Get ready for a first taste of the Bigger Cup's Bigger Games Guarantee | Football

ONLY 189 GAMES LEFT

The Big Cup is back and bigger than ever. The new 'league stage' format includes four more teams than the old group stage, with each club playing two extra matches – meaning the total number of games required before the trophy is awarded to Real Madrid has risen from 125 to 189. What once seemed like a distant fantasy became very real in August's head-shaking raffle, when matches were spat out by the dozen from UEFA's supercomputer before anyone could say, “Is this a European Super League?”

Aside from UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin, who strutted through the ceremony like a peacock and showed a smug promo clip, few will have been more excited about the new draw than fans of Aston Villa. They are returning to Europe's elite competition for the first time since their title defence was ended by Juventus in 1983. This year's visitors to Villa Park include Juve, Celtic and Bayern Munich – an occasion that will be particularly poignant following the death of 1982 European Cup final hero Gary Shaw. The travelling Villans will be given trips to Monaco, Bruges and Bern (and Leipzig, but this is a big cup – everyone has to play Leipzig).

This week only, the Bigger Cup is played over three days – Arsenal are conveniently scheduled to entertain on Thursday night – and Villa have the honour of kicking things off in one of Tuesday's two early games. Villa start under the 'Swiss model' against Swiss champions Young Boys, who are currently on a winning streak… (Football Daily checks the table)… Low point their league. Three points are surely a must and would allow Unai Emery's men to sit back and have fun – our own stuttering Commodore 64 simulator suggests that five or six more points would probably give them a playoff place.

Later, the Milan-Liverpool match offers a 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 quick start at the wheel at Anfield was halted by taciturn traffic warden Nuno Espírito Santo, and Milan coach Paulo Fonseca is also fidgeting in his new seat after winning four Serie A games. There will be a little tension in the air at San Siro, even though the group stage now extends beyond Christmas and both teams are certain to progress regardless of that result.

Tuesday's other games – Juventus v PSV, Bayern v Dinamo Zagreb, Real Madrid v Stuttgart and Sporting v Lille – have a Gazprom-heavy whiff of past Big Cup group stages, a format so boring and predictable that many fans are willing to give this strange new system a chance. Don't forget UEFA's other promise: in the Bigger Cup, every game matters because of seeded knockout rounds. Will Bayern shut it down at 3-0 or score five or six goals to improve their goal difference? Will Madrid pull off an unconvincing 2-0 win and still win the trophy in May? And will the Bigger Cup's glaring flaws be remedied by surreptitiously turning it into a de facto €$£ game? The answers come as if we didn't already know them.

LIVE ON THE BIG WEBSITE

Scott Murray brings you the latest from Aston Villa 2-2 Young Boys at 5.45pm (all times BST), Rob Smyth takes the helm for Liverpool 1-2 Milan at 8pm, while Taha Hashim will be keeping an eye on the rest of the evening's Bigger Cup and Milk Cup action on his watch.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Erling (Haaland) is scoring again… it's starting to make us laugh… we love the Premier League so we watch all the games. We watch (Manchester City) too, which is normal. It doesn't go to our heads. We have to focus on ourselves” – Jorginho on how the Norwegian striker's relentless goal-scoring streak has given Arsenal a good laugh. Will they giggle when he hammers three goals past them next weekend?

The mailbox was deleted this afternoon. They thought the group was no longer active. They also said that most of the mail that went into the inbox was junk based on the sender information… sorry” – a letter from The Man confirming that our mailing address was deleted because he thought we had retired long ago. Yes. We told him we were still around. Maybe he should log in. Anyway, this means that if you won a prize last week, you will need to give us your address so we can mail you the prize. We lost all the old emails. Sorry about that!

Send letters to, yes, [email protected]. Today's winner of the prizeless letter of the day is… The man Rollover. The terms and conditions for our competitions can be found here.