Another season, another whitewash. Or, at least, a whitewash with a big red cross of St George in it and some red and yellow representing Catalonia floating dangerously around the edges.

Europe tipped its collective hat to the Barclays Premier League yesterday after, for the third consecutive year, three English clubs reached the Champions League semi-finals. The final will have at least one English participant for the fifth successive season. This feat is a once-in-a-decade phenomenon that seems to coincide with a period of unquestioned dominance. The last league to do it was Serie A, when seven Italian clubs reached the final between 1992 and 1998. Before that, English sides reached six consecutive finals between 1977 and 1982, Dutch clubs managed it for five years between 1968 and 1973, and Spanish sides reached the final for seven consecutive seasons, from 1956 to 1962.

It is hard to question this kind of dominance, unthinkable to chalk it up to freak results. The Premier League is clearly ahead, at least in terms of depth, and money has a lot to do with it. But it is not the only thing that matters, Eduardo Suárez suggested in El Mundo, the Spanish newspaper. “The origins of the supremacy lie with their economic means, but that alone cannot explain everything,” he wrote. “The culture and mentality of the clubs also matter, as does planning. There is more patience in England than in Spain, less urgency about getting instant results. Managers like [Sir Alex] Ferguson, [Rafael] Benítez and [Arsene] Wenger would not have survived the pressure to win instantly that afflicts the big Spanish clubs.”

The “money” argument was also dispelled to some degree in the French press. Writing in L’Equipe, Ángel Marcos, the former Nantes striker turned pundit, pointed out the success of Villarreal and Porto, clubs with relatively modest means, in reaching the quarter-finals. Marcos maintained that the annual budgets of Villarreal and Porto — £65 million respectively — are not out of line with those of the bigger French clubs such as Lyons (£128 million), Marseilles (£75 million) and Bordeaux (£57 million). And yet, he wrote, Villarreal and Porto achieved some measure of success, whereas the French clubs have not.

Gianluca Vialli, the former Chelsea manager, now a pundit on Sky Italia, pointed out the differences among the English clubs. “Manchester United and Chelsea may have great financial means, but Arsenal do not, at least not relative to the competition,” he said. “So you can’t say it’s just about money. Arsenal are a well-run club who have chosen to go with youth and have been rewarded. This kind of courage, this willingness to give the kids a chance if they’re good enough, is something Italian clubs might want to consider as well. Young players bring enthusiasm and workrate.”

The most acerbic commentary towards the shortcomings of continental clubs perhaps can be found in Corriere della Sera, the Milan daily, where Alberto Costa wrote: “The situation [with no Italian clubs involved at this stage] is embarrassing but perhaps we can learn something watching on TV from home. It’s not just that their clubs play better football, they also run more and work harder. Because we in Italy refuse to believe that anyone trains better than we do, we have to ask ourselves just why Wayne Rooney can chase full backs up and down the pitch whereas [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic stands still, hands on hips. Maybe it’s a question of attitude.”

Barcelona are the only continental club left to challenge England’s hegemony and it is perhaps not surprising that Sport, the Catalan daily, offers up a headline of “Barcelona v Premier” while proudly noting that the English bookmakers make Pep Guardiola’s side favourites to lift the European Cup in Rome on May 27.

Indeed, throughout Europe, there were only two real arguments against English top-flight football. The first is a familiar one: the lack of Englishmen. La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian daily, notes that when Fabio Capello watched Chelsea v Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, he would have seen only three players out of 22 eligible to play for England and one of them, Jamie Carragher, has retired from international football.

The other perceived flaw is the goalkeepers. “Petr Cech and Pepe Reina certainly did not enjoy the 4-4 at Stamford Bridge,” wrote Sport as it noted that both goalkeepers committed serious blunders along the way. The theme is echoed elsewhere, with some pointing out that the goalkeepers of the other three semi-finalists are either old (Edwin van der Sar. of Manchester United. turns 39 this year), injured (Manuel Almunia, of Arsenal) or mediocre (in an era of cheap caps, Víctor Valdés, of Barcelona, still does not have an appearance for Spain under his belt). Perhaps a top-notch goalkeeper is not as essential as many believed.

Flying the flag

Manchester United’s match with Arsenal this month will make it four all-English semi-finals in the past five seasons of the Champions League, after three bouts of Chelsea v Liverpool. In this period, only two semi-finals have not featured an English side — AC Milan v PSV (2005) and Barcelona v Milan (2006).

England 12 (Chelsea 4, Liverpool 3, Manchester United 3, Arsenal 2)

Spain 4 (Barcelona 3, Villarreal 1)

Italy 3 (Milan 3)

Holland 1 (PSV Eindhoven)