Champions League masters Real Madrid & Bayern Munich bust Premier League empire myth - Man City are the only elite English team

In the case of Man City, there is no reason to panic. Pep Guardiola's side camped in Madrid's half for the best part of 120 minutes in their second leg of their quarter-final, mustering 33 shots to the visitors' eight while enjoying 68 percent of the possession.

Rodrygo opened the scoring early after a swift Real counter-attack, but they barely had another sniff of goal, and it felt like just a matter of time before City got back into the game. The only surprise was it took until the 76th minute, when Kevin De Bruyne blasted the ball high into the net from close-range after a botched clearance from Antonio Rudiger, and Real then continued to ride their luck to force extra-time.

City passed their opponents to death, as they do to most teams, and Real were on their knees collectively by the time the final whistle blew. Los Blancos defended for their lives to force penalties, and showed nerves of steel to come out on top with the added pressure of taking theirs in front of the fervent home supporters.

It was a cruel way for City's double-treble bid to end. The only real difference between this contest and the second leg of the semi-final tie between the two clubs last season, which City won 4-0, was that they failed to take their chances.

Guardiola will no doubt get a strong response from his players in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final showdown against Chelsea. City are heavy favourites to progress, and to go on and win their record-breaking fourth successive Premier League crown, and rightly so.

The threat of serious punishment from their 115 FFP charges case, which is due to be heard this autumn, still hangs over everything. But there is no denying City's status as an elite team, and exiting the Champions League won't knock them off their stride.

The same cannot be said for Arsenal, however...

Guardiola insisted that he had "no regrets" after City's European exit because "we did everything" and "played exceptional". Mikel Arteta was also left bemoaning the "small margins" after Arsenal's 1-0 defeat in Munich, but unlike those of his former mentor, they were hollow words.

Arsenal were lucky to escape with a 2-2 draw in the first leg on home soil, and didn't deserve anything from the second. The Gunners started well, but Bayern were in the ascendency by the time the half-time whistle blew, and they controlled the game in the second 45 minutes, with Joshua Kimmich heading home the decisive goal after ghosting in unmarked to meet a Raphael Guerreiro cross at the back post.

Much has been made of the improvements Arsenal have made as a collective since narrowly missing out on the 2022-23 Premier League title, with William Saliba shaking off his injury problems and club-record signing Declan Rice adding a new dimension in midfield, but they are still naive in the biggest games and lack real strength in depth.

Arteta's men didn't look like a team motivated to right the wrongs of Sunday's 2-0 loss against Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium, which handed the initiative in this season's Premier League title race back to City. The likes of Bukayo Saka and Ben White, who have barely missed a minute of action this term, were clearly exhausted in the latter stages at the Allianz Arena.

There would usually be no shame in being outfoxed by Bayern, but Thomas Tuchel's team have been a disjointed mess for much of the campaign, despite Harry Kane's record-breaking scoring exploits. They've been beaten to the Bundesliga title with five games to spare, sitting 16 points behind the new champions Bayer Leverkusen, and were dumped out of the DFB-Pokal in the second round by third-tier outfit Saarbrucken.

"I think we have the capacity and the quality to be in the semi-final," Arteta added. "When you look historically, it took other clubs seven, eight or 10 years to do it [make the Champions League semi-finals]."

If Arsenal aren't good enough to beat this version of Bayern, it could very well take them another 10 years to make the last four. The reality is, Arteta is no closer to delivering the biggest titles after investing over £200m in his squad last summer, and that doesn't reflect well on the strength of the Premier League.

From a statistical standpoint, City and Arsenal's European misery has already had a damaging effect on the Premier League. Germany were only just ahead of England in UEFA's coefficient rankings heading into this week's set of fixtures, but they now have a commanding lead.

The top two nations will receive an extra Champions League spot for the 2024-25 season - which will see the tournament expanded to 36 teams - with Serie A and the Bundesliga set to benefit as it stands. It will now take a minor miracle for England to overtake Germany, who have two teams in the Champions League semis as well as Leverkusen on the brink of a last-four berth in the Europa League after winning the first leg of their quarter-final against West Ham 2-0.

Liverpool are also in real danger of crashing out of the Europa League after a 3-0 defeat to Atalanta at Anfield. At the moment, Aston Villa are the only English team in a strong position to go on and clinch continental silverware, as they head into the second leg of their Europa Conference League quarter-final against Lille with a 2-1 aggregate advantage.

It's a sorry state of affairs for English football, of course not helped by Manchester United and Newcastle's humiliating group-stage exits in the Champions League back in December. Serie A champions-elect Inter went out in the last 16 alongside Lazio and Napoli, but Italy will likely have two representatives in the Europa League semi-finals, as Roma and Milan prepare to face off again to likely join Atalanta in the final four, while Fiorentina could still win the Conference League.

If the Premier League is the best in the world, why is it not reflected by the performances in Europe? The answer is clear: Man City are the only top team in England right now, and the gulf between them and the chasing pack is likely to only get bigger.

For the last six years, Liverpool have been the main challengers to City, pipping them to the post for the 2019-20 title and finishing as runners-up on two occasions. They appeared on course to dethrone City again just a few weeks ago as one entry in a potential quadruple, but missed a golden chance to pull away when playing out a 1-1 draw against the champions at Anfield after laying siege to their goal.

Jurgen Klopp's side were then beaten in the FA Cup quarter-finals by Manchester United, and failed to avenge that defeat in the league as they were held to a hugely disappointing 2-2 draw at Old Trafford, which they followed up with the shocking display against Atalanta and a 1-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace.

All of this means that Liverpool could now finish the campaign with just the Carabao Cup to show for their efforts. They are third in the Premier League standings with six games left to play, two points adrift of City and just behind Arsenal in goal difference.

The situation is salvageable, but City have the easier fixtures on paper and history suggests their recent winning run will continue. Whatever happens, it could be a while before Liverpool get this close to Guardiola's side again.

A new era will be ushered in when Klopp officially walks away from his Anfield post at the end of May, after nine years of box-office entertainment and tangible success. It would be a huge surprise if the Reds don't go through a transitional period, regardless of who is brought in to replace the beloved German, with speculation over the futures of star players such as Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk now building.

If Liverpool do decline, who looks capable of taking their spot in the top-four? Manchester United, Newcastle and Chelsea have all fallen well short of expectations this season, while the jury is still out on whether Tottenham are ready to reach the next level under attack-minded boss Ange Postecoglou. It's entirely possible that the Premier League will be an even weaker competition by this time next year.

The rest of Europe will be celebrating right now. Bayern made a mockery of Arsenal's billing as one of the early favourites to lift the 2023-24 Champions League, while Madrid's triumph over City showed that the unpredictability of knockout football is still alive and well.

All of City's riches counted for nothing on a night when luck deserted them, and Madrid and Bayern both used every ounce of their superior know-how to get over the line. Of course, both clubs are still footballing superpowers, as are fellow semi-finalists Paris Saint-Germain - and so this cannot be regarded as a fairy-tale story by any stretch of the imagination.

But the Premier League rakes in billions more than La Liga, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A in TV revenue, and it's forking out over £2 billion more than all four of its competitors in player wages. The much maligned European Super League project was only tabled in the first place out of a desperation to address the disparity.

It had also been suggested that the Champions League was going stale due to City's dominance. This season's thrilling quarter-final matches breathed life back into the competition; there was an undercurrent of real jeopardy and hope from the first minute to the last, and the turning points came via moments that got people off their seats - for good and bad reasons.

The dread surrounding next season's expanded competition has also dissipated. It's now safe to say that Premier League clubs won't have everything their own way when the 36-team league stage gets underway, and that's only a good thing for football as a whole.

The top clubs across Spain, Italy, Germany and France have had to work harder on the training ground and scour the transfer market to find the best bargains deals in order to keep up with the Premier League in recent years, and that's not going to change anytime soon. City will probably still be the team to beat, at least for as long as Guardiola remains in charge at the Etihad, and the cash-grabbing culture at the core of English football is probably only going to get worse. Yet the evidence suggests there will be no lasting dynasty.

The Premier League, FA and EFL don't help themselves in that regard. The hectic calendar has become a gripe for all the top managers, and while City have coped impressively in recent years, Arsenal and Liverpool are both struggling with burnout in their respective camps.

FA Cup replays have been scrapped, which is a step in the right direction, but more must be done to give English teams the best possible chance to achieve success in continental competition. City and Arsenal played their 51st and 46th games of the season on Wednesday, respectively, while Madrid and Bayern were on the pitch for the 45th and 42nd time. It might not sound like much, but those extra rest periods gave the Spanish and German giants a small advantage, and that could well be the case again with more games in the expanded Champions League.

In the short-term, the sanctity of the Champions League has been protected. Borussia Dortmund are the only real 'underdogs' left in the competition, but the absence of English teams shows that money doesn't always guarantee success.

Although City are still setting an unprecedented standard of excellence, Arsenal still appear to be a long way off the very best, Liverpool are facing an uncertain future, and the likes of United and Chelsea may not even be competing on Europe's biggest stage again for some time yet.

This season's Champions League semi-final line-up is the most intriguing in years, with all four teams capable of going on to lift the trophy. Will Ancelotti clinch his fifth crown with Real? Or could it be a repeat of the all-German final of 2013 at Wembley, with Bayern finally lifting the 'Harry Kane curse'? It might be that Dortmund gain revenge for their defeat 11 years ago, or Kylian Mbappe could bow out at Paris Saint-Germain by inspiring them to their first European title.

There are so many compelling narratives to follow, and the Premier League clubs probably won't be missed, even by the most loyal English fans.