Humbling first-leg defeats against Serie A opposition for Arsenal and Chelsea in recent weeks, coupled with the demise of Manchester United and Manchester City in the group stages, have left the Barclays Premier League facing a season without a single Champions League quarter-finalist for the first time since 1996.
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English decline merely a sign of European times?
NATIONS rise and fall with regularity in the volatile common marketplace of European football, but it still seems remarkable that the age of English exceptionalism appears to have shuddered to a halt.
