FOR years I rejected the assertion that 'the Premier League is harder to win than the Champions League'. For starters, an English club wins the (English) Premier League every year; yet the European Cup/ Champions League has only been won 14 times by English clubs in its 66 seasons, with six successes in the 29 years of the CL.
That's a success rate of around 21 per cent.
Yet winning the Premier League increasingly requires reaching phenomenal heights.
It used to be that a points tally in the mid-80s would almost assure you of the PL trophy.
However, the average winning total over the past six seasons has been almost 95 points; take out Manchester City's 86 points from the 2020/21 campaign and the average is closer to 97 points.
The talk used to be that a team couldn't lose more than six matches; Liverpool only lost six matches in total over the 2018/19, 2019/20, and 2021/22 league campaigns - and still only won the title once, two years ago.
That's a tribute to the consistency and brilliance of City - and of Liverpool.
The Reds' runners-up tally in 2019, 97 points, is the fourth highest points total ever. This year's 92 points is the eighth best ever.
City have registered the highest ever, 100 points in 2017/18, and the third highest, 98 in 2018/19. Liverpool have the second best tally, 99 points when they finally won the PL in 2020.
Even with one 'off' season each, City have averaged 89.5 points over the past four seasons; Liverpool 89.25.
It's also getting to the point where every draw for a title challenge feels like a defeat; you can't risk dropping points in more than nine games.
City showed the grit of true champions in their last few matches. First, by bouncing back from the devastating disappointment of their astonishing Champions League semi-final exit to not only win their next couple of league games, but win them very well. Thrashing Newcastle 5-0 and winning 5-1 at Wolves also boosted their goal difference.
Yet equally impressive were their two comebacks from two-goal deficits, first to earn a draw away to West Ham United, then to defeat Aston Villa on Sunday, with victory vital or else Liverpool would take the league title off them.
City's defence was rather patched up in both those matches, with Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake both out and Aymeric Laporte and Kyle Walker struggling with injuries.
Manchester City are now aiming for English immortality, a title three-in-a-row, a feat only previously achieved by Huddersfield Town, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester United (twice).
Those last three have also won four out of five titles, the north-west red outfits both having achieved that twice.
In fact United won five out of six from 1995/6 to 2000/01, and an amazing 13 out of 20 from the start of the Premier League era to their last title in 2013.
The new man in charge at Old Trafford, Erik ten Hag, will be expected to end that wait, although it'll be quite a shock if he does so before it stretches into a second decade.
City and Liverpool remain phenomenally strong. Both have already strengthened for next season, the champions by acquiring Erling Braut Haaland, the Reds bringing in Portuguese prodigy Fabio Carvalho from Fulham, having added the brilliant Luis Diaz in January. Both will surely buy again this summer.
However, as great as Manchester City have been, and they have been truly great, they know themselves that their place in the soccer pantheon isn't assured until and unless they win the Champions League.
Just as ten Hag knows he must bring the Premier League back to United, so Pep craves the Champions League to make City truly legendary.
City were unlucky to lose last year's final to Chelsea, especially with the injury Antonio Rudiger inflicted on Kevin de Bruyne to force the brilliant Belgian midfielder off; although Pep Guardiola's team selection was bad too.
Their semi-final exit this year was extraordinary. Having dominated both legs, they led in the 90th minute in the Bernabeu, yet somehow conceded two goals and then lost in extra time.
That result pitted Real Madrid against Liverpool, two clubs for whom the European Cup/ Champions League is special.
It's the competition which has made both clubs world-famous, just as it did for Manchester United, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, and - eventually - Barcelona.
Quiz question: which club dominated the Bundesliga in the Seventies?
'Bayern Munich, surely', most would say - but although they won three consecutive titles, from 1972 to 1974, they were outdone by Borussia Moenchengladbach, who won the first two of that decade, and the next three after Bayern's treble.
Unfortunately for Moenchengladbach, they didn't quite cut it at the very top level in Europe. While Bayern completed a hat-trick of European Cups, 'the Colts' lost out in the 1977 Final to Liverpool, having also been beaten in the 1973 Uefa Cup Final by the Reds (although Moenchengladbach did win that secondary European club competition in 1975 and 1979).
While Liverpool have only won one Premier League, they've collected two more Champions League in that era, in 2005 and 2019, moving on to six.
Real Madrid are the big dogs in this competition of course, their 13 triumphs as many as Milan (second on the roll of honour, with seven) and Liverpool put together.
While the Champions League remains a dream for Manchester City and a hope for Liverpool, it's an absolute expectation for Real Madrid.
For all his sniping at Madrid, Pep wouldn't have lasted there, not without winning the big one.
Vicente del Bosque delivered not one but two Champions League titles, in 2000 and 2002, but departed in 2003, despite being La Liga champion, his second domestic title in four seasons.
Zinedine Zidane won just one La Liga in his first spell, two-and-a-half seasons - but he won all three Champions Leagues he contested.
Current boss Carlo Ancelotti got three seasons in his first spell because he won the Champions League in the second of those, 2013-14.
In contrast, Jose Mourinho broke records in his La Liga success in 2011-12 - but failed in Europe, so he was shipped out.
Fabio Capello won La Liga in 2006/7 - but didn't deliver the CL, so he went.
Pep is a terrific manager - but he's also fortunate that he's not at Real Madrid.
You don't have to be a great team to win the Champions League - but you won't be considered a great team unless you win the Champions League.
That may be harsh, even unfair, but that's not the fault of UEFA, nor LFC; to quote Run DMC, 'Because it's like that, and that's the way it is'.
