Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool, the giants squeezed dry by the Premier League, collectively coughed up blood in the Champions League and Europa League and were dying.

In the past 72 hours, in the three major European Cups, the Premier League teams almost suffered a collective Waterloo. If Aston Villa hadn't defeated Lille 2-1 at home in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, the five Premier League teams would have been extremely ugly.

West Ham United shot once in the game and were blasted 33 times by Leverkusen, losing 0-2; Liverpool lost 0-3 at home to Atlanta. In the Champions League, Arsenal and Manchester City both lost

and were exhausted, which was written on the faces of every Premier League player who was exhausted in the European competition. The Premier League was indispensable for such a collective dismal performance.

Arsenal’s double central defenders

Let’s review a few shots first. This is the first leg of Arsenal’s home game against Bayern in the Champions League quarter-finals. Bayern has lost 2 games in a row in the league and was even reversed 3-2 by Heidenheim. The Kings are 16 points behind Leverkusen, and almost no one is optimistic that they can get a point from the Emirates Stadium, even 1 point.

Arsenal’s total worth is 1.16 billion, which is 220 million higher than Bayern. This is also a reflection of strength. Moreover, the two central defenders, Gabriel and Saliba, have an iron wall. Haaland bowed to their iron trousers and had no temper.

is such a pair of top central defenders who had problems one after another against Bayern.

In the 18th minute, there was a problem with the cooperation between Gabriel and Raya. Although Kiviol failed to catch Gabriel's pass, if Gabriel could choose a more secure way of handling it (pass the ball with his big foot) Go to the frontcourt, make a short pass to lead Kiviol to run to the wing, or kick the ball directly to the opponent's wing, backcourt or sideline), there will be no steals from Sane, assists from Goretzka, and Gnab scored the equalizing goal.

10 minutes later, faced with Sane's running wildly, Gabriel had a clear mind and stopped his feet at the last moment, but Saliba sent a penalty kick in the penalty area and Kane scored from the penalty spot.

What if Saliba calmed down? Can Sane definitely score the ball? When athletes' physical fitness declines, they will also have problems with their judgment. To put it simply, their brains get stuck and they will make incredible decisions.

Liverpool's disastrous defeat

Let's look at Liverpool again. No one could have expected that Liverpool could lose so miserably at home! After all, Liverpool has maintained a 34-game unbeaten streak at home in all competitions. The last time they lost was a 2-5 loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League on February 22 last year.

But facing Atlanta, almost all Liverpool players were out of shape. Except for Robertson, who came on the bench, as well as Elliott and Gakpo, the three of them had a common characteristic, that is, abundant physical fitness.

The starting player, Endo Hang, committed a handball foul in front of the penalty area line and made multiple passing errors, which directly gave the opponent the opportunity to counterattack. Nunez began to waste opportunities again and was tired, which was written on their faces.

Klopp was not unprepared. He had already rotated out Szoboszlai and other starters. Salah came off the bench and scored a goal, but it was canceled due to offside.

Let’s look at Szoboszlai again. He performed well as a substitute. It was his careless passing error that led to Liverpool’s third goal. How could Szoboszlai do it when he was fully charged? Such low-level operations occurred?

Tired Manchester City

In the Champions League in midweek, Manchester City drew 3-3 away from Real Madrid. This result is completely acceptable to Blue Moon fans. After all, Manchester City still has the initiative when they return to the Etihad in the second round.

But throughout the game, Haaland continued to get lost in the focus of the showdown, and Manchester City's defensive performance was still unsatisfactory. Under the impact of the speed of Rodrigo and Vinicius, Manchester City players were exhausted.

If it was a physically strong Manchester City team, they might not be so embarrassed on the defensive end. Let's take a look at Manchester City's league game last weekend. The clues appeared at that time.

Against Crystal Palace, Manchester City's first goal was due to Stones' pass being intercepted. Manchester City's second goal conceded also came from Ayew stealing the ball from Rodri's feet.

Rodri, who has always been steady, struggled very much in that game. His body felt heavy when he ran, and his competitive state was at least 30% off. Although Manchester City won in the end, anyone with a discerning eye can see that dragging a tired body to challenge Real Madrid away from home is not a normal Manchester City.

What happened to the Premier League giants?

Let’s take a look at Liverpool first. The match against Atlanta is Liverpool’s 50th official game this season, but it is Atlanta’s 42nd game this season!

has played 20% more games than his opponents, so it is not surprising that he has problems with his physical fitness.

To make matters worse, Liverpool’s opponent last weekend was Manchester United, and last week’s Premier League was a double match. In just 7 days, Liverpool played 3 games.

Let’s look at Manchester City again. The game against Real Madrid was Blue Moon’s fourth game in 11 days. Last weekend’s away game against Crystal Palace was Blue Moon’s double match within 68 hours. This was only Real Madrid’s second game in the past 24 days. .

Thanks to Manchester City's early exit from the League Cup this season, the team has only played 50 games so far. Arsenal's situation is still better than the two, because, so far this season, they have only played 49 games!

As for the Gunners and Blue Moon's Champions League opponents, Bayern has played 44 games and Real Madrid has played 47 games.

Not only that, the Premier League has been very tight in recent months, with Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester City vying for supremacy. The points difference has never been more than one goal. This has also resulted in the top three having to give their best in every Premier League game and not be able to spare any effort. Players also put in much more physical effort in the league.

The question arises, why do Premier League teams play so many games? There are only 18 teams in the Bundesliga, which means there are 4 fewer rounds, but La Liga also has 38 rounds.

The cost of multi-line operations

The problem occurs in the League Cup. La Liga (too few Super Cup games) and the Bundesliga have only one cup (King's Cup and German Cup), but the English game is different. In addition to the FA Cup, there are also In the League Cup, previous rounds had to be replayed if they were tied. Even if they can rotate in the first few rounds, when they see the hope of winning the championship, the giants will still send their main players to attack on multiple fronts.

Liverpool is the best example. They won the League Cup and saw the dawn of the quadruple crown. They attacked hard on multiple fronts. As a result, they were eliminated by Manchester United in the FA Cup. The Premier League fell from the first place to the third place. They suffered a disastrous home defeat in the Europa League. . Maybe, the goal of winning the fourth crown becomes losing the title in the third tier.

Of course, some fans have said that this cannot be entirely blamed on the Premier League officials. After all, the League Cup was created by the English Professional Football League with the purpose of challenging the FA Cup owned by the English Football Association.

The English Football Association has the Premier League and the FA Cup, but there is no way to win the League Cup. This is indeed reasonable, but the problem is that, knowing that in April, the Champions League and Europa League, including the UEFA Europa League, have entered the quarterfinals, the Premier League officials cannot prepare in advance and move forward the Premier League's weekly double matches so that The team can avoid at least a week of double matches before the European war.

Today, Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal drag their tired bodies back to the Premier League and Champions League. This not only affects the quality of the game, but also affects the performance of the Premier League in the European competition. The fans failed to appreciate the full-level confrontation, and the only winner was The one who is profitable may be their opponent.