From Gabriele Marcotti, The Sunday Herald
To some of the English press, it’s open-and-shut. If there are three English clubs in the semi-finals of the Champions’ League, there can be only one reason: the Premiership is the best league in the world.
Of course, this thinking is riddled with inconsistencies. If three semi-finalists is all it takes, was Serie A the best league in the world in 2003? And if the Premiership is the best league in the world, why did it not supply any Uefa Cup semi-finalists unlike, say, Spain, who provide three of the four?
Also, all that European success tells you about is the relative strengths of the better sides in each league: how do you even begin to know how to compare Wigan and Chievo, Arminia Bielefeld and Levante? You don’t. Which is why any debate about the best league in the world is best left to the Department of Length-of-a-piece-of-string at the Ministry of Spurious Arguments.
That said, there is a theme to the English success this season. You can clearly look at five areas in which Premiership sides have outperformed the opposition and for which, to varying degrees, they deserve praise.
This is the season when English club football finally grew up, when it finally lived up to the hype. And here are the reasons why. Read Marcotti’s five points on English excellence – remember, in a Scottish newspaper – by clicking here
Click here to read Martin Samuel on why English fans abroad get rough treatment