Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City and Aston Villa's nightmare Champions League opponents revealed ahead of draw

The new-look Champions League group stage draw takes place on Thursday - who can Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and Aston Villa come up against?

Each team will be drawn against eight different opponents as part of the new Swiss model format, which sees all 36 teams - increased from 32 - compete in a singular league stage.

An AI supercomputer will complete the draw, with teams only able to face a maximum of two other teams from the same league.

Teams also cannot be drawn against another team from their own league at this stage, with each team facing two other teams from each of the four pots.

Manchester City and Liverpool are both in pot one - which is based on UEFA co-efficients - while Arsenal are in pot two. Aston Villa are in pot four.

As a result, all four Premier League clubs are effectively eligible to face the same group of opponents, as the pots have little bearing on the standard of teams drawn against.

With that in mind, here's what we consider to be the nightmare draw for each Premier League club.

• Nightmare draw: Real Madrid, Bayern Munich (pot one), Atletico Madrid, Juventus (pot two), Feyenoord, PSV (pot three), Monaco, Stuttgart (pot four).

Reigning champions Real Madrid sit in pot one, while Bayern Munich could also provide a stern test under Vincent Kompany.

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Atletico Madrid could make up the second Spanish opposition in pot two, along with Italian giants Juventus.

Dutch giants Feyenoord - now, of course, without new Liverpool manager Arne Slot - and PSV could make up a tricky pot three trio, with a resurgent Monaco and in-form Bundesliga side Stuttgart in pot four.

Here are the pots in full:

• Pot one: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig
• Pot two: Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta, Juventus, Benfica, Arsenal, Club Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk, AC Milan
• Pot three: Feyenoord, Sporting Lisbon, PSV Eindhoven, RB Salzburg, Young Boys, Celtic, Dinamo Zagreb, Lille, Crvena zvezda
• Pot four: Monaco, Sparta Prague, Aston Villa, Bologna, Girona, Stuttgart, Sturm Graz, Brest, Slovan Bratislava