Mark Ogden

I mean, it is quite, it is, I can see the appeal of it, but I just think the jeopardy on paper is not matched by the jeopardy in reality.

Fifth, well, I mean, let's talk a bit about that.

I mean, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Newcastle, Chelsea, that's five of the top eight from the Premier League and City, you know, on goal difference, they're not in there.

They're down in 11th, they're on the same points as Chelsea, Newcastle and Paris Saint-Germain, who was 6th, 7th and 8th.

What does this say about A, the Premier League and B, the strength of the Champions League that the English teams have been so dominant in this group stage?

Well, Arsenal made seven changes to last season's finalists into Milan and won comfortably.

But where that sort of the power of competition, if you like, helps that maybe the teams in the autumn and the winter, does it actually become a bit of a hindrance in the spring when Barcelona could say rest 11 players and probably win their La Liga game, whereas Arsenal or Liverpool would maybe have a massive game where they can't?

I was just looking at last season just with Arsenal obviously missing out on the league just sort of reminding myself between the Premier League games between the Champions League games and that Real Madrid tie they drew between those two games they drew one all at home to Brentford you know hugely damaging result Champions League semi-final

First leg, lost 1-0, then lost at home to Bournemouth before they went to PSG for the second leg.

And then off the back of that second leg, they went to Anfield and drew 2-2.

And, you know, the effect is obvious and the cumulative effect of competing on four fronts, like Arsenal are trying to do this season, I think.

So their 34th or 35th game,

34th game I think of the season already you know they could be playing 64 matches something like that if they if they get through to everything I mean it's got it's gonna I know what you mean about the squad size but it but no squad can really cope with that without especially if you have a few injuries and you're starting to overload players it's it becomes a you know

That's what you want, isn't it?

You want Europe's best meeting when it matters most, not in November.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's the sacrifice that UEFA have made here is to, oh, we actually, people really want to see these teams play more often.

And the casual fan probably does.

When it matters.

They probably do, because the rating, I'm sure the ratings will be better for, you know, Arsenal against Paris Saint-Germain in the group stage than it would be for, you know, sporting against Atalanta or whatever.