For the players, these top, top, top games or these top, top, top events - like a World Cup or a European Championship - are not common but, of course, something special.
We accept that, in one way now, if you are 27, 28 and still playing for Ajax, you are probably not good enough for the top of Europe because players want to go to the top in Europe.
Chelsea have given me the opportunity to play in a top team with top players, so I will try to be as successful as possible here.
When I play any of the top teams or the top players, it's a stage.
The Champions League is the one thing missing from my career. When I look at the history of the competition and the people that have taken part, the top, top players have all won it. For many, it is why they have been regarded as top players.
I think in any profession, in general, you always imagine yourself at the top of it. And I'm not trying to say I'm at the top of my profession, but I've seen what the top people do and what the top people live like. And that's definitely something I want to be a part of.
We have a psychologist at Chelsea who goes around seeing the loan players. He said every top, top player has a dark side. So someone like Diego Costa sometimes oversteps the mark. But you can see he plays on the edge. He said I had to develop that. It's not natural for me to be like that.
I think there are a lot of good players in the top 20, top 30 that are top-10 players. You got to get there. You got to earn it.
I was a defensive lineman coming out of high school who was considered amongst the top... maybe the top six guys, top five guys, and wanted to prove to my team that I was going to be a top guy going into college.
I was a defensive lineman coming out of high school who was considered amongst the top maybe the top six guys, top five guys, and wanted to prove to my team that I was going to be a top guy going into college.
As a professional, you want to get as much as you can out of your career, play at the top level, and win trophies. Playing with top players at Manchester City, I've got a great chance of doing that, and I just want to keep improving.
I think that's the philosophy of all top teams - to educate young, top players and to give them the possibility to play.
The goal for the top American isn't the top twenty - it's top ten, top five, number one in the world.
You can lose to any team and then beat your top opponents and still not be in the top four.
Now it's up to me to prove that I can play for Barcelona and help the team to stay at the top.
I'd love to do well on a big weekend with people watching and cheering, of course. But it's not fair to create an expectation level before I know what is realistic. I want to finish as well as possible. Is that top 20? Top 15? Top 25? You just have to play it by ear.