Arsenal’s Champions League League Phase (yep, I still hate writing that) opponent’s have been drawn, along with the rest of the fixtures for the opening stage of the competition. All in all, it’s not a bad slate for the Gunners. Most of the tough matches will come at the Emirates, and there should be some enjoyable away days in there.
The Gunners will face Bayern Munich, Inter Milan (A), Atletico Madrid, Club Brugge (A), Olympiacos, Slavia Praha (A), Kairat Almaty, Athletic Club (A). Last year, the
seventh and eighth place finishers (a.k.a. the last two clubs to automatically qualify for the knockout stage and avoid the extra two-legged tie) won five, drew one, and lost two. There is no reason Arsenal cannot manage at least that record from that group of matches.
The Pot One clubs are middle-of-the-road compared to who Arsenal could have drawn. Atleti is one of the stronger Pot 2 teams and Club Brugge could be tricky. Pot 3 is fine. Athletic Club is probably the second-best Pot 4 club behind Newcastle, who Arsenal could not draw.
The actual fixture dates will be announced no later than Saturday, August 30th, so we’ll have to wait and see where the various matches fall in terms of the Premier League schedule, i.e. will it be a tough midweek opponent in a tough stretch, away in the CL before away in the PL, etc.
Some quick thoughts on the pairings with Arsenal’s record against the club in parens:
Bayern Munich (3-3-8): a chance for Arsenal to exact a bit of revenge for the German side knocking them out of the competition two seasons ago. Bukayo Saka should have won a penalty at the end of the first leg and I will die on that hill. The Gunners have played Bayern 14 times — they’re the Gunners most common opponent in Europe.
@Inter Milan (1-0-2): a rematch of Arsenal’s Pot One away day last season, which the Italian side 1-0 on a…let’s call it “continental” hand ball penalty decision. It was the kind of call that often gets made in European competition and is almost never given in Premier League action. The Gunners are probably helped by facing the same opponent away as last season — they’ll be familiar with the players and slightly more comfortable in the stadium compared to if it was a club they hadn’t faced.
Atletico Madrid (0-1-1): a tough draw but being at the Emirates mitigates that. I’d wager Atletico wanted to avoid Arsenal more than Arsenal wanted to avoid Atleti. They’ve stumbled out of the gate in La Liga — a loss and a draw to open the campaign. They finished 5th in the CL table last season but went out to Real Madrid in the Round of 16. They’re a solid side, but I think their name is doing more of the work than their actual quality.
@Club Brugge (no comp. meetings): the current Belgian champions could be a tricky away fixture, although they are the second-lowest club from Pot 2 on UEFA Coefficient. For what that’s worth — probably not very much. They knocked out RB Salzburg and battered Rangers in the qualifying rounds. They finished 24th in the CL table last season and beat Atalanta in the play-in round before getting smashed by Aston Villa.
Olympiacos (6-0-6): life finds a way the European draw finds a way. You know who is the tied second-most common opponent for Arsenal in European play? Olympiacos (and PSV Eindhoven). We get a lovely reunion with Edu, who now runs Evangelos Marinakis’ football group that also owns Nottingham Forest and Portuguese club Rio Ave FC.
@Slavia Praha (2-2-0): a picture from the last time Arsenal faced the Czech side, after Ondrej Kudela had been suspended 10 matches for racially abusing Rangers player Glen Kamara. Arsenal won 4-0 and Alex Lacazette scored twice — maybe my proudest moment as an Arsenal supporter.
Kairat Almaty (no comp. meetings): Arsenal are fortunate to have drawn the Kazakh club at the Emirates — a trip to Almaty, Kazakhstan takes 10-12 hours from London. It’ll be cool to have the Champions League newcomers visit. They knocked out Celtic on penalties after going 0-0 over two legs. In the previous playoff rounds, they beat Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia), KuPS (Finalnd), and Olimpija (Slovenia).
@Athletic Club (Bilbao) (no comp. meetings): the Spanish side are one of the tougher draws from Pot 4, although they’re around the middle of that pack of clubs in terms of UEFA coefficient rankings. For what it’s worth, Newcastle are third-lowest (only Pafos and Kairat are below them) and the Premier League side are unquestionably the best of the Pot 4 clubs. Arsenal downed Bilbao 3-0 in the Emirates Cup to close out preseason action.
What do you think of Arsenal’s draw? Will they get that all-important top 8 spot again this season?
