English clubs have week to forget in Champions League – but is that a bad thing? | Barney Ronay

Of six teams in the last 16, only two – Arsenal and Liverpool – look more likely than not to get to the quarter-finals. But does it matter?

The coefficient is safe. The coefficient is yours. You’re going home with the coefficient. But perhaps not, on this evidence, with the microwave, the washing machine or the Jet Ski.

England’s soccer shame. Premier League in EURO MELTDOWN. Robot-ball crisis: how Arteta’s Arsenal destroyed all that is good and true, including the ploughman’s lunch and probably Woolworths. This kind of stuff has begun to do the rounds after this week’s Champions League last-16 matches.

For English football it is a striking executive summary. Six Premier League teams played the first legs of their last-16 ties on Tuesday and Wednesday. End result: four defeats and two draws. Three of those defeats were semi-thrashings by three goals. Newcastle played well against strong opponents. Nobody else did. Only Arsenal and Liverpool look more likely than not to get to the quarter-finals.

Why has this happened? Is it actually a bad thing? How does it explain not only the complex, self-limiting dynamics of elite club football, but also the fact England are less likely to win the World Cup this summer than most people seem to assume? Maybe, who knows, it doesn’t explain any of these things [narrator’s voice: it does].