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Arsenal’s UEFA Champion’s League Group Drawing Reaction

By Josh Sippie

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It is never an enjoyable time to watch names being drawn out of a hat. It is even less enjoyable when waiting for the deliberation to pass and the drawing to begin.

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Arsenal have not had favorable draws in the past, having to fight through many groups of death, and it only makes sense that given our start to the season, we were expecting the worst.

Everything becomes even less enjoyable when Arsenal are immediately drawn into Group F with German powerhouse Bayern Munich. To make matters even less enjoyable, Manchester United were then drawn into perhaps the easiest initial grouping with PSV and Chelsea followed by getting FC Porto.

It seems like every year Arsenal have to go through either Barcelona or Bayern Munich at one stage or another, so if nothing else, at least facing Bayern in the group stage will prevent us from being directly thrown into a knockout situation with the German giants. Plus, it was not so long ago that Arsenal went into the Allianz Areana and played out an admirable draw. Granted it was not enough to move on, it was quite the statement and one point from the Allianz during the group stage would be massive.

Being drawn into Bayern Munich’s group was followed by the two being joined by Olympiacos, the Greek Champions that handled Manchester United incredibly well two years back, despite being ousted in the end. It will not be an easy result by any stretch, but it is not the worst possible outcome.

Arsenal and Olympiacos are in the same group for the fourth time in seven seasons. Each of the six preceding games has been won by the home team, according to UEFA.com. The Greeks handle English opposition rather well, particularly at home.

Dinamo Zagreb was the last team drawn into the group. The Croatian side has won the Croation First League every year for the past ten years, as well as winning the Croatian Super Cup six of the last ten years. Of course Zagreb is also the proud new owners of Chilean striker Angelo Henriquez.

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Overall though, Arsenal did not draw into an awful group. Bayern Munich is obviously the girth of the group, but it is a top heavy group. Looking at other Pot B English teams, Manchester United may have been drawn softly at first, joining PSV, but it balanced out when Wolfsburg and CSKA Moscow were added, making the group fairly evenly matched.

Likewise, Manchester City will find no strolls in the park either. They initially joined runner-up Juventus and were then joined by Sevilla and Borussia Monchengladbach, again, neither of which are pushovers.

All things considered, this draw went rather well. Arsenal are far and away favored to move on from the group stage, but as we know, nothing is guaranteed with our beloved club.

Next: What's happened to Cazorla?

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