Next season, assuming Liverpool can negotiate the play-off round, there will be five English clubs in the Champions League. That is a large number, though it does not necessarily follow that a greater representation will lead to a better chance of English success. Premier League sides have been struggling to impose themselves in Europe in recent years. From a position a decade ago when finals were being reached on a regular basis and Uefa had genuine concerns when two English clubs faced each other in Moscow in 2008, the strength of the Premier League now seems to be an obstacle to progress in Europe rather than the money and attention grabber that once threatened domination.
Chelsea were the last English team to appear in a final, when they won the event on penalties in Munich in 2012, though the reality of the past five years has been that English clubs have rarely been around to contest the later stages of the knockout rounds. Leicester City did surprisingly well to reach the quarter-finals this year, which was better than more experienced teams such as Arsenal and Manchester City managed.
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