Week one of the 2026-27 Champions League is done, and if you were hoping for chaos, you were left waiting. Sixteen wins from eighteen matches sounds dramatic until you realise barely any of it was surprising.

England Are Running This Thing

All four Premier League sides won. Liverpool, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester City. The lot. And the numbers behind those wins were not flattering to the rest of Europe. English clubs collectively out-shot their opponents 102-44, put 28 more efforts on target, and racked up 24 big chances while conceding only five. They topped the expected goal difference table by country. It was a clean sweep.

Liverpool arguably had the toughest assignment of the four, facing a pot one side at home against Atlético, with Mac Allister getting on the scoresheet. The away wins for Arsenal, Villa and City might carry a bit more weight on paper. Either way, the Premier League's grip on this competition looks as tight as ever. [Arsenal are built for exactly this kind of campaign right now](/uprise/football/declan-rice-shrugs-off-arsenal-concerns-and-says-60-games), and the early data backs that up.

At the other end of the table sits Italy. Napoli faced Arsenal, Inter were at Real Madrid, Roma drew at Fenerbahce, and Como won. The xG numbers were grim for Serie A as a group, and sitting bottom of that particular chart after week one is not where you want to be.

Inter Were Brilliant and Still Lost

The one Italian performance worth talking about came from Inter, and they still ended up on the losing side. At the Santiago Bernabéu, they registered more shots than any visiting team in the league or Europe, in a 90-minute match, for eight years. They had at least 57 touches in the opposition penalty area, a figure that only PSG matched this week and one that has been beaten just once in the Premier League this season, where the average sits at 24.6 per game.

Real Madrid won despite missing seven of nine big chances. Their back four had only one player from last season, 21-year-old Dean Huijsen, and the defensive gaps showed. José Mourinho described it as "mad, and not a madness I like." He was right, even if the result went his way.

[The Champions League is throwing up some fascinating tactical questions for managers already](/uprise/football/champions-league-is-fertile-ground-for-new-managers-but-knowhow), and Inter's performance at the Bernabéu might be the most thought-provoking of the lot.

Where Are the Upsets?

This is the part that should concern anyone who cares about the league phase being worth watching. Only two matches were won by the bookmakers' underdog. One of them was Aston Villa beating Club Brugge, which is hardly a shock when you look at the financial gap between the clubs. The biggest genuine surprise of the week was Real Betis beating Lille 3-2, and those two sides sit 49th and 52nd in Opta's Power Rankings. Hardly David and Goliath.

Last season gave us Qarabag at Benfica and Galatasaray beating Liverpool. We need that kind of result to make this format worth the bloat. With 126 matches still to play, there is time. But right now, the league phase looks like it might just confirm what we already knew, that the Premier League clubs are ahead, Italy is struggling, and the minnows are there to make up the numbers.

That is not a competition. That is a formality.