In the weeks straight after the 2026 Champions League final, one question kept circling in Mikel Arteta’s mind, almost to the extent of dulling the satisfaction of winning the Premier League once again.

It was, naturally, about how Arsenal can become champions of Europe. Or, put another way, how any side beats Paris Saint-Germain. That would ordinarily be the central question as the Champions League begins its third season since the 36-team expansion, with the Qatar-owned club chasing the historic benchmark of a third successive title.

But perhaps the better question is slightly different. It is not simply whether PSG are the best side outright, although they probably are, but whether the current format unintentionally gives an edge to super-club champions from leagues dominated by one team, such as Ligue 1 or the Bundesliga.

That debate ties into many of the major talking points currently surrounding the Champions League, including whether English financial strength is being properly reflected in the latter stages. Yet it is exactly because the latter stages are so different that, for now, none of that feels especially pressing.

PSG, for their part, scarcely seem to concern themselves with the Champions League before February. Across the two seasons in which they lifted the trophy, they ended the opening league phase in 15th and 11th place respectively, meaning they had to come through the so-called “punishment” play-off round. They understand how to reach that level, elusive for so many others, exactly when it matters most.

None of this is merely to restate an argument that has become common, or to lament what the opening stage has turned into, or to describe it as a financially distorting “super league” under another name. One reason surprise outsiders are now so rare is that prize money - especially the enlarged prize money of the modern era - has played a huge part in creating a tiered club system. Those arguments remain valid.

Even so, if it is sadly unavoidable that the group stage can no longer carry the same “event” feeling it had in the 1990s and early 2000s, there can still plainly be enjoyment in this round. Every matchweek produces drama and fresh storylines, and there is a particular pleasure in tracking the journeys of debutants such as Como, LASK, Viking and Sabah.

Manchester United will welcome back to Old Trafford a competition with which they share a deep spiritual connection, while Jose Mourinho will hope at last to deliver a title to Real Madrid and claim his own third one 16 years later.

At the same time, this is the first season without Pep Guardiola since 2012. Could Manchester City benefit from that surprisingly familiar effect that follows the departure of a great figure, becoming briefly freer to push a little further? And can Liverpool’s Andoni Iraola, in his first Champions League campaign, adjust his methods to the severe physical demands of this calendar?

Fatigue may also operate in another sense. The constant flow of matches almost makes the competition resemble a domestic league. Or, perhaps more fittingly, “wallpaper football”. It is always there - although wallpaper football with plenty happening, and always something new catching the eye.

You almost have to accept it for what it is: the long prelude to the real action. It does not necessarily tell you very much about how the tournament will finish, beyond shaping the knock-out bracket.

This is the second season in which Uefa have used a tennis-style fixed route, but even that remains vulnerable to the lottery of how seriously wealthy clubs treat the eight-match league phase.

There is even a growing feeling among such teams that it may be wiser to hold back their strongest line-ups until later; that it is better to be fresher for a tougher match than to add to fatigue in pursuit of a more forgiving route.

Part of this can be seen in the clearest expression of English power, namely how English clubs dominate the upper end of this table. None have yet gone out in the group stage and even Tottenham, who endured a historically poor modern campaign last season, still finished fourth last year.

They were not the fourth-best team in Europe, as 14th-placed Atletico Madrid emphatically demonstrated by the time the sides eventually met in the last 16.

One vital factor was that Spurs were, at that stage, consumed by a relegation battle, which points to a key complication facing English clubs.

The Premier League has a much more even gradient of competitiveness than any other major league - as well as a far smaller gap in wealth between the bottom club and the top - which makes it more demanding.

Perhaps the greatest significance of the new group stage is that it has functioned as an unintended corrective to the major concern over Premier League power.

That comes amid wider football politics too - relevant all the way to the Fifa-Uefa cold war - in which many of Europe’s biggest clubs are constantly looking for ways to counter the strength of the English top flight.

The Super League was meant to be one such bulwark. This expanded Champions League acts as another, since it is the one club competition whose broadcasting rights rival those of the Premier League.

So the expansion of the competition also amounts to an encroachment on the Premier League, both in terms of when matches can be scheduled and in the physical demands placed on players.

It is similarly difficult not to connect that intensity to one other area where the Premier League is behind: stars. Real Madrid, Barcelona and PSG all generate higher revenues and therefore pay higher wages, and that balance is tilted even further by the fact that their leagues can help prolong careers at the top level.

Rodri is understood to have had that in mind when making his move to Barcelona, even if he also simply wanted to return to LaLiga.

That choice may ultimately prove the most influential factor in determining how this season’s Champions League unfolds - especially given Arsenal’s failure to land that attacking star. Remarkable though it is to think about, Barcelona have not looked like a genuine Champions League force since at least 2019. Lamine Yamal and Hansi Flick have restored a sense of credibility, but Flick’s high line has widely been viewed as the thing that has cost them. Rodri is an immediate and almost all-encompassing answer to that. He takes on so much.

It also adds a little more depth to the Champions League field, creating one more possible winner. If it is not PSG, though, everyone else will still have to work out a way around them. That is why Arteta has spoken so often about raising his team’s level. PSG may have begun the season poorly but, crucially, in this calendar they are the only side who know how to finish.