The Europa League draw takes place this Friday at 12pm and Arsenal enter the competition for the second time, but this time they have a serial winner of the competition at the helm.
Reaching the semi-finals last season during their first go at the competition, Arsenal will be hoping they can go a few steps further this season and claim Unai Emery’s fourth Europa League trophy.
Atletico Madrid start this season in the Champions League making Arsenal one of the favourites again for the competition at the group stage unless the Spaniards finsh third in their group and end up back at the European kiddies table. At this point, given teams in the competition, you have to fancy Chelsea as our biggest threat but we can’t face them until the knock-outs.
In all, there will be 48 teams in the draw on Friday, drawn into 12 groups of four.
The top two from each group qualify for the knock-out round of 32.
For the group draw, 17 teams qualified automatically, while 21 made it through play-offs. Another six drop down from the Champions League play-offs and four more coming from the Champions League third qualifying round.
Teams and coefficients:
- Arsenal (ENG) 93.000
- Chelsea (ENG) 82.000
- Bayer Leverkusen (GER) 66.000
- Villarreal (ESP) 52.000
- Anderlecht (BEL) 48.000
- Lazio (ITA) 41.000
- Sporting CP (POR) 40.000
- Marseille (FRA) 32.000
- AC Milan (ITA) 28.000
- Fenerbahçe (TUR) 23.500
- Krasnodar (RUS) 23.500
- Real Betis (ESP) 21.399
- Eintracht Frankfurt (GER) 14.285
- Spartak Moskva (RUS) 13.500
- Standard Liège (BEL) 12.500
- Zürich (SUI) 12.000
- Rennes (FRA) 11.283
- Vorskla Poltava (UKR) 8.226
- Slavia Praha (CZE) 7.500
- Akhisar Belediyespor (TUR) 7.160
- Jablonec (CZE) 6.035
According to UEFA, “The 48 entrants are split into four seeding pots based on their club coefficients, with each of the eventual 12 groups to contain one team from each seeding tier.
“The coefficient system is determined either by the sum of all points won in the previous five years or by the association coefficient over the same period.”
Arsenal will be in pot one, along with Chelsea, Bayer Leverkusen, Villarreal, Lazio, and AC Milan.
The group stages begin on 20 September and conclude on 13 December.
The knockout rounds begin in February with the final taking place in Azerbaijan at the Olympic Stadium in Baku on 29 May.
The draw for the Europa League will take place at 12m (UK) at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.