EVEN ENGLAND'S top-four elite has its upper and lower classes. The division persisted in the Champions League when Arsenal and Liverpool were assigned uncomfortable quarters. It is not utterly inconceivable that one or both could be eliminated at a group stage seen of late as a sort of stretching exercise in which England's teams warm up for the more strenuous business to come.
At the moment any sort of fixture appears perilous for Liverpool, who might have been eliminated by Standard Liege in the qualifying round. On all known form under Rafael Benitez, they will show more competence as time passes. His worst season in the tournament with the club still saw the side get to the last 16 in 2006.
It was bad enough for Liverpool to be pitted against a Spanish club, let alone an Atletico Madrid line-up that was drubbing Schalke 4-0, with Diego Forlan among the scorers, while Benitez's squad wheezed past Liege.
A steady PSV are not to be disparaged either and they knocked Tottenham out of the Uefa Cup in March. Liverpool also have to be wary of Marseille, who paid €11.8 million this summer to winkle highly regarded attacker Hatem Ben Arfa out of Lyon.
Even with the loss of Djibril Cisse to Sunderland, Eric Gerets' side still has menace in the diminutive form of the Ivorian striker Bakari Kone. Marseille top the League in France at the moment, but their fallibility has not been banished entirely. They opened the campaign with a helter-skelter 4-4 draw with Rennes.
The depth of Arsenal's squad may be tested in Group G where the away matches could be gruelling. There will be references to the torrid atmosphere in Istanbul but the ability in the Fenerbahce ranks may also be disturbing.
Luis Aragones, having managed Spain to glory at Euro 2008, is in charge there and he has a couple of his countrymen around, such as the striker Daniel Guiza, as well as the Brazilian Roberto Carlos, late of with Real Madrid.
Arsene Wenger may wish, too, that Porto's exclusion from this season's Champions League, following allegations over the bribery of referees five seasons ago, had not been overturned on appeal.
They are far from the peak attained in Jose Mourinho's time, but the club has still been champions of Portugal for three consecutive seasons. The journey to Ukraine will also be forbidding.
Dynamo Kiev's 8-2 aggregate rout of Spartak Moscow in the final qualifying round is more imposing than even Arsenal's 6-0 aggregate canter against Twente.
It is rash to believe that English clubs now have an ineffable superiority. There may not have been a final without a Premier League member taking part since 2004, but Liverpool and Arsenal supporters would not claim, at this moment, that their teams are without flaw.
Chelsea and Manchester United, meanwhile, swept the board at the European Club Footballer awards during the same ceremony. United forward Cristiano Ronaldo was named Uefa's European Club Footballer of the Year after scoring 42 goals last season, including eight in the Champions League.
Ronaldo was also named as the forward of the year for helping United win the European Cup for the third time.
Three Chelsea players who were in the side beaten by United in the Moscow final in May, won awards. John Terry was named as defender of the year, Petr Cech goalkeeper of the year and Frank Lampard midfielder of the year.
Guardian Service
