adminLONDON. — Arsene Wenger has insisted the Barclays English Premier League is still the best in the world, despite the Euro disasters of the past week.But Wenger says English clubs are paying a heavy price because the domestic top-flight is so competitive it gives them a huge disadvantage when it comes to Champions League soccer fixtures.
Arsenal, beaten 2-0 at home by European Cup holders Bayern Munich, Manchester City, who lost to Barcelona by the same score at the Etihad, and Manchester United could all go out at the last-16 stage after bad defeats in their first legs.
It left TV pundit Roy Keane claiming it was “nonsense” to suggest the English Premier League was the best and we have been “brainwashed” into believing it was No.1
It could be left to Chelsea – who drew 1-1 with Galatasaray in Turkey – to be the sole flag-bearers in the last eight of Europe’s flagship club competition, but Wenger says the English Premier League is not just the best but it is also the most competitive, most watchable, most entertaining and most evenly matched.
When asked about Keane’s withering comments in the wake of United’s loss to Olympiakos, Wenger replied: “Everybody has the right to have his opinion. But I maintain that it is the best, despite the results.
“It is the most level league. There is not the difference if you take the difference of quality – for example, between Bayern and the rest of the German league. You have Bayern, Dortmund, then after a big gap. Dortmund this year is not so much there because they had many injuries.
“I just feel in the English Premier League you can go to Cardiff, anybody, and lose. Spain was a good league as well. But this season I think the English league is the most difficult. Maybe as well we pay a little bit the price for that. — The Mirror.
Online Reporter