After finishing the preliminary round, which team will enter the semi-finals, we can then determine which team will be the candidate as champion.
If you look at the current standings, Lazio and Atletic Bilbao are the best. They are in first and second place in the standings and they have not yet lost in the UEL. On the other hand, I am surprised by the performance of R.S.C. Anderlecht. They are not a strong team like Lazio and Atletic Bilbao but they have not yet lost in the UEL. Back to the topic, I agree that this is still the group stage. We cannot determine which team will be the champion. I think there will be many surprises in the next matches. I think we have to wait for the quarter-finals or semifinals to determine which team is the favorite to win.
Next round which is going to start from 23rd January we are going to have few exciting games with Lazio going to host Real Sociedad and Besiktas will host Athletic Bilbao after these two big games Fenerbahçe will host Lyon few other big names are having weak opponents mean changes can happen, and we can expect something interesting just because of this currently nothing is clear who is going to directly and which team will be gone for the playoffs.
But due to new format we have few clubs are able to give their best which increase competitiveness, and also we have good games to watch with all games were on same level and big teams needs to give their best instead of going for staying at the op of group stage hopefully things could be more dramatic which will increase fans interest for their clubs and soccer which was main agenda of UEFA for having changes in this competition.