"How the Premier League Has Taken Over European Football"

Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle, and Tottenham all won their matches this week, and the first four of those teams are now in the top eight – the positions they need to be in to automatically qualify for the knockout stages.

Only Chelsea failed to take all three points, being held to a 2-2 draw by Qarabag on Wednesday, but they are still in a good position halfway through the group stage and sit in 12th place.

Before this season, never had five teams from one country won their matches in the same round of the Champions League. Now English teams have done it twice.

Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague said: "In five years' time we will look back at this period of the next five years as one of English dominance, I don't see any other way."

"Bayern are doing very, very well and they could spoil it. PSG will also have their moments, I think Barcelona and Real Madrid have fallen behind, but apart from them, there's nobody else."

So after this impressive start, are English teams the favourites to win the Champions League? And how likely is a fourth all-English final?

Arsenal are hoping to win the Champions League for the first time and, although it's early days, they have made a fantastic start.

They, Bayern Munich, and Inter Milan are the only teams with a perfect record so far in the league phase, sitting jointly at the top with 12 points out of 12. So far, they have kept clean sheets in all four of their matches and have also scored 11 goals – a scoring record bettered only by Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain (both 14), Borussia Dortmund (13), and Barcelona (12).

Overall, English teams are outperforming those from other countries, winning 17 of their 24 matches, scoring a total of 56 goals – 14 more than any other nation – and conceding only 17, a record bettered only by French teams, who have three clubs in the competition compared to England's six.

So why are English teams performing so well? A key factor is the financial power they wield compared to the rest of Europe, allowing them to spend more on transfer fees and salaries to attract the best talent.

Premier League teams have received huge broadcast revenues from TV rights, and the income from this source far outweighs that of other countries.
This summer, Premier League clubs spent more than ever before in the transfer window, with spending exceeding £3 billion.

To illustrate the financial power Premier League clubs possess compared to the rest of Europe, this year's total spending was more than the combined spending of all the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, and Serie A clubs.

More money means clubs can invest in larger squads, and Arsenal have reaped the benefits of spending big to strengthen their squad this summer, as they currently sit top of the Premier League and are joint-top of their Champions League group.

Balague added: "Obviously, anything can happen in the knockout stages, but in terms of money, talent, coaching, facilities, and even the talent in the offices, England is the super league of Europe."

"I'm not saying this out of jealousy of Spanish football, it's just a reflection of what's happening." Will a record number of English clubs progress?
This is the first Champions League season to feature six clubs from one country, and history will be made if all six English representatives advance.

In 2017, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham all progressed, making England the first country to send five teams to the knockout stages of the competition.

However, only two of those teams – Liverpool and Manchester City – made it past the last 16, with the Reds going all the way to the final after eliminating City in the quarter-finals.

In the final, Liverpool lost to Real Madrid.

According to Opta's predictions, Arsenal have a 99.8% chance of reaching the knockout stages, Manchester City 97.4% and Liverpool 95.5%.

However, the prediction model is slightly less confident about the automatic progression of the other three teams, with Newcastle having an 82% chance, Chelsea 80.8% and Tottenham 72%. Former Liverpool midfielder Stephen Warnock told BBC Sport: "I would say what the English teams are doing right now is [quite significant], but it doesn't matter what's happening right now because we saw what happened last year when Liverpool were dominant and topped their group in the league stage – and then suddenly they got knocked out by PSG who had been playing very poorly up until then.

"So I don't think, until you're actually knocked out, that it has any bearing and it doesn't mean that the English teams will get through the knockout stages because it all depends on the draw, and how you prepare later on."