Tom McCoy
BBC Sport journalist

Five teams from one country had never all won in a single round of Champions League matches prior to this season.

But Premier League sides did exactly that this week, as they did in the previous round of games. English sides have won 17 of 24 fixtures so far with a win percentage of 71%.

The richest league in the world is leveraging its financial muscle and if this consistency continues, it could result in the Premier League earning a ‘bonus’ Champions League place for the team finishing fifth, as was the case last year.

I know which goal you're thinking of, Mark, but that was against Arsenal in 2008. Great header and definitely a bit of curve on it.

The one against Juventus was a lovely left-foot volley.

Image source, Getty Images

Collectively, English teams are outperforming those from other countries, winning 17 of their 24 games, scoring a total of 56 goals - 14 more than any others - and conceding just 17, a record only bettered by teams from France, who have three clubs in the competition compared to six from England.

So why are English teams doing so well?

A significant factor is the financial muscle they are able to flex compared to teams from the rest of Europe, enabling them to spend more on transfer fees and wages to attract the best talent.

TV rights have generated enormous broadcast revenues for Premier League sides, with the income from that source dwarfing those of other countries.

This summer, Premier League clubs outlaid more than ever before in the transfer window as spending surpassed £3bn.

To highlight just how much financial power Premier League clubs have over elsewhere in Europe, the total spent this year was more than was spent by Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A clubs combined.

More money means clubs can invest in bigger squads, with Arsenal seeing the benefits of spending big this summer to increase their strength in depth as they lead the way in the Premier League and sit joint-top of the league standings in the Champions League.

Gary Rose
BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

English clubs appear to be bossing things in Europe as, for the second time in this season's Champions League, five sides from the Premier League won in a single round of fixtures.

Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle and Tottenham all won their games this week, with the first four of those sides now sitting inside the top eight - the positions they need to be in to qualify automatically for the knockouts.

Only Chelsea failed to take all three points as they were held to a surprising 2-2 draw by Qarabag on Wednesday, but they are still handily placed at the halfway stage of the group stage as they sit 12th.

Before this season the Champions League had never seen five teams from one country all win in a single round of matches. Now teams from England have managed it twice.

"In five years' time we will look at this period of the next five years as the domination of England, I don't see it any other way," Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague told BBC Sport.

"Bayern are doing really, really well and they can disrupt that. PSG will have their moments, I think Barcelona and Real Madrid are lagging behind, but there is nobody else."

So following this dominant start, are English teams favourite to win the Champions League? And how likely is a fourth all-English final?

Speaking of rising above, there is a decidedly English feel to the top half of that Champions League table.

Six of the top 12 spots - and four of the top eight - are taken by Premier League clubs.

So are English sides starting to take over Europe's premier club competition?

Champions League

But it is all rather less rosy for some big-name European clubs.

Four-time European Cup winners Ajax are propping up the table after four straight losses to start this year's campaign with two-time champions Benfica only ahead of them on goal difference.

Meanwhile, Juventus and Marseille have only three points apiece so far and Italian champions Napoli are clinging on to the final play-off spot with four points from their first four.

Image source, BBC Sport

Champions League

Halfway through the league phase and things are looking good for the English sides.

Four of the six are in the top eight - who qualify automatically for the last 16 - with Tottenham and Chelsea just outside and in the play-off spots as things stand...

Image source, BBC Sport

OK. Thanks, Adam.

Anyway, let's have a look at how the Champions League table looks after four rounds of games...

Image source, Getty Images

It was a frustrating night for Chelsea and it started as early as the sixth minute when midfielder Romeo Lavia was forced off with an injury.

The 21-year-old has struggled with injuries since joining the Blues from Southampton in 2023, making just one appearance in his first season at Stamford Bridge and 22 in the 2024-25 campaign.

Now he faces the possibility of another spell on the sidelines.

"We feel very ashamed, especially for him because he's not able to be fit for a long, long period," Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said.

"We will see now as it's too early to understand what kind of injury. Hopefully it's not a big injury.

"I think it's a quad injury."

Leon Osman
Former Everton and England midfielder on Football Daily

Everybody will look at the manager and question whether he picked the right team, whether it was the right people at the right moment.

To then bring those reinforcements on at half-time makes you feel that he didn't think that the starting eleven going into half-time had enough to get him back in the game at that point.

You do start to wonder whether he put too much youth out there - that the blend of experience and youth wasn't exactly as it should've been.

Nizaar Kinsella
BBC Sport reporter at Tofiq Bahramov Stadium

Image source, Getty Images

Both literally and figuratively, you never know which Chelsea is going to turn up this season.

Chelsea have lurched from negative to positive throughout this campaign, playing well against bigger teams but often not as well against so-called lesser opposition.

In big games, the likes of Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, and Garnacho usually start.

However, Maresca is managing the fitness of all three of those players, as he also is with returning striker Liam Delap. In addition, key players like Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill are injured.

There are further mitigating factors behind the extreme nature of Maresca's rotation, given Chelsea endured a 13-month season last year, due to winning the Club World Cup in July.

The Blues played 64 matches in a 53-week season last time around, with the players getting only three weeks of break and the pre-season shortened to less than two weeks.

Maresca is also not helped by the underwhelming performances by some of the players coming in.

Alongside Jorrel Hato, forwards Jamie Gittens and Tyrique George struggled, as did midfielder Andrey Santos, all of them aged 21 or younger, against a brave Qarabag side proving themselves to be Europe's giant-killers this season having already beaten Benfica and Copenhagen.

But do you think Cenk Tosun would want to come back to the Premier League, Adrian?

Image source, Getty Images

Nizaar Kinsella
BBC Sport reporter at Tofiq Bahramov Stadium

Are Chelsea rotating too much?

The Blues have made multiple line-up changes in all their recent matches and have tweaked the starting XI more than any other Premier League side this season.

But, after they narrowly avoided an embarrassing defeat at Champions League minnows Qarabag, there were those questioning whether they might be overdoing the changes.

The Blues, with a squad worth well over £1bn, were particularly poor in the first half, especially compared to the dominant 1-0 win away at Tottenham on Saturday. However, this was a very different starting 11.

Just goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, full-backs Reece James and Marc Cucurella, and forward Joao Pedro started in North London.

It was the fifth-consecutive match across all competitions where manager Enzo Maresca has made at least seven changes to his starting 11. No Premier League club has made more than Chelsea's 85 changes in 16 matches across all competitions this season.

The constant changing has left Maresca open to criticisms of being too much of a 'tinkerman', an unwanted nickname once given to his compatriot Claudio Ranieri at Chelsea.

Defending his approach, Maresca said: "When we make changes it is because we think the plan with the players that start is the correct one.

"I think today, we start in the right way, we score the goal and then, again, we concede two goals that we can avoid. [Also] in their box, for the amount of times that we are there, probably we can be more clinical.

"I think in the second half we were much better compared to the first, but again, every game is a chance for all of them to show the reason why they are here."

That seems like the ideal way to move things along and look at the talking points from Chelsea's draw at Qarabag last night...