The draw for the group stages is made later today with us in the same pot as Bayern, Barcelona, Chelsea, Real, Man Utd, Porto and Benfica, so we won't face any of those teams in the group stages, which should mean that we have a good chance of progressing into the knockout stages. Here are the pots in full: [TABLE="class: data-table, width: 320"] [TR] [TD="class: left first, bgcolor: #DCDCDC"]Pot 1: Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Arsenal, FC Porto, Benfica [/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: row2"] [TD="class: left first"]Pot 2: Atletico Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, AC Milan, Schalke, Marseille, CSKA Moscow, Paris St-Germain, Juventus [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: left first"]Pot 3: Zenit St Petersburg, Manchester City, Ajax Amsterdam, Borussia Dortmund, FC Basel, Olympiakos, Galatasaray, Bayer Leverkusen [/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: row2"] [TD="class: left first"]Pot 4: FC Copenhagen, Napoli, Anderlecht, Celtic,Steaua Bucharest, Viktoria Plzen, Real Sociedad, Austria Vienna [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Remember this is the Champions League thread, so no Spuddies allowed
I wouldn't fancy getting Napoli from pot 4 or AC Milan from pot 2 - could be a tasty draw this one.....
I don't know how Porto and Benfica got in pot 1, Marseille and CSKA got in pot 2... while Dortmund and Man City are pot 3 and Napoli pot 4. For that matter, why are we pot 1? We're not good enough any more.
I think it comes down to UEFA rankings, we've been in the Champions League for Sixteen successive seasons so our ranking in the comp is higher than Man CIty or Dortmund.
Dortmund has only made it past the Group Stages ONCE. They've done virtually **** all in Europe City's record in Europe? You're having a laugh if you think they should be in a higher pot than us. Porto, Benfica, CSKA and Marseille are alsp vetter overall in Europe than those teams.
Yes, I think we should be slightly higher than City, but Dortmund reached the final last year. It should be weighted more in favor of recent performance.
The Portuguese league is crap though. If it's last 5 years, the most recent year should be far more important than 5 years ago ....important to the point that Dortmund are at least in pot 2.
We couldn't draw Juve and Napoli as they are both Italian and you can't have 2 teams from the same nation meet each other until the QF afaik. So i think the worst draw would probably be PSG, Dortmund, Napoli. With the best being Marseille, Basel, Austria Vienna or similar.
A countrie's UEFA co-efficent also counts and Porto and Benfica have both done well in the Europa League in recent years
Out of Pot 2 the only teams I would find reasonable are Marseille and CSKA Moscow, the rest we would struggle against the way we are at the moment. Out of Pot 3 Olympiakos, FC Basel, possibly Ajax and Zenith although Arshavin would probably score the winner against us. Pot 4 the dangerous teams are Napoli, Celtic at their ground and Real Sociedad with an inform Vela. So best possible draw IMO Marseille, Basel, Austria Vienna
Good point, and Porto did well in the CL last year too. Anyway, we all know United will get the easiest draw, and it will probably involve FC Basel again. Based on our history, we'll get Shaktar/Schalke + Galatasaray/Olympiakos/Dortmund + Anderlecht
I don't understand why we in this damn competition for anyway it not like we can attract top players for our club and in this season more than most we will be definitely just be making up the numbers.
It's not like that P I still support the team I was there yesterday to get some bit and pieces for me and the kids but am feeling quite down about our team like never before. It seems like the Spuds our are noisy neighbours not in Champions league but they can buy quality players While our manager tell us there no quality players that will make our team better so we buy Flamini and bid for Cabaye we should of just kept Denilson and Arshavin and played him in his rightful position. Love Arsenal.
I hear you, it's been a frustrating transfer window. Let's hope we can pull a rabbit out of the hat in the next few days. A nice win on Sunday would do the confidence a treat too
