Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham all lost in Champions League… has Premier League lost edge?

Javier Tebas, the outspoken president of LaLiga, will have delighted in Real Madrid’s thumping of Liverpool in the Champions League this week.

That isn’t just because Tebas supports them. He would have viewed the stunning 5-2 win as one in the eye for the Premier League, which he recently warned was ‘financially doped’ and getting out of control.

Tebas will certainly also have noted the other results involving English clubs in the Champions League over the last two weeks.

For all the rhetoric about growing Premier League supremacy off the pitch, none of the four English representatives managed to win their last-16, first leg games and three of them lost.

Liverpool were humiliated by the reigning European champions having taken a two-goal lead at Anfield, while Tottenham and Chelsea were also beaten, albeit narrowly, by AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund respectively.

Manchester City, the strongest of the English quartet, were only able to draw 1-1 away to RB Leipzig on Wednesday night, completing a rather disappointing set of results.

While at least three of those situations are retrievable in next month’s second legs – Liverpool find themselves in miracle territory heading to the Bernabeu – it can be asked at this half-way point if the Premier League teams have lost their edge.

Alarm bells were certainly ringing after deadline day when the January window numbers were crunched, with a Deloitte analysis finding the record £815million outlay by Premier League clubs dwarfed everyone else.

Cash-rich English clubs blew everybody else out of the water, with France the next-highest but an awful long way behind on £110m. Spending in LaLiga and Serie A combined only amounted to £50m.

Indeed, Chelsea’s £323m January splurge alone was more than every club in Serie A, LaLiga, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga put together.

With leading Premier League clubs bankrolled by wealthy investors from Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, the United States and elsewhere, and emboldened by record international TV revenues, they can easily out-bid continental rivals.

As Tebas fumed on Twitter: ‘We read about the ‘strength’ of the Premier League, but it is a competition based on millionaire losers of the clubs [their ordinary income is not enough for them], most of the clubs are ‘financially doped.’

The Spanish league’s corporate director Javier Gomez added: ‘They are doping the clubs, they are injecting money that is not generated by the clubs.

‘That puts the viability of a club at risk when this shareholder leaves. In our opinion, this is cheating because it drags down the rest of the leagues.’

That decline is illustrated by the fact even mid-table and lower-ranked Premier League sides can easily pick off talented players from top clubs in Spain and Italy who simply cannot turn down £30m.

An assessment of the major European counterpart leagues from English shores might reach some pretty stark conclusions.

LaLiga, which increasingly prides itself on being an antidote to the sovereign wealth and hedge funds pouring into the Premier League, is dominated by Barcelona and Real Madrid, two clubs bored by domestic competition as they seek to break away and form a European Super League.

Serie A was the world’s most attractive league in the 1990s but has declined and now looks a very poor relation with no money coming in to entice the best players.

As Roma boss Jose Mourinho lamented last month in a barb at his old club Chelsea: ‘We can’t just go and buy Mykhailo Mudryk for £90m!’

The Bundesliga is held up as the model for fan ownership and democracy but has been won by Bayern Munich every single year for the past decade and lacks competitiveness.

Ligue 1, meanwhile, often gets ridiculed as a ‘farmer’s league’ that isn’t worth watching because Paris Saint-Germain are head and shoulders above everyone else.

But after a set of fixtures in which Premier League clubs lost to Spanish, Italian and German opposition, any notions of English supremacy can be parked for now.

Money talks in the beautiful game and, as time goes on, the gap may widen between the Premier League and the rest. But for now, there is no indication of English dominance in Europe.

Of course, the 2021 final was contested between Chelsea and Man City, while in 2019 Liverpool defeated Tottenham Hotspur.

But there have been off-years too. 

In 2019-20, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs all went out in the last-16, while City made the quarters and lost to Lyon.

Real Madrid got the better of three English clubs en route to glory last season and, as Tuesday night showed, remain the kings of the continent.

There was a greater English dominance about 15 years ago, when Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool would lock out the latter stages.

It’s a growing influence once again but these latest results show we have some way to go before we have English winners every season.

So after a disappointing week, can they turn it around in the second legs? Sportsmail breaks each of the ties down…

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR vs AC MILAN (0-1)

Second leg; March 8; Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

What went wrong? Given they were missing key personnel because of injuries and suspensions, Spurs did well to remain in the contest having matched Milan for the most part after conceding an early Brahim Diaz goal. But their forward line of Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski struggled for service and created little of note. In the end, Spurs were grateful for Milan’s wastefulness when Charles de Ketelaere and Malick Thiaw missed late chances to give Milan a stronger grip on the tie.

Can they turn it around? Yes. Spurs have every chance of beating Milan on home turf and will take heart from their batting qualities in the San Siro. They will be without Eric Dier after he collected a booking in the second-half and will need greater defensive diligence with Cristian Romero in particular looking susceptible in the first leg. If Son and Kane find greater potency going forwards, they should beat a Milan team currently fourth in Serie A.

Chances of getting through: 4/5

CHELSEA vs BORUSSIA DORTMUND (0-1)

Second leg; March 7; Stamford Bridge

What went wrong? These are troubling times for Chelsea, who have won only once in 10 games, with mounting pressure on Graham Potter, but the first leg away to Dortmund was actually one of their better displays. 

Chelsea had 21 shots on goal, eight of which were on target, but they couldn’t find the net. That is becoming a familiar theme this season, with Joao Felix and Enzo Fernandez, two of the Blues’ January arrivals, guilty of squandering the best ones. Karim Adeyemi scored the only goal of the game as Dortmund stole a slender advantage to take to Stamford Bridge.

Can they turn it around? Yes… and no. If Chelsea generate the same number of chances as they did in Germany, surely they’ll be able to take them this time. But their recent poor run of form has exposed a real lack of confidence in a team that always seems to be in flux because of incoming players. 

Potter is widely disliked by the fans and crashing out of the Champions League would severely stretch the owners’ faith in him to build something positive. Dortmund, who are pushing for the Bundesliga title, are in excellent from by contrast and have enough to make it through.

Chances of getting through: 3/5

REAL MADRID vs LIVERPOOL (5-2)

Second leg; March 15; Santiago Bernabeu

What went wrong? Pretty much everything… after it had all started so well. 

Liverpool surged into an early two-goal lead as they dreamt of revenge for their loss to Real in last season’s final. But Jurgen Klopp’s side are a shadow of their best of late and they collapsed in the face of Real’s brilliance, conceding five at Anfield for the first time in European competition. Individual errors and shoddy defending were to blame as Real sliced through them time after time, with Liverpool presently devoid of the confidence and mentality to fight their way back.

Can they turn it around? The Champions League has a track record of miracle comebacks and Real provided some remarkable ones last season. That’s the reason we all love the competition. But Liverpool face a mountainous task in the Bernabeu, needing to win by four goals. Liverpool’s fans will travel in numbers but very much in hope rather than expectation this time.

Chances of getting through: 1/5

MANCHESTER CITY vs RB LEIPZIG (1-1)

Second leg; March 14; Etihad Stadium

What went wrong? City were the only one of the four to avoid defeat but were nonetheless frustrated they didn’t claim a first leg victory in Leipzig. They dominated the first-half and led through Riyad Mahrez but lost their grip on proceedings after the break, with defender Josko Gvardiol producing a towering header to equalise. Pep Guardiola and City were left even more aggrieved when they were denied a late penalty for handball, with VAR not even getting involved. Guardiola will be frustrated because his side struggled to create chances and Erling Haaland had a quiet night.

Can they turn it around? There’s nothing to turn around and you’d say City are in the box seat heading into the second leg at the Etihad. 

Kevin De Bruyne missed the game on Wednesday through illness and so he should be back for the return. Haaland will surely be more on his game and lessons should be heeded from the defending that led to Leipzig’s leveller. 

You would certainly back City to get through from this position.

Chances of getting through: 5/5