It was a great achievement, if a very nerve wracking one, for Arsenal to qualify for the Champions League group stages for the 17th year in a row this week. But Arsene Wenger and the players will be determined to go further in the competition this season, having gone out in the first knockout round in recent years.
But to do this we were hoping for a bit more luck in the draw to give us a better chance of winning our group and avoiding the better teams. So having been put in group D, the second pot was important and we got the German giants Borussia Dortmund, just like last season. That was just about as bad a start as possible.
And it didn’t get any better for the Gunners in the next pot, with the Turkish champions Galatasaray going in. All we needed now was to get Monaco or Roma to complete the bad luck. But we got Anderlecht from Belgium instead. So it could have been slightly worse, I suppose, but it could also have been much better.
As usual, Chelsea got a nice easy ride, with Schalke, Sporting and Maribor. Man City got Bayern Munich and Roma while Liverpool’s is not too bad apart from Real Madrid. So Arsenal didn’t get the group of death, but we will need to be really on the ball to finish top. What do you think?