Europa League 2018/2019: Three talking points from matchday one

#2 The big teams may find it easy in the competition

Chelsea posted a routine victory against Paok

The Europa League is open to clubs from all countries in Europe. This means that even nations with lesser known footballing pedigrees and under developed leagues such as Malta, Macedonia and Faroe Islands get to be represented.

Clubs from more established leagues such as the Serie A and Bundesliga who didn't make it to the Champions League also participate, and with all due respect to the clubs in the former category, they are quite simply no match for the clubs from the bigger leagues.

Clubs like Chelsea, Lazio, Milan and Arsenal find themselves facing opposition in the mold of Paok Thessaloniki, Apollon Limmassol, Dudelange and Vorskla Poltava, and other than having very difficult names to pronounce, not much else is known about these clubs.

Matchday one offered some very uneven matchups and most of the results largely went as expected, with the big boys coming to the party.

The Europa League has too many unknown clubs participating in it, and on evidence of the results of matchday one, they are no match for the bigger clubs across Europe.