Arsenal Find Luck in UEFA Champions League Draw of Monaco

Remember that time I was upset about the probability that Arsenal would face Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League for another year? Well, that nightmarish draw didn’t come to pass, as Arsenal for all intents and purposes, lucked out. Monaco will be the opponent.

All things considered, Arsenal have finally found a good bit of fortune. Here’s the rest of the draw:

1. Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) – Chelsea FC (ENG)
2. Manchester City FC (ENG) – FC Barcelona (ESP)
3. Bayer 04 Leverkusen (GER) – Club Atlético de Madrid (ESP)
4. Juventus Football Club (ITA) – Borussia Dortmund (GER)
5. FC Schalke 04 (GER) – Real Madrid CF (ESP)
6. FC Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) – FC Bayern München (GER)
7. Arsenal FC (ENG) – AS Monaco FC (FRA)
8. FC Basel 1893 (SUI) – FC Porto (POR)

Manchester City unfortunately drew Barcelona and Chelsea face no easy task with PSG, so Arsenal (for once) got the best draw of all the Premier League representatives.

While Monaco may have won their group, it was a very underwhelming group, with Bayer 04 Leverkusen coming in second. Monaco didn’t dominate the group either, they did what was needed.

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As far as their Ligue 1 play, they’ve been under-performing as well since the loss of James and Falcao. They sit in 6th place, which, while that is the exact position Arsenal sit in, the Gunners play in a much more difficult league and they’ve been on fire as of late.

Who do Arsenal need to watch out for? Dimitar Berbatov is the main man. At 6’2″ he can cause a potential problem in the box, especially for a team that has had so much trouble defending set pieces like Arsenal has. But if Per Mertesacker and Laurent Kocielny are both healthy, he shouldn’t pose much of a threat.

So there you have it Gooner’s. The draw is in our favor and as long as we take care of business, we are more than capable of moving on to the next stage.

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