The 2010-11 Premier League season kicks-off in 43 days, so expect your favourite subscription channel to return to default mode within minutes of the crowning of the world champions next week by declaring the imminent return of the "best league in the world".

Such a statement might just have the ring of the Emperor's new clothes to it, however, if it is uttered any time soon.

The Premier League brand has taken a battering in South Africa. If Fabio Capello's England players failed to perform, then the league that employs every one of them, from Rob Green to Wayne Rooney, has also emerged as damaged goods.

With the best eight teams in the world preparing for the quarter-finals of the World Cup on Friday and Saturday, only 18 players from the Premier League are left in South Africa with hopes of returning to England having lifted football's ultimate trophy.

Perhaps a more damning statistic is the one that tells you that Chelsea and Manchester United, the Premier League's top two last season, do not have a single representative among the 184 players still competing in the World Cup.

Of last season's top four, the clubs who will represent the Premier League in the Champions League next season, only three players remain in South Africa – Arsenal's Robin Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas, and the Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, so far unused in this World Cup by Brazil.

Liverpool can claim to provide the Premier League's most sizeable contingent of players still competing in South Africa. Newly-appointed Anfield manager Roy Hodgson has six players – Fernando Torres, Pepe Reina, Dirk Kuyt, Ryan Babel, Javier Mascherano and Maxi Rodriguez – available for duty in the quarter-finals.

Manchester City, who have added Germany's Jerome Boateng, Spain's David Silva and Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Touré to their squad since the end of last season, have three of last season's performers still at the World Cup, in Paraguay's Roque Santa Cruz, Holland's Nigel de Jong and Argentina's Carlos Tévez.

Robinho, impressing for Brazil, is discounted, having spent the second half of last term on loan at Santos.

When the World Cup is dissected and reviewed, the leading names of the tournament will be those of David Villa, Luis Suárez, Wesley Sneijder, Lucio, Gonzalo Higuaín, Keisuke Honda and Mesut Özil. Not a single Premier League player among them.

So when the new campaign begins on Aug 14, with Blackpool versus Wigan and Bolton versus Fulham sharing the fixture list with Liverpool versus Arsenal, take a minute to consider the Premier League's true standing compared to La Liga, the Bundesliga and Serie A.