The draw for the Champions League takes place later today and Arsenal, as we know, will be in pot 2 instead of taking their usual place in pot 1.

Many people are convinced this means the end of Arsenal escaping the group stages only to crash out in the later stages when they meet Barcelona or Bayern Munich because we can now get them in the group stages as well, but the boss isn’t convinced the seeding system is a disaster.

Speaking to Arsenal.com, the boss said “I don’t think it will change anything.

“It will just put some weaker teams in pot one.

“When you look at the structure of the groups, you don’t necessarily have a disadvantage by being in pot two because it looks as strong because of the recent history of the teams that are there.

“Ideally you want a group where you have a chance to come out in the top position, no matter how far you go. It helps sometimes mentally not to go too far.

“Before sometimes, 10 or 12 years ago, your focus was more on every Champions League game and you knew that in the Premier League you could get away with resting one or two players.

“We are now in a situation where you don’t make a difference between Champions League and Premier League, you just try to win the next game.”

Arsenal, of course, topped their group last year and were handed what most considered to be the pick of the round when paired with Monaco. They then went ahead and threw the tie away in the first leg and left themselves, once again, with far too much ground to make up in the second.

Will this year be any different?

Only time will tell.

Read more about who Arsenal can get in the draw here.