Can an English side win the Champions League?

Will an English team be celebrating like Fernando?

The group stage of the UEFA Champions League gets underway tonight and after three years of disappointment, is this the year the English sides get it going again?

It's now three seasons since Chelsea stunned Bayern Munich to win the Champions League.

As the competition kicks off once more this week, what chance an English winner in Berlin next June?

Liverpool return to the competition this season along with champions Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal. For the first time since 1995, Manchester United are absent.

Chelsea's victory over Bayern at the Allianz Arena came at the end of a spell where Premier League teams had accounted for eight finalists in a blistering eight-year spell.

The all-English final in Moscow in 2008 was the benchmark but following Liverpool's miraculous night in Istanbul in 2005, there was sustained achievement for English clubs not witnessed since the halcyon days of the late 1970s.

Arsenal and Liverpool reached the decider immediately after the Reds' success and then came United's penalty shoot-out victory over Chelsea at a rain-sodden Luzhniki Stadium.

The Red Devils went on to lose two of the next three finals to a majestic Barcelona team before Chelsea's unlikely victory.

How times had changed from a barren spell in the 1990s after the European ban on English clubs was lifted.

The unforgettable late drama of United's Nou Camp triumph in 1999 was the lone English appearance spanning Liverpool's ill-fated Heysel defeat in 1985 to that unforgettable Istanbul comeback 20 years on.

Billed as the most exciting league in the world, the Premier League's best must try and strike a blow after watching on as Spain and Germany provided seven of the last eight semi-finalists.

For champions Manchester City, the omens are not good.

Three of the last four English Champions League winners have failed to win the title in the season prior to European success.

Of course, for City, mere statistics are the least of their worries. Yet again they have been handed a nightmare draw for the group stage.

Opponents from this phase a year ago, Bayern Munich and CSKA Moscow, are joined by Serie A runners-up Roma in Group E.

For the fourth year running City will feel the draw has not been kind to them.

Given the quality of opposition, Manuel Pellegrini's star-studded squad face a stern test just to be involved after Christmas.

If City can navigate their way into the knockout stage, no side will want to face them.

It remains to be seen if City have learned enough about competing at this level to win the competition.

The manner of their home defeat to Bayern a year ago is difficult to forget, while it is worth remembering they trailed 0-2 in Munich early in the return game before fighting back to win 3-2.

Last season's Barcelona crop was anything but vintage and yet City were swatted aside in the last 16 with relative ease.

For now, City are left with much to prove on this grand stage.

Compared with City, Arsenal are old money in this environment.

The Gunners routinely make their way into the knockout stages but in recent seasons Arsene Wenger has witnessed a worrying trend as his side have failed to progress from the last 16 in their last four attempts.

A key contributing factor is Arsenal's consistent failure to top their group.

Being forced to tackle group winners in the first knockout stage has resulted in Arsenal being eliminated by Bayern (twice) and Barcelona over the last four years.

That trend is one which Arsenal must arrest if they are to bring their quest for Champions League glory to a successful conclusion.

Borussia Dortmund appear a weaker proposition this season and Wenger will be impressing on his team the need to top Group D ahead of the Bundesliga side, Galatasaray and Anderlecht.

In doing so, Arsenal would take a giant step towards a first quarter-final appearance in five years.

Liverpool have been dealt a fairly playable hand on their return to the elite level.

Defending champions Real Madrid will provide both the glamour and the challenge for the Reds.

In Basel and first-timers Ludogorets from Bulgaria, Liverpool have found opposition they should sense blood in.

This will be Brendan Rodgers' first exposure to Champions League football as a manager and the Anfield boss will have to learn fast.

Any chinks in their armour will be exposed by a Ludogorets team gaining a reputation after their Europa League exploits last year.

The dust has long settled on his departure, but how Liverpool would love to have Luis Suarez at their disposal for their return to the Champions League.

As Manchester City have learned, experience and nous in this competition count for a lot.

Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallana, amongst others, will be sampling this competition for a first time.

Just as they do domestically, Chelsea would appear to be holding the aces in Europe.

Jose Mourinho has assembled a squad brimming with experience.

Cesc Fabregas is already demonstrating his worth, while Thibaut Courtois and Diego Costa were vital cogs in Atletico Madrid's surprise run to last season's final.

Nemanja Matic was the benefit of a three-season finishing school at Benfica that included two group stage campaigns.

The Blues also find themselves the beneficiaries of a relatively straightforward group.

Schalke, Sporting Lisbon and Maribor are not likely to derail the Stamford Bridge express.

The biggest worry around Chelsea in Europe is that Mourinho undoubtedly has his eyes cast towards a Premier League title.

When mid-February brings with it the last-16 ties, Chelsea ought to be locked in a fierce tussle for domestic supremacy.

Something will have to give and given the belief that Chelsea will be champions of England, Europe could inadvertently be that sacrificial lamb.

So we find ourselves at a point where we have singularly failed to make a case for any of the four Premier League contenders winning the Champions League in the Olympiastadion in nine months' time.

For the fourth time in seven years, the answer may be in Spain. Since the turn of the century bitter rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona have hoisted the famous trophy six times between them.

While both clubs are undergoing a season of relative change, it may come to pass that the spring of 2015 and the Champions League knockouts could be perfect timing.

The star power added by the Spanish giants will take some time to bed in. In turn that could result in less week in, week out dominance in La Liga, but the match-winning talent acquired will prove hard to halt in Europe.

Suarez gets the headlines at the Nou Camp but Luis Enrique has also brought in goal -coring midfielder Ivan Rakitic along with Thomas Vermaelen, Jeremy Mathieu and goalkeeper Claudio Bravo to bolster the backline.

At Real, the era of the Galactico is alive and well.

Colombian World Cup superstar James Rodriguez and Bayern Munich's Toni Kroos now complement a forward line that already boasts Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema.

Pep Guardiola ensured his Bayern squad are well placed to challenge once more by adding Robert Lewandowski and the experienced Xabi Alonso to his ranks.

With a final on German soil, the Bundesliga champions will be eager to make their mark.

Sitting at the top of the betting market, Bayern, Real and Barcelona present a major road block to the English representatives as the Champions League journey begins once again.