English clubs and the European Competitions

English clubs and the European competitions

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English clubs have the privilege of being able to qualify for both the Champions league as well as the Europa league. The premier league clubs that finish in the top four of the division while the teams that finish fifth, sixth and seventh position all get a Europa league place.

English clubs have been largely successful in the Champions league. There have been ten winner of European competitions. These clubs are Leeds Fc, Chelsea Fc, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham, Aston Villa, Arsenal, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest. Liverpool have won it more than any other English club by winning it thirteen times.

One of the most famous Champions league final nights was when Liverpool faced AC Milan of Italy in Milan. Liverpool went three-nil down at half time, but a massive turn around happened in the second half then they went on to win the famous cup on penalties. This is one of the most widely known, famous nights in the history of Champions League and is known as to football fans as ‘that night in Milan’.

Another famous Champions League final night was when Chelsea faced Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in Germany.  Both teams failed to score until fifteen minutes until full time when Bayern Munich scored in the second half of the game but then Chelsea’s Didier Drogba scored with minutes to go to make it go into extra time. Chelsea had an early scare in extra time when they conceded a penalty but the keeper saved it. This brought them into extra time where the Chelsea keeper Petr Cech was the hero when he saved three penalties on their way to winning the European Competition.        

      

The Premier League - 'The Big Four'

Premier league teams – ‘the big four’ title winners

47 teams have competed in the premier league since its formation in 1992, but saying that only 6 clubs have won the premier league since that time. This is due to the dominance of what people call ‘the big four’. This is in relation to the four clubs that have dominated the league, these clubs are Manchester United, Chelsea Fc, Liverpool Fc and Arsenal. These clubs have won the premier league twenty-two times altogether with Manchester United winning it a record 13 times. This has led to the dominance of the premier league in twenty-two out of the last twenty-four seasons. These two seasons that haven’t been won by ‘the big four’ have been a complete surprise to the footballing world and have been described as fairy tales…

One of the most famous and most recent ‘fairy tales’ is when Leicester Fc won the premier league during the 2015/2016 season. This is remarkable due to Leicester struggling to stay in the league the season before. The reason why they won the league during the 2015/2016 season was due to their new manager investing money into their squad. Now if you look back to when Blackburn won the Premier League in the early nineties, they also invested money into their team. They bought a star striker in Alan Shearer who fired over 20 goals that season to win the title.

This investment is the reason why ‘the big four’ have been so successful in the highest division, they have invested mass amounts of money in top quality, foreign players that have improved their teams. These foreign players have improved on the lower quality English players that are usually used in lower teams in the premier league. You will notice that in the lower half of the premier league that there are more English players in their squads due to the lack of investment into the club, but this is also a good thing as it shows that these clubs value youth systems in England. This is great to see these smaller clubs are using these English players, like the English Football Association have been investing money into grassroots football.