BT Sport pundit Chris Sutton has lashed out at some of the criticism that Scottish football has been receiving following Rangers and Celtic’s poor performances in the Champions League.

TalkSPORT‘s Jason Cundy labelled the Scottish game as “bang average” and “fourth tier” after the Old Firm’s struggles in Europe but Sutton cited Arsenal’s defeat to PSV Eindhoven on Thursday night as a reason why those remarks were nonsense:

Arsenal lose to PSV. Rangers knocked out PSV from the Champions League. So by a certain persons logic does it mean that Arsenal are at fifth tier level in European competition?🧐

— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) October 27, 2022

Rangers have, admittedly, been very poor this season, but you don’t get to the final of the Europa League by being a “bang average” team. It’s so frustrating to hear commentators in England serve out the same old tired comments about the game in Scotland.

There is undoubtedly a gulf in terms of finances, which means it is difficult to compete with Europe’s elite. The cost of Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s squad is minuscule compared to Arsenal’s and yet, as Sutton says, they have still beaten a team this season that the Premier League table-toppers lost to.