In the last 5 seasons you have finishe 4th three times & 3rd twice. One of those was last season when Utd were having another transition period. I repeat, if 4th place goes, them most likely do Arsenal too...
It all went tits up when City got involved... The status quo had it sorted, the top 4 knew their place and it meant they could concentrate in Europe without the pressure of possibly not getting top 4 as there were no real challengers. When City got involved with all their money (and when we turned ****) it made the Prem more competitive, but it was clearly at a detriment of Europe. Getting into top4 became more important than actually performing well in the competition you were trying to get in to... Teams are too scared to not get top 4 that they're happy to do an Arsenal and just get to the knock outs and get the £50m prize pot and finish top 4 than actually make a real go of it. That and the fact that the best European manager the Prem has seen left the Country... who? Rafa obviously... 1 win and 1 final in 6 years with a team that was pretty average to start with. The guy just a tactical genius when it came to European games and even rival fans can't dispute that.
The Premiership's answer in general, to anything, is to throw money at it. Every transfer window we see the likes of Utd, City, Chelsea, throwing sometimes 100's of millions at the transfer market. And for what gain? Very little it would seem. Essentially, what they have built is a collection of mostly highly talented individuals who are complete strangers, or who are used as square pegs in round holes. Not a team! If clubs spent more time building a team, a unit, a balanced side that works together liked a well oiled machine, then we'd see English clubs doing far better in Europe. Instead, they think the answer lies in spending. It's stupid, disruptive short term thinking, and as long as it persists, I can't see our performance in Europe improving. Most European clubs, if you exclude the likes of Real, Barca, Bayern, and the moneybags clubs, such as PSG, don't have anywhere near the financial resources that are at the disposal of the top English clubs, yet they have been consistently outperforming us for some years now.
City, Utd and Chelsea should still all qualify. Then, apart from the big three, there are no opponents they should fear over two legs. Other than the big three, no side has so many quality players. There's no reason Englisah clubs can't do well if they shape up - apart from the usual hindrances, the main ones being too many games and too many physically demanding and high intensity ones when other leagues are having a rest.
If I hadn't had several pints of shandy before gorging on jellied eels I would have an issue with that generalisation.
