England coming up short again?

Another sombre night for English teams in the Champions League, even Manchester City flattered to deceive.

A display of quality by Barcelona perhaps but Arsenal had surrendered the tie with the 2-0 home reverse by the Catalans. It was a much improved performance at the Camp Nou but still ended up losing 3-1 (5-1 on aggregate).

I read a stat earlier that stated that England have had 4 Champions League quarter finalists from 2012-2016 which is astonishing. It's a worrying trend considering the 4 years before there were 16 appearances from England's elite.

I believe it's down to two simple things, attitude and quality.

Arsenal turned to Alex Iwobi last night in crisis to not only stop Neymar but because quite frankly Theo Walcott isn't good enough.

There were bright sparks last night with Iwobi and Danny Welbeck putting in a shift as well as goalscorer Mohammed Elneny. The worrying thing would have been Barca rarely had to step out of first gear and when they did goals appeared, it's that easy.

After watching the end of that game I turned over to see Bayern Munich v Juventus which was definitely the tie of the round. 2-2 going into extra time the thing that sets the elite from the rest is not only attitude but the players who start and the others who replace.

Bayern were lucky to still be in the tie thanks to Thomas Muller's late header rescuing the game late on. Juventus had plenty of chances to win the game and against another side would have won comfortably but Bayern roared back.

Substitutions change games and when you can bring on Thiago and Kingsley Coman(ironically on loan from Juve) you know you've got more than enough ammunition.

Considering the Barclays Premier League is the richest league the money is clearly being poorly spent in comparison to Germany, Italy and Spain.

Arsenal were missing the likes of Ramsey, Wilshire, Cazorla, Cech and Oxlade-Chamberlain. Even if those were fit there's still nowhere near enough quality to go toe to toe with the best teams in Europe.

Another problem in this country is the reluctance to trust youth especially in bigger games because they clearly aren't good enough.

Barcalona can turn to Sergi Roberto, Juventus have Paulo Dybala and Paul Pogba, Bayern played with Joshua Kimmich, Coman, David Alaba and so on.

These players are clearly developing better abroad than here where progress seems to stall or they get built up and then suffer because of it. John Stones case in point.

Let's pick no bones about it Manchester City were dire the night before against Dynamo Kiev and you could say they didn't need to score but with respect to Kiev, they could have sent a message to their rivals with a commanding performance but it didn't come.

Once again it comes down to lack of quality, David Silva and Sergio Aguero weren't great and Yaya Toure fluttered in and out as he so often does. The defence now void of Vincent Kompany will pray they draw one of the so called weaker sides in the competition.

At the end of the day it's not good enough, they've got the finances and resources alike. Europe is the yard stick for how successful you are as a club. 4 quarter finals in 4 years isn't good enough and England should be thankful they held onto that European spot because it should have been taken away.