Chelsea may be having a tricky time in the Champions League, but let's look at the wider picture. This is a tournament in which 90 per cent of the biggest teams safely make it past the group stage without breaking sweat, and where is the entertainment in that?

The other three English clubs progressed this week without much trouble, as usual. A look at the tables with one round of fixtures still to play shows that 13 clubs out of 16 have already qualified for the next round and the difference in points between the top two teams and the bottom two in some groups is embarrassing. This season, like others, has been so predictable that it can only damage the competition.

Life is too easy for the big clubs, too hard for the smaller ones. Celtic haven't even won an away game, which is ridiculous. And Michel Platini, the Uefa president, has pushed through reforms from next season to increase the number of clubs from lesser leagues. What's the point in more diversity when it is obvious they will just be cannon-fodder, making life even more straightforward for the usual suspects?

All it will do is make Champions League groups resemble international qualifying groups, where you have a couple of decent sides who get to hammer minnows such as San Marino home and away in fixtures that are a waste of time. Combine that with the Uefa seeding system, which favours the best teams, and we will never have what makes World Cup finals so exciting: groups of death where we know that a top side will go home early.

Look at the name of the competition. This isn't the FA Cup, which gets its appeal from underdogs. This tournament should be all about the elite, even though it's not realistic for it to live up to its name and be just for champions, sadly.

The novelty of the league format has long worn off and fans won't be kidded. They know the group stage isn't the real deal, they are well aware that the competition only really gets going, only becomes truly interesting, in the knockout stages. The Emirates Stadium was not full on Tuesday and there'll be lots of half-empty grounds in the future because supporters will save their money and watch on television rather than pay to see a meaningless fixture against opposition their side has played again and again in recent years.

I'd love to see the competition revert to being the knockout it used to be. There are too many games. That would not please those at television companies, clubs and Uefa who want to wring as much money out of it as possible, but if the Champions League is allowed to become stale, revenues will fall anyway. And it'll fall into decline, just like the Uefa Cup.