It is like for like during the group stages. But come the KO stages, those other leagues do seem to be processions for the top 2-3 at that moment, while in the PL the top 6 dog-fights are only just beginning and strongest possible starting XIs are required nearly every game (as messiah Pep has quickly realised) .
There's an obvious paradox with what you're saying: for several years both Man Utd and Arsenal could afford to rest key players for a stretch of games, be it Man Utd giving Wes Brown and/or John O'Shea a run of starts or Arsenal giving Junichi Inamoto a game to keep the Japanese tourists visiting Highbury in order to keep their key players rested for the Champions League games - and the only thing to change this was Roman Abramovich showing up at Fulham's second club. And let's be honest here, for years on end the top four was the same four teams in roughly the same order every single season, and the only thing that broke the stranglehold that Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool's G14 tribute act was City also finding an obscenely rich benefactor that meant that mathematics was against the five of them getting a slice of Champions League cash. To put it another way, on Old606 Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool were referred to as the Sky 4 for a good reason - but now all you have to do is swap Arsenal out for City and the situation is exactly the same, and by complete coincidence this is being reflected in Arsenal's current portrayal as a fallen giant/feeder club for The New Sky 4. Having a couple of teams buying their way into the VIP area doesn't make a league stronger, it just exacerbates the problem as it increases the number of teams able to stripmine teams which threaten their position of players. A decade ago we had Keane and Berbatov pinched in the space of a summer while Villa got it even worse as half of their team were spirited away by the Manchester clubs, but now we have a situation where teams can be dismantled by several teams at once, as Southampton are only too aware of. I doubt many Ligue 1 fans would suggest that PSG having more money than the rest of the league combined has made the league stronger, they'll say that an upstart club is buying success while making Ligue 1 a laughing stock, and it;s not helped by PSG creating a Narrative where they are now The Most Successful Team in French League History...while hoping that nobody points out their trophy haul is grossly inflated by Coup de la Ligue wins, and as things stand they have less league titles than Lyon, Monaco, OM, or Saint Etienne.
Based on tonights performance and their performance against us, Everton might be in for a relegation fight this season.
If the Emirates stewards can't control the Cologne fans, I shudder to imagine the scenes when the Red Star Delije's turn up. The match could be delayed by a number of months when those lunatics pitch up.
Comment on the BBC "The only other time I can think of when a British team has started a match an hour later than advertised is Everton tonight."
Just when you think you've seen it all...........people storming the gates to get into The Emirates to watch a Europa League game. I never saw that coming.
Everton's current run is a 2-0 loss to Chelsea, a 3-0 loss to us and now another 3-0 loss to Atalanta. Next up? Man Utd at Old Trafford and a reunion with Romelu Lukaku. Oh, dear.
Apparently there's thousands of Cologne fans in the home areas. No wonder there's an atmosphere! Reading that there's 20,000 cologne fans storming the emirates!!
"Just when you think you've seen it all ... .people storming the gates to get into The Emirates to watch Arsenal play a Europa League game." < fixed >
Given reports from The Emirates, this game should be abandoned on safety grounds. No doubt, UEFA feel differently as they'll have to give back TV money.
Just a quick look at the flight schedules ... The airlines at the very least would have had some idea of the number of away supporters travelling,
