TEAMtalk guest blogger Adam Bate believes United and City's Champions League exits will rekindle the battle royale for the title in Manchester.

You sensed the night would have a sting in the tail from the moment Jamie Redknapp launched his latest diatribe deriding the Spanish league and the woeful efforts of Valencia and Villarreal.

He reminded us again that La Liga was a two-team league. Maybe so. But one can't help but notice this morning that Barcelona and Real Madrid are still in the competition.

So much for the Premier League's top two. As it turned out, Manchester City's millionaires had already sealed their fate by taking only one point from two matches against Napoli. While the club's owners may have clung to a sense of entitlement to a knockout spot, one assumes City's fans are too long in the tooth to have expected anything but ultimate disappointment.

The red half of Manchester went into the night with very different expectations but emerged with the same outcome - a date in the Europa League.

The summer whispers of Wesley Sneijder have long since given way to the enthusiasm ignited by the performances of youngsters such as Phil Jones and Danny Welbeck. But this was an evening to exacerbate fans' fears as United looked bereft of ideas in the final third. Finalists for three of the past four years but now bested by Basel over three hours of Champions League football.

Football being football, there is little time to dwell on failure - because football, as with life, is all about balancing priorities. And priorities can change quickly. So for the Premier League's top two - with one huge trophy removed from the equation - that could well mean we are in for the mother of all title races.

The Europa League might mean more matches this season for Manchester's giants. But don't expect to see a repeat of last April when Darron Gibson and Michael Owen saw league action so that the big guns could be saved for a European semi-final in midweek. Instead, it will be the likes of Gibson and Owen, along with their City equivalents Wayne Bridge and Owen Hargreaves, who are asked to work the Thursday night graveyard shift.

The key players will be free to focus on the Premier League during that vital period from February onwards when history tells us that champions show us what they are made of. And given that City have only dropped four points thus far, it is not unreasonable to assume it will take a record points tally to overhaul them.

So while it might feel like a disaster today, the Manchester clubs can at least compete on an even footing for the remainder of the season - and one of the two will surely reap the benefits of this European disappointment come May.

Could priorities change again? Well, there is already the small matter of an FA Cup third-round tie between the two clubs at the Etihad Stadium next month. Once that phoney war is over, it will be full steam ahead to decide the destination of the Premier League title.

With one possible twist. The Europa League Final is scheduled for May 9 - on the Wednesday between the last two Premier League fixtures. Probably not a distraction unless the two clubs were to be playing each other; Manchester United v Manchester City in the Europa League final, while Real Madrid and Barcelona contest the Champions League final?

Jamie Redknapp couldn't bear it.

Follow Adam on Twitter at @ghostgoal and check out his blog at GhostGoal..