Four months after winning the final against Chelsea in Moscow, United open their Group E campaign on Wednesday against Villarreal, who were runners-up to Real Madrid in Spain last season. Berbatov, finally wrested from Tottenham for £30.75m, has much to live up to.

The Bulgarian's blend of moodiness and magic has echoes of the man who became the catalyst in United's breakthrough 15 years ago. Unlike Berbatov, who Sir Alex Ferguson pursued all summer, the £1m signing of Eric Cantona came out of nowhere. While Cantona's manager at Leeds, Howard Wilkinson, seemed to see him as a Lee Chapman with tricks, Ferguson identified him as the player to coax the best from a collection of budding virtuosos. In Berbatov United have another enigmatic forward with the capacity to link units of the team that are functioning below their maximum potential. Like Cantona, with whom he shares a penchant for painting, he favours a broad canvas, operating either between the middle and front or as the focal point of attack.

Neither Wayne Rooney nor Carlos Tevez, nor Cristiano Ronaldo, who is due back next month, is at his most effective as the most advanced player. The 6ft 2in Berbatov, with 46 goals in two seasons with Spurs, is certainly equipped for the role.

Celtic, who play in eastern Spain on September 30, and the fourth side in the group, Aalborg of Denmark, will be present to monitor the remodelling of United as well as the strength of El Submarino Amarillo (The Yellow Submarine, as Villarreal are known because of their strip). If Villarreal do not return to the premier tournament with any £30m recruits – they come from a town the size of Ayr whose population would fit inside Old Trafford and leave 28,000 seats empty – they promise to be as competitive as when they turfed both Glasgow giants out of Europe. Those victories were the prelude to a Champions League run in 2005-06 that ended in semi-final defeat by Arsenal.

Still under the stewardship of Chilean Manuel Pellegrino, who led his side through the first phase that autumn at United's expense, Villarreal have as many South Americans (eight) as Spaniards. Marcos Senna, the Brazilian-born holding midfielder once coveted by Ferguson, is the heartbeat of the team, fresh from helping Spain win Euro 2008 and being named player of the tournament by Martin O'Neill and Alan Hansen.

Robert Pires, 35, is a fringe player with Villarreal; his last Champions League appearance was the 19 minutes it took for Arsene Wenger to withdraw him from the 2006 final against Barcelona after Jens Lehmann's dismissal. Pascal Cygan, also formerly of Arsenal, will be absent through injury, as will Turkey striker Nihat Kahveci, although one-time United reserve Giuseppe Rossi should be in contention after scoring four times for Italy in the Olympics. If a goal-shy United cannot swiftly assimilate Berbatov's wiles, a tense, tight opening contest is in prospect.

By an odd anomaly – or maybe a reflection of where the wealth is concentrated in Europe – none of the English quartet were knocked out by foreign opposition last season. Chelsea, having eliminated Liverpool (conquerors of Arsenal), were a John Terry penalty-kick away from lifting the European Cup for the first time. A relatively kind draw has reduced the potential for early slips this time, with Laurent Blanc's Bordeaux opening the Group A schedule in London on Tuesday while Roma tackle the romantically named Romanians of CFR 1907 Cluj.

Arsenal face Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine on Wednesday. Where once the Gunners faced the home-grown Shevchenko, Rebrov and Luzhny, Dynamo now draw on Brazil, Senegal, Morocco, Guinea, Finland and Nigeria. In Group G, completed by Fenerbahce and Porto, Arsene Wenger calls them "an unknown quantity". The same will no longer be true of Theo Walcott, who was about as plausible an international marksman as Kirk Broadfoot until Wednesday. An astonishingly composed hat-trick for England in Croatia, from a player Wenger uses as a winger rather than a striker, means the 19-year-old will be a marked man.

The same night, Liverpool resume hostilities with Marseille in Group D. A year ago the French won 1-0 at Anfield, yet Rafael Benitez's side clinched their place in the knockout phase by trouncing the same opponents 4-0. Liverpool's restless quest to regain domestic pre-eminence ensures that names such as Finnan, Voronin, Sissoko, Leto, Riise, Kewell and Crouch, who figured in those games, are no longer available to Benitez. The same has lately been true, albeit temporarily, of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, but the duo should play in Provence, boosting morale, creativity and scoring power at a stroke.