Why are Premier League clubs failing in Europe?

No winter break

England’s footballing schedule is simply too demanding.

Thirty-eight (38) league fixtures, two domestic cups, potential FA Cup replays, two-legged League Cup semi-finals, for those who get there – but yet no winter break.

When you put it like that, it’s hard to look past the demands of the English game. By the time the Champions League last-16 comes around in early February, European teams will be refreshed after a winter break, whilst English teams will have just finished one of the busiest periods of the season.

When the last-16 begins, and English sides are faced with Europe’s ‘big boys’, Bayern Munich in Arsenal’s case, the fresh legs of the European sides prove too much for the English teams.

The superior fitness of Munich over Arsenal was just one of the many reasons behind their 5–1 demolitions, both home and away, in this season’s Champions League.