ONLY 189 MATCHES LEFT

The Big Cup is back and it’s bigger than ever. The new “league phase” format features four more teams than the old group stage, with each club playing two extra games. It means the total number of games needed before the trophy is handed to Real Madrid has increased from 125 to 189. What once seemed like a far-flung flight of fancy became very real in August’s dizzying raffle, with matches being spat out by the dozen from UEFA’s supercomputer before you could say, “Is this a European $uper £eague?”

Apart from UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin, who strutted through the ceremony and a self-congratulatory promo clip like a peacock, few will have been happier with the new line-up than Aston Villa fans. They are returning to Europe’s elite competition for the first time since their title defence was ended by Juventus in 1983. This year, Juve, Celtic and Bayern Munich are the visitors to Villa Park – an occasion made all the more poignant by the death of 1982 European Cup final hero Gary Shaw. The travelling Villans get trips to Monaco, Bruges and Bern (and Leipzig, but this is the Big Cup – everyone has to play Leipzig).

This week alone, the Bigger Cup is spread across three days – conveniently scheduling Arsenal on a Thursday night for b@nter purposes – and Villa get the honour of kicking off one of the two early games on Tuesday. Villa launch the “Swiss model” against Swiss champions Young Boys, who are currently on … (Football Daily checks table) … low point of their league. Three points is certainly a must and would give Unai Emery’s men a chance to sit back and enjoy – our own spluttering Commodore 64 simulator suggests that five or six more points would probably secure them a play-off spot.

Later, Milan v Liverpool will provide the first taste of UEFA’s Bigger Cup, Bigger Games guarantee, with two Big Cup collectors going head-to-head on opening night. Arne Slot’s smooth and rapid start behind the wheel at Anfield was halted by taciturn traffic cop Nuno Espírito Santo, while Milan manager Paulo Fonseca is also wobbling in his new seat after one win from four Serie A games. There will be some tension in the air at San Siro, even if the group stage now extends beyond Christmas and both teams will progress regardless of this result.

Tuesday’s other games – Juventus v PSV, Bayern v Dinamo Zagreb, Real Madrid v Stuttgart and Sporting v Lille – have the Gazprom-esque whiff of past Big Cup group stages, a format so tired and predictable that many fans are willing to give this strange new format a try. But don’t forget UEFA’s other promise: in the Bigger Cup, every game counts because of the seeded knockout rounds. Will Bayern close things out at 3-0, or will they go for five or six goals to improve their goal difference? Will Madrid clinch an unconvincing 2-0 win and win the trophy anyway in May? And will the Bigger Cup’s glaring flaws be remedied by covertly remaking it into a de facto €$£? The answers are coming, as if we didn’t already know them.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Join Scott Murray at 17:45 (all times BST) for updates on Young Boys 2-2 Aston Villa, before Rob Smyth takes charge for Milan 1-2 Liverpool at 20:00, and Taha Hashim keeps an eye on the Bigger Cup and Milk Cup with his watch set to the same time for the rest of the evening.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Erling (Haaland) scores again… it’s starting to make us laugh… we love the Premier League so we watch all the games. We watch (Manchester City) as well, which is normal. It doesn’t go to our heads. We have to focus on ourselves” – Jorginho on how the Norwegian goal-bot’s relentless scoring spree has the Arsenal squad laughing heartily. Will they laugh when he smashes three against them next week?

The mailbox was deleted this afternoon. They thought the group had gone dead. They also said that most of the mail that was coming into the inbox was rubbish, based on the sender’s information… sorry about that” – a letter from The Man confirming that our postal address had been deleted because he thought we had retired long ago. Yes. We told him we were still here. Maybe he should sign up. Anyway, this means that if you won a prize last week, you need to give us your address so that we can send it to you. We have lost all the old emails. Sorry about that!

Send letters to, yes, [email protected]. The priceless winner of today’s letter of the day is… The man Rollover. You can view the general terms and conditions for our competitions here.

WELCOME TO LEAGUE ONE

And so to the English Third Division, where you may have heard that there was a top-flight match between Birmingham and Wrexham on Monday. Minority owner Tom Brady was in town to watch the Blues tussle with the high-flying Robins of Deadpool and Rob McElhenney. Someone at St Andrew’s made the ill-advised decision to escort Brady from the away end to his seat next to David Beckham, so he was given a deafening rendition of “who the (eff)in’ hell are you?” The NFL legend took it in his stride, mind you, and seemed to relish the offer. He was seen clapping excitedly after a brawl that broke out after Paul Mullin came close to slicing the leg of Birmingham’s Alex Cochrane. Some accused the Welcome to Wrexham star of bringing his teeth to the party. He denies this: “I know what it looks like… but it didn’t happen,” Mullin gushed on TwiXer. “Although you could see his leg was thinking about attacking my mouth.”

As for Cochrane, he told Sky Sports after the game: “I don’t really know (if he bit me), to be honest, I was on the ground. I think it was just a couple of handbags, out of nowhere, but not too many. Just a lot of nonsense, really.” The drama gave Brady plenty to think about and he left on a high after a 3-1 win that put the Blues joint-top with Wrexham. A Hollywood film about the early-season clash, starring Timothée Chalamet as Welshpool, is on the horizon.

NEWS, BITS AND BOBS

In a similar scenario to the one in our email account, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson has complained that The Man didn’t consult with the players before making extra demands on them in the Bigger Cup. “Nobody asks the players what they think about adding more games, so maybe our opinion doesn’t matter,” he grumbled.

Manchester City’s Rodri has even stronger opinions on the issue – the players’ workload, not our email – and thinks strikes could be on the cards if more and more extra fixtures are added. “Yeah, I think we’re close to that,” he sniffed. “If it continues like this, we have no other option. It’s something we’re concerned about.”

Chelsea’s Sophie Ingle is the latest WSL star to suffer the curse of the ACL. The Wales captain was injured during the club’s 9-0 friendly win over Feyenoord.

Yoane Wissa will be out for “a few months” after suffering an ankle injury at Brentford against Manchester City. “Unfortunately, not good news… it’s very frustrating,” sighed Bees boss Thomas Frank.

Udinese are currently top of Serie A after coming back from 2-2 down to beat Parma 3-2, with Florian Thauvin scoring twice.

And Erik ten Hag has told Antony to stop spitting out his dummy and earn the right to play for Manchester United. “He’s impatient,” the United manager growled. “He wants to play. But in top football there are laws. You pick the team that has the best chance of winning the game.” Ouch.

He’s not here right now, but Chaos in the Box, the new book by David Squires, is coming. You can order it now through our bookstore and get 20% off.

DO YOU WANT EVEN MORE?

As Villa return to the Big Cup for the first time in more than four decades, veterans of their 1982 triumph talk to Ben Fisher about the blistered boots, Billy Connolly and the trophy that was temporarily stolen from a Tamworth pub.

Aston Villa fans are being exploited by not protesting vigorously against exorbitant Big Cup ticket prices, complains Barry Glendenning.

Jonathan Liew suggests the new dawn of I can’t believe it’s not the Euroopean $uper £eague Big Cup could just be a way to make the rich even richer.

Arsenal’s new signing Rosa Kafaji talks to Suzanne Wrack about her inspiration from Ronaldinho and the match against her old club in the Women’s Big Cup.

Will Unwin takes on Barnsley’s Vimal Yoganathan, the first person of Sri Lankan Tamil descent to play professionally in England, ahead of the Tykes’ Rumbellows Cup clash against Manchester United on Tuesday night.

And our final WSL preview highlights a strengthened Manchester City’s title chances.

MEMORY AVENUE

It is April 2001 and a Yeovil Town mascot takes his place on the ball for his team’s top-flight match against Rushden and Diamonds at Huish Park. The game was no classic. It ended 0-0 and the visitors held their noses to the Glovers, securing promotion to the Football League.

BIGGER PUB?