Everybody's favourite club competition is back, the best teams around the globe come together to compete at the highest level. In today’s blog we will look at how the top 4 teams in England are progressing so far and what we can expect for them in this competition.
Manchester City
The former champions have not been their usual self this season in the league however, they are still getting the job done in Europe. They have won both games 3-1 with Julian Álvarez being the star man in both victories. The most impressive performance was against Leipzig away, the German team have been on fire this year in the league so to go away from home and dominate was a sign of good things to come.
Manchester City are expected to win the group with ease, everybody’s question is can go and win it again? Well, they are the favourites in the competition, they do need Haaland to start firing the goals in again. As we all know, Manchester City tend to gain traction towards the end of the season and its very hard to stop the blue side of Manchester once they mean business. Nobody should be doubting City as they always seem to get the job done!
Newcastle United
Its been a long time coming for the Geordie boys and my word have they made a name of themselves with a stunning performance over PSG! Newcastle have been drawn in the ‘group of death’. Many believed they would struggle but with how the group has panned out, they are the team that the rest of Europe may want to avoid!
Achieving a very respectable 0-0 draw away from home was a very solid start to the campaign. Then, they had the superstars coming into Newcastle In the name of PSG! Mbappe, arguably one of the best players in the world was shook at the atmosphere at St James Park, anybody would have been intimidated going into a crowd like that.
Newcastle came away with a stunning 4-1 win over the French champions! It was a completely dominant performance throughout. Newcastle celebrated a tackle just as much as they did a goal!
Newcastle fans are happy just enjoying these days back at St James Park but what do they hold for the future of the competition? Well with a very good start to the group they have a very good chance of qualifying. You wouldn’t be surprised if they won all there home games in the group which would lead them to qualifying through the group. Newcastle would not be expected to go all the way and win it but why not enjoy the ride while they can?
No team in Europe will want to go and face Newcastle at St James Park- it’s a fortress!
Manchester United
United have not had the best of starts in the champions league. They find themselves bottom of the group and in a very messy situation. They had a tough opener against Bayern Munich which the score line flattered the red devils. It finished 4-3 to the German champions but the game was never really in United’s hands. Onana made a few terrible mistakes so far in Europe and he will hope to rectify these mistakes if they have any chance of progressing into the knockout stages.
Manchester United losing 3-2 at home to Turkish club Galatasaray was a disaster, this was a much needed win. Bayern away was an incredible tough ask to go there and produce a result. However, at home United expect a much better result against Galatasaray. Another Onana mistake and defensive catastrophes led to the Turkish champions scoring three at the theatre of dreams!
Manchester United need to turn there form around in the second half of these fixtures. They have two MUST wins against Copenhagen. If they can get 6 points in the next two games it will heavily be reliant on if they can go to Turkey and get the win! They have the quality to do it, they just need to show up on the night!
Arsenal
The gunners have had an excellent start to the league campaign this season and they have tried to balance this and compete at a high level in Europe. They started with a emphatic victory over PSV who are currently flying in Netherlands.
However, they did fall to a 2-1 defeat to Lens away from home. Arsenal have not hit the panic button as they know they have a very young team and away from home in Europe its going to be very tough for them.
They are still expected to finish top of the group and they will hope that they can bring there league form into Europe. Under Arteta they have dreamed of playing Champions League football for so long, they have finally got it and they want to be real challengers for the cup!
It may be a year to early for the Gunners to be challenging for the trophy however, they can beat anybody when they are on it so why not go for the biggest prize in club football?
