Football | After Chelsea’s exit, English clubs face European humbling

Exiting the Champions League was painful for Jose Mourinho but there was no sense of injustice. The Chelsea manager was uncharacteristically restrained, with no attempt to excuse an abject performance against a Paris Saint-Germain side reduced to 10 men for most yesterday’s game.
Chelsea lacked defensive organization and attacking resolve against the French league’s second-place team. And Mourinho was left questioning the mental strength of his players, who have forged a five-point lead in the Premier League but couldn’t beat a team shorn of striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic after half an hour.
“When a team cannot defend two corners and concedes two goals from the corners, that team doesn’t deserve to win,” Mourinho said after the 2-2 draw which sent PSG through on away goals with the 3-3 aggregate result.
“I think we couldn’t cope with that pressure.”
Mourinho was echoing Arsene Wenger’s assessment of Arsenal after the north London club crumbled 3-1 at home to another French side, Monaco, in their round of 16 first leg.
Unlike Chelsea, Arsenal still has a chance of qualifying for the quarterfinals next week. So does Manchester City, which trails Barcelona 2-1.
But faced with those tough away assignments in Europe, City and Arsenal also find themselves playing for the reputation of the Premier League.
The English topflight has never been stronger as a business, with its financial firepower reinforced by a new $8 billion, three-year deal for domestic television rights sealed last month.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore celebrated the windfall by predicting it will “make our clubs even more competitive against our European counterparts.”
It is an optimistic outlook. English clubs have been declining as a force in Europe even though their bank balances have been swelled by Premier League cash. AP