Arsenal’s Champions League group stage draw fate has been confirmed as Gunners return to European stage

Arsenal now know their Champions League group stage draw fate as they prepare to return to Europe’s elite competition for the first time in the post Arsene Wenger era.

The Champions League qualifiers are still currently taking place at this stage and the likes of Rangers and PSV Eindhoven are still battling for their place in the competition ahead of the official group stage draw on Thursday 31 August.

But the Gunners have already booked their place in the group stage of the competition after an impressive second place finish in the Premier League last season.

Arsenal are one of the 32 teams that will participate in the Champions League this season and the teams will be split into eight groups of four, and each group will be one team from each of the four pots.

Those four pots, aside from the title winners of the top seven leagues and Europa League holders Sevilla, are calculated by UEFA Coefficient points.

Those points are calculated based on European performances across the last five seasons and Arsenal have been placed in Pot 2, despite having a coefficient of 76.000.

The Gunners have earned a place in Pot 2 rather than Pot 3 due to Chelsea, Liverpool, Juventus, Ajax, AS Roma, Villareal, Eintracht Frankfurt and Tottenham Hotspur's failure to qualify for the competition.

Newcastle United are also competing in the Champions League next year after a 20-year absence from the competition and they have been placed in Pot 4 due to their long absence from European competitions.

Who could Arsenal face in the Champions League group stage?

As per UEFA rules, Arsenal will not be able to come up against teams from the same country in the group stage, thus meaning they cannot be paired with Manchester City, Man United or Newcastle United.

This means that Sevilla, Barcelona, Napoli, Bayern Munich, PSG, Benfica and Feyernoord are all potential opponents from Pot 1.

Shakhtar Donetsk, Red Bull Salzburg, AC Milan, Lazio, Celtic and Red Star Belgrade are all potential opponents from Pot 3 along with one team out of Rangers, Braga or PSV.

RC Lens and Union Berlin are both potential Pot 4 opponents for the Gunners.

While the remaining seeds will be decided based on the final round of play-off matches.

Here are the remaining games in the qualifying play-offs

• Rakow Czestochow vs FC Copenhagen
• Rangers vs PSV Eindhoven
• Royal Antwerp vs tbc
• Maccabi Haifa vs Young Boys
• Molde vs Galatasaray
• Sporting Braga vs Panathinaikos