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Topics: Football, Arsenal, Juventus, Mikel Arteta, Serie A, Champions League
Chris Byfield
Topics: Football, Arsenal, Juventus, Mikel Arteta, Serie A, Champions League
Juventus’s fate in Serie A may have gifted Arsenal a dream Champions League draw.
Having led the Premier League for 248 days, Mikel Arteta’s side still fell short in their ambition of winning their first league title in 19 years.
Yet the Gunners did qualify for the Champions League - a competition that was taken for granted in the heady days of Arsene Wenger, but one that the north Londoners have not taken part in since the 2016/17 season.
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And strangely, Juventus’ failure to qualify for the Champions League may have implications for Arsenal’s success in the competition. Here’s why.
The Champions League proper begins with a group stage of 32 teams, each divided into eight groups of four. No group may contain more than one club from the same nation.
The teams are first split into four seeding pots and each group will have one team from each pot.
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Pot 1 consists of the Champions League holders, the Europa League winners and the champions of UEFA's six highest-ranked nations who have not earned a place by winning either of the aforementioned competitions.
Then the rest will be determined by the UEFA coefficient. This is based on the results of clubs competing in the five previous seasons of the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.
Arsenal will now be in Pot 2 for the Champions League draw after Juventus failed to qualify for the competition.
UEFA’s coefficient system to determine Champions League seedings had Arsenal sitting 23rd, and it looked likely the Gunners would be drawn in Pot 3 and face a potential ‘Group of Death’.
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Juventus were eighth in the coefficient rankings, but after a ten-point deduction in Serie A, they missed out on a Champions League spot.
This means Arsenal could be handed a dream Champions League draw, that could include Feyenoord, Rangers and Young Boys, with the latter team expected to confirm their place in the competition via qualifiers.
Alternatively, on paper, the hardest group imaginable for the Gunners would arguably be Bayern Munich, Milan and Real Sociedad.