Arsenal Champions League Draw

The Champions League group stage draw takes place at 12 pm ET at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. It will stream live on UEFA’s website. Arsenal are in Pot 2 of the draw, slipping in with the lowest UEFA coefficient in the second grouping and aided by Juventus missing out on the competition.

It’s the Gunners first time back in the competition following five seasons in the wilderness of the Europa League and one out of Europe entirely. Prior to that six year spell, Arsenal had spent 19 consecutive seasons in the Champions League.

This is the final season of the current group stage structure. Starting next year, the field will expand to 36 teams, competing in a league format. Each club will play eight matches against eight different teams, four home and four away. The top eight finishers will automatically advance to the knockout stage. The teams finishing 9th through 24th will be paired for two-legged playoffs to determine the other eight spots in the knockouts.

But first, one more group stage go-round. The groups will be randomly selected with one team from each pot. For those of you who are new, they literally put ping pong sized balls containing team names into four different bowls and pull them out one by one. Clubs from the same country cannot be drawn into the same group, so Arsenal will not be matched with Manchester City, Manchester United, or Newcastle.

We will update the post once the groups have been drawn.

Pot 1

Manchester City (ENG, Champions League holders)
Sevilla (ESP, Europa League holders)
Barcelona (ESP)
Napoli (ITA)
Bayern München (GER)
Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)
Benfica (POR)
Feyenoord (NED)

Pot 2

Real Madrid (ESP)
Manchester United (ENG)
Inter Milan (ITA)
Borussia Dortmund (GER)
Atlético de Madrid (ESP)
Leipzig (GER)
Porto (POR)
Arsenal (ENG)

Pot 3

Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
RB Salzburg (AUT)
AC Milan (ITA)
Braga (POR)
PSV (NED)
Lazio (ITA)
Crvena zvezda (SRB)
Copenhagen (DEN)

Pot 4

Young Boys (SUI)
Real Sociedad (ESP)
Galatasaray (TUR)
Celtic (SCO)
Newcastle (ENG)
Union Berlin (GER)
Antwerp (BEL)
Lens (FRA)