5 underachieving clubs in European football

#1 Arsenal

A familiar sigh for Arsenal fans

Arsenal are the biggest club in one of Europe's most important city, London, and the 3rd most successful club in English football. However, as far as underachievement in European competition is concerned, then the club is in a league of its own.

The club won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the precursor to the UEFA Cup and the Europa League, back in 1970 and ended up as the runners-up in the same competition a decade later.

However, their record in the UEFA Champions League is dreadful for a club of their size and stature.It is particularly appalling considering the fact that until 2016, they had qualified for the competition twenty times in a row. In 2006, Arsenal came closes to winning it but late goals from opponents Barcelona ruined their chances and since then, they have been quite disappointing in the Champions League.

They reached the semi-final in the 2008-09 season but other than that, Arsenal have become infamous for losing heavily to other European giants in knockout games, usually the round of 16.

In the UEFA Cup, they reached the final in 2000 but ended up as runners-up to Turkish side Galatasaray then. Over the years, they have had some of the best players in Europe in their squad and even with a squad that went through the league season unbeaten back in 2003-04, Arsenal could only go as far as the semi-final in the Champions League.

As far as European underachievement is concerned, Arsenal are peerless and it is perhaps time for them to remedy that this season in the Europa League.