THE PREMIER LEAGUE has provided six of the last 10 Champions League finalists and its clubs were by far the biggest spenders in the summer transfer window, strengthening their already deep squads and weakening some of their European rivals in the process.

No wonder many were anticipating English domination of the Champions League this season, but it’s not happened.

After two rounds of the group stage, it has been an underwhelming start by the English teams, with three of the four having already lost a game and far from sure of advancing to the round of 16.

Chelsea are in the most trouble. Champions twice in the past decade and the club that had a Europe-high outlay of nearly $300 million in the summer, after a loss at Dinamo Zagreb in group E and only a draw at home to Salzburg,  they head into a tough double-header against Italian champions AC Milan in a sticky spot and with a new coach still trying to work out his best lineup and formation.

Graham Potter only took charge last month after the firing of Thomas Tuchel, hardly an ideal situation for a team nearing midway through a group-stage campaign. On the plus side for Chelsea ahead of Wednesday’s home game, they did rally to beat Crystal Palace 2-1 in the Premier League at the weekend.

Liverpool, meanwhile, opened with a chastening 4-1 loss at Napoli in group A and might have been in a similarly tough position to Chelsea if it wasn’t for a last-minute goal by Joel Matip to beat Ajax 2-1.

Now there’s a sense of optimism around the Reds’ European hopes, given two straight games against last-place Rangers starting tonight, after which Liverpool could be yet in sight of qualification. 

Then there’s Tottenham, who only beat 10-man Marseille in group D thanks to two late goals from Richarlison and were then way below par in a surprise loss in Portugal to Sporting Lisbon.

Spurs now have two matches against Eintracht Frankfurt, starting in Germany tonight, but they go into the game smarting after Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Arsenal.

Manchester City, who routed city rivals United 6-3 on Sunday, are the only English team in a strong position after wins over Sevilla and Borussia Dortmund. Next comes back-to-back games against FC Copenhagen, with City having a good chance of advancing from group G with two matches to spare. Their first game is on Wednesday.

For Scotland’s two representatives in the competition, the prospects look bleak: Rangers may well feel Liverpool’s wrath in their afore-mentioned clashes, while Celtic will be lucky to pick up more than a point in their double-header against Leipzig, which starts on Wednesday, no matter how troubled the east German side look to be.