Projected Champions League pots revealed for new format as Arsenal miss out but Liverpool join Man City

There will be 36 club in the group stage of European football’s top competition, all competing in the same league rather than previous system of four-team groups.

Clubs will play eight matches, all against different teams, with four of those at home and four away. The top eight after those matches will go straight through to the last-16 in the knockout stages, while those finishing between ninth and 24th in the initial stage will face a play-off to join them.

UEFA will, as ever, split clubs into four different pots, with every side playing against two teams from each of those pots.

The final pots will not be finalised until early in the new season, with qualifying matches to be played, but it has already been confirmed that Arsenal will be among those sides in Pot 2.

That is decided by UEFA’s club coefficient rankings, with the Gunners down in 22nd due to a six-year absence from the Champions League before this season.

It is not a particularly consequential outcome for Arsenal, as they would have had to face two Pot-1 sides even if they were in the top pot themselves.

Manchester City and Liverpool will both take their place in Pot 1, while Aston Villa, back at Europe’s top table for the first time since 1983, know they will likely be in Pot 4, depending on the clubs making it through qualifying.