to the same stage of the Europa League, it begs the question as to whether the Premier League is, in fact, the world’s best football league.
Improving on last season, when only two Prem sides made it to the Champions League’s last eight, and the year before, when only Leicester City made it to the quarters, English clubs look to be on the rise in Europe and could potentially have teams bring both the Champions and Europa League titles back home.
Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham and Liverpool all have a chance for Champions League glory after inspired performances in the last 16, while both Chelsea and Arsenal hunt for Europa success.
Champions League Chances
While Liverpool made the final of the competition last year, they may not be the English team that others fear to face. In fact, Manchester City, who beat Schalke 10-2 on aggregate in the prior round to advance, will be the team to keep an eye on as they are the betting favourites to win the whole thing.
Don’t count out the other sides who can make an impact though. Manchester United are on top form under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and although they face a fierce side in the form of Spanish giants Barcelona, they can still cause trouble as seen in their comeback against PSG in the last 16.
Barcelona it is, then.#MUFC #UCLdraw pic.twitter.com/yXXid3ev8D
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 15, 2019
Spurs, who face Manchester City in the quarters, will also look to cause an upset by knocking off the defending Premier League champions. Mauricio Pochettino’s men thrashed Borussia Dortmund in their clashes against the Yellow and Black in the tournament’s prior round and have plenty confidence heading into their next matchup.
Going into the next round, all four teams should vie for a taste of the semi-finals and the chances look high for there to be at least one English finalist in this year’s final.
Europa Hopes
Chelsea coasted to a couple of easy wins against Ukranian side Dynamo Kiev while Arsenal had to make a miracle happen at home against Rennes to advance to the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
The Londoners drew opposingly difficult fixtures though as Chelsea drew underdogs Slavia Prague whilst Arsenal were given the hard matchup of facing tournament powerhouses Napoli in the next round.
? The quarter-finals draw in full ?
Most exciting game? ?#UEL | #UELdraw pic.twitter.com/W3OBTlHM3U
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) March 15, 2019
Now the favourites to bring home the Europa League trophy, Chelsea are expected to have a couple of convincing performances when facing the Czech side and eventually head to the final where they could potentially face the Gunners in Azerbaijan.
Arsenal will be facing a tough challenge when coming up against Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli. Ancelotti, who was formerly manager of Chelsea, had only suffered one loss to Arsenal while in charge of the Blues.
Unai Emery and his men will look to make the most of their opportunity across both legs and make it to the competitions penultimate round where they could face either Valencia or Villareal.
If one of the London sides do end up winning the competition, then it would make them the second English winners of the trophy in the last three years after Manchester United won in 2017.
