I decided to do some hard numbers on this. I keep hearing pundits saying it is "no excuse", as if premiere league teams having a more more gruelling season due to the intense competition in the Premiere league is not a real thing.
I have noticed that for the last 2 seasons Premiere League teams have dominated the league phase, and generally performed poorly in the knockout phases. I am interested to know, how do the naysayers explain these statistics.
I calculated a points per game average, based upon 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw, for the League phase, vs Knockout phase of the Championsleague.
| Team | Season | League phase PPG | Knockout phase PPG |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSG | 2024/25 | 1.13 | 1.56 |
| Real Madrid | 2024/25 | 1.25 | 1.00 |
| Bayern Munich | 2024/25 | 1.25 | 1.33 |
| PSG | 2025/26 | 1.25 | 1.86 |
| Real Madrid | 2025/26 | 1.25 | 1.33 |
| Bayern Munich | 2025/26 | 1.75 | 1.60 |
| Team group | Season | League phase PPG | Knockout phase PPG |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Premier League teams | 2024/25 | 1.44 | 1.07 |
| English Premier League teams | 2025/26 | 1.50 | 0.84 |
| PSG, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich | 2024/25 | 1.31 | 1.30 |
| PSG, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich | 2025/26 | 1.41 | 1.55 |
| Spanish / La Liga teams | 2024/25 | 1.16 | 1.07 |
| Spanish / La Liga teams | 2025/26 | 0.93 | 1.24 |
So the first reaction might "well games are harder in the knocout phase". But if you look at all the the stats for other countries, this doesnt work out. I only did La Liga for comparision here, because it is probably the league closest to the Premiere League in terms of strength of teams in the competition. If you average over 2 season, Bayern Munich, and Spanish teams perform pretty much the same in the knockout phase vs league phase.
Premiere League has the HIGHEST pionts per game average ins both 24/25 and 2/26 seasons, and the LOWEST points per game average in the knockout phase (tied with La Liga in 24/25). in the 25/26 season, the 6 premiere league teams had a higher points per game average than PSG, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
And in both seasons PSG have performed poorly in the league phase and extremely well in the knockout phase. It seems obvious that there is a huge gap between PSG and the next best team in Ligue 1, and they can coast through 2/3 of the season. Is it any wonder that they have been able to beat premiere league teams in the knockout phase?
If any one else has an alternate explanation for these stats, then please share.