Paul McGrath on why two of the Premiership's big clubs were again found out in Europe.

All the smoke has cleared and there's one thing that we can see clearly. In a few years, when we come to look back at the time when Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger were the top dogs of the Premiership, their records in Europe won't do them any favours.

Domestic success is grand, but managers are judged by their achievements at the very top. Ferguson can point to 1999; to have won the thing once is certainly a massive achievement. But Wenger won't be able to explain his record.

You could divide the experience of English teams in Europe into halves: before Heysel and after Heysel. Until English clubs were forced out I think they had enjoyed so much success that the English way of playing was what everyone adapted too. European sides made the changes to their style.

When the cat's away, of course, the ground rules change. European soccer kept on developing after Heysel. English football has changed, too, but is still catching up. The Premiership is still the toughest league in the world, but it's not the most technically gifted one, and that's why there's only been one Champions League trophy for Premiership teams. A trophy won with two old-fashioned goals scored in injury time.

Arsenal first. Arsene Wenger would have been desperate this year. Not just because Europe gave him a chance to salvage a poor season, but because every year they seem to flop even though the style of football Arsenal play looks like it was designed for Europe.

It's not that easy though. You have to be more nimble at adapting to styles of play. For a good squad like Arsenal's, there aren't many challenges in the Premiership. With enough players going well they overpower most English clubs.

When I've watched them in the Premiership I've been one of those who has applauded and said they were playing the best football that we've seen in recent years. Europe brings different challenges. New ones with every match.

They got a lesson from Bayern. How to keep the ball, how to make angles. All the German technical stuff was superior. When you watch them you notice that the ball just doesn't get given away as cheaply, and when they need to go on the hunt and chase they do it well. English teams used to think they were the only ones who could do that.

Patrick Vieira was a huge disappointment on Wednesday. Several times I saw him in situations where normally he would have been sprinting back to help his defence, but now he was jogging back while the play was going on.

Since United beat Arsenal and knocked them off that run, Vieira has gone backwards a lot. A while ago I would have rated him as one of the world's great midfielders. Now, he looks ordinary. People talk a lot about Thierry Henry and how many goals he scores against the great defenders of the world. I think it's natural that he scores fewer against smarter, better players. Arsenal's problem is more with Vieira going backwards.

As for United, I'm surprised. I had a small fancy that they would go to the San Siro and play their hearts out. There aren't many big nights left for Roy or Alex and I thought that perhaps this was an occasion for a big backs-to-the-wall performance.

Seeing how tamely United went out was a huge disappointment and a little bit of a mystery. They played poorly and didn't deserve better on the night. What surprised me was that there was no energy about them, apart from Giggs.

So many players just didn't perform on the night. Why? They weren't allowed to.

Milan just had all the experience. Lots of people have pointed out that Milan had players in defence who were old enough to be Wayne Rooney's father. It looked that way in terms of experience.

I have my doubts about Rooney. If you gave me the money Alex has spent on Rio Ferdinand and Rooney, I think I'd still spend half on Rio. Rooney I would leave on the shelf. With the money I'd have bought a good goalkeeper, for a start, and some experience with the rest.

I'm a fan of Rio. I think he came to United as a proven player and he's still somebody that I'd build a team around. He's struggling a bit at the moment, and on Tuesday he paid the price when he pulled off Crespo at the back and Crespo made that magnificent header.

Rooney was shocking though. The Italian defenders didn't even have to worry about winding him up a little bit, they just had too much for him. They let him have the ball some way from goal and then just closed him down whenever they needed to. As an old defender, it made me smile.

What will hurt United most was how out of their depth they looked. This is the ninth season in a row they've gotten to the knockout stages. That's a record for the competition, but they have only one final appearance to show for it.

I read somewhere that Alex has managed 110 Champions League games now. That should show. They should have been more competitive. United have learned enough or spent enough to cope with the different styles of play and different pitches and conditions that you come up against in Europe.

When the going gets hard, though, they are in trouble. This week Van Nistelrooy looked so out of sorts that you wondered why he was in there. I saw him against Palace in the league and he was bad, but I assumed he would be sharper in the San Siro. He wasn't. Rooney looked like a lost boy, and the defence was creaky, which has been a problem with United for the last while. Wes Brown has great skill but has never recovered from the Fabien Barthez era. Which brings us back to goalkeepers.

Liverpool got a nice bonus. They are so up-and-down this season that you wouldn't bet on them for anything, but they were lucky to come up against a side who have gone backward a lot quicker. When you looked at the Anfield match you knew they could probably score away from home too. Good luck to them.

It was left to Chelsea to remind me of the good old days. In the Cup Winners' Cup in 1984 we got to the semi-final only to be squeezed out by a Paolo Rossi goal in the Communale just when we thought we were taking Juventus to extra time. The best night of that campaign, and perhaps one of the greatest nights for English clubs in Europe until this week, was when Barcelona came to Old Trafford with a 2-0 lead and the lads tore into them and won 3-0.

Until Tuesday at Stamford Bridge I don't think I've seen better. In a week when Arsenal and United went out it meant that the crown of top manager in the Premiership has passed to Jose Mourinho.

You could see it in his face and his body language afterwards just what the win meant, but to be fair you could see his passion in his team as well. For all the talk about money, it still takes a good professional to get intensity like that out of a team while also sticking to a plan.

I fancy Milan to go all the way now, but Chelsea on Tuesday will be the outstanding memory.

Paul McGrath's column appears every Saturday