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The League Phase draw for the Champions League takes place on Thursday evening in Monaco, and Arsenal will discover who they will take on between now and the end of January in the continental competition.
The Gunners were a penalty shootout away from reigning supreme in Europe's most prestigious club competition last season, with Paris Saint-Germain beating the North Londoners to silverware in Budapest. Mikel Arteta's team will look to put this right this time around, and another favourable League Phase draw would certainly help in their quest to do so.
With that said, here is the extensive list of potential opponents Arsenal could face in this initial stage of the Champions League.
How the league phase draw works
The Champions League format has changed significantly in recent years, and the draw now looks quite different as a result. For those unfamiliar with how the new system works, here’s a quick explanation.
The 36 teams are split into four pots based on their UEFA coefficient — a ranking that reflects a club’s recent performance in European competition. Each team is then drawn against two sides from each pot, with one of those games played at home and the other away.
There are a couple of restrictions, too. Teams cannot face a club from their own country, while they can play a maximum of two teams from any other single country during the League Phase. That gives every team its eight-game fixture list.
The draw itself is completely random, with former professional footballers taking to the stage and pressing a comically oversized button for an unnecessarily long time to determine who plays who.
Arsenal's potential league phase opponents
Pot 1
Pot 1 is filled with the best teams in Europe, the sides you'd expect to reach the latter stages. It contains Manchester City and Liverpool, neither of whom the Gunners can face.
A clash against Atletico Madrid could prove to be tasty, given last year's semi-final tie and the ongoing transfer saga around Julian Alvarez. Meanwhile, Arsenal are barred from travelling to the San Siro to face Inter Milan for the third year straight, although they can play the Italian giants at home.
Arsenal will play two of the following in the League Phase, one at home and one away:
- Paris Saint-Germain
- Bayern Munich
- Real Madrid
- Inter Milan
- Barcelona
- Atletico Madrid
Pot 2
Pot 2 consists of a number of second-tier European clubs who may have caused Arsenal problems five to ten years ago, but they shouldn't have any issues with any of them nowadays. Aston Villa and Manchester United are in this pot, and the Gunners obviously can't meet either of them.
Arteta's men will play two of the following:
- Borussia Dortmund
- Roma
- Sporting CP
- Porto
- Club Brugge
- Real Betis
- PSV Eindhoven
Pot 3
Pot 3 is where things start to look rather Europa League-esque. Obviously, all of these clubs have qualified for the Champions League, but they're the sorts of sides the Gunners were used to meeting in the latter stages of UEFA's second-rate competition.
The pot includes the following:
- Feyenoord
- Lille
- Bodo/Glimt
- Napoli
- RB Leipzig
- Villarreal
- Shakhtar Donetsk
- Galatasaray
- Lyon/Fenerbahce
Pot 4
Finally, Pot 4 includes a number of first-timers, a handful of regulars who never progress past the League Phase and some historic sides who have underperformed for years. The likes of Como, LASK and Sabah will be making their Champions League debuts and will potential provide Gunners supporters with new away days to look forward to.
Two of the following will play Arsenal:
- Slavia Prague
- Stuttgart
- LASK
- Como
- Lens
- Sabah
- AEK Athens/Levski Sofia
- NK Celje/Slovan Bratislava
- Viking/Dinamo Zagreb
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