Why the Champions League group stages are so important.

The Champions League returns tonight with the Last 16 round kicking off with Bayer Leverkusen hosting PSG and Barcelona travelling to the Etihad to face Manchester City. In Wednesday's fixtures Atletico Madrid play AC Milan and Arsenal meet Bayern Munich at the same stage they were defeated by the Germans last season.

It is often said this is where the competition really begins to flourish after the minnows and Europa League candidates have exited the competition in the Group phase. But there is a more important result following the group stage, that being the positioning of the group's qualifiers.

Arsenal will host Bayern again knowing their failure to top their group may cost them further progression in a competition they have never won. Manchester City will go in to their tie with Barcelona also rueing a missed opportunity to pip Bayern to top spot in their group. 

Facing these high calibre clubs so early on in the knockout phase and with their guaranteed advantage of playing away from home first for winning their group can not only knock them out of the Champions League but additionally detrimental to their entire season. Arsenal fans will be the first to tell you that.

Mourinho and Pellegrini: a financial war of words.

Jose Mourinho continued to express a reserved ambition for Chelsea's title credentials in Monday's press conference. Similarly, he continued his war of words with Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini suggesting the Chillean needed to revise his sums after suggesting Mourinho's "little horse" is a rich one. 
                                                                                                     Daniel Geey outlines Financia Fair Play regulations
Mourinho said Pellegrini, a highly educated engineer, didn't "need a calculator to do... £55m minus £32m is £23m. So Chelsea in this transfer window is, speaking roughly 23 million pounds less... this is to work with financial fair play." Financial fair play is an area Manchester City have been heavily criticised for with suggestions they will fail to meet it's demands in the coming years. City seem to be neglecting their FFP responsibilities but it remains to be seen how serious a punishment UEFA will enforce for failing to meet the requirements. Many experts have doubted whether UEFA will exclude clubs from it's senior competition for failing to adhere to financial fair play, cynically citing the loss of a major contender like City would result in less TV revenue for UEFA.

The figures show Manchester City have spent more in recent years, but only by about £75m, not too much in football relative terms. It is probably only equivalent to three or four more high profile players but these players are supposed to be the difference when it comes to the title race and hence why Mourinho has used metaphors such as "jaguar" and "little horse" when contrasting Manchester City and Chelsea. Mourinho pointed out City "have a team for now" whereas Chelsea, as Mourinho has reiterated the past few weeks, whilst playing down his side's title chances, want to "build a team for the next ten years." When Chelsea won 1-0 at the Etihad last week Chelsea fielded a team with an average age of 24.8 years, whereas City fielded a side with an average age of 27.6 years, 2.8 years more experienced, adding weight to Mourinho's team for the future but additionally adding emphasis to the importance of City's title challenge this season. 

With Financial Fair Play looming it seems imperative Manchester City win the league this season, mostly for the importance of preventing a large spending spree again in the summer. And a spree on experienced players, rather than the youth Chelsea have already invested and are already benefiting from. If Chelsea become champions for the first time in four years it would be a huge showing of intent for the coming years. Mourinho is fully aware of this and this is exactly why he has been keen to single out Manchester City as favourites, not that he doesn't believe they are favourites but in true Mourinho fashion; mindgames.