Arsenal in the Champions League: How We Might Fare

It comes a few days late I know; but I'm sure you will excuse my tardiness since we've been pre-occupied with the small matter of a visit to Old Trafford (just about got over the devastation now!)

Having secured another year of Champions League football, I was interested to see who we might draw, having been put in Pot One—that is, as top seeds—for the fifth year running. This is a solid advantage in many ways as the top seeds are usually seen as the strongest sides. However, the threat of drawing the likes of Real Madrid and Inter Milan from Pot Two, Fiorentina or Atletico Madrid from Pot Three, or even German champions Wolfsburg from Pot Four was always there.

Arsenal drew a group which we can not say is easy; as there are no pushovers in European football nowadays, but less challenging than other potential scenarios. With AZ Alkmaar of the Netherlands, Greek giants Olympiacos, and Belgian's Standard Liege joining Arsenal in Group H. This should be a group that gives us comfortable qualification to the second phase, and probably as group winners.

Starting off with AZ Alkmaar, the Dutch champions have rapidly progressed over the past few seasons, culminating in their Eredivisie triumph last May. Of course, Louis van Gaal has moved on to pastures new since, but the team is now under the stewardship of Ronald Koeman, they probably represent the strongest challenge in the group.

Not least because of their 18,000-capacity DSB stadium, an intimidating cauldron of a stadium where they downed the likes of Ajax and PSV Eindhoven domestically last season. It is also a stadium that Arsenal visited in a friendly for its opening back in 2006. With a young, technically gifted squad, including new signing Rasmus Elm, recently linked to Everton and Manchester City, they should give us a good game, particularly on their own patch.

And so should Olympiacos, a team with the know-how of regular Champions League football, an advantage they have over their Dutch counterparts, and that may make them more challenging. It is well known that Greek teams, whilst not travelling well, are an altogether different proposition at home. This is exactly what we will get from Olympiacos, a team that has defeated the likes of Real Madrid and Chelsea at their Karaiskakis Stadium in the last three years.

Standard Liege are seen as the minnows of Group H, and probably rightly so. However, they have also featured in the Champions League fairly regularly, and have several talented players in midfield, most notably Steven Defour.

With that in mind, we should be fairly confident, though cautious and focused on doing the job and doing it well. This is without forgetting that the three teams are all champions of their respective league championships for 2009, something that we have not managed (albeit in a much stronger league). This fact was not lost on CEO Ivan Gazidis!

So, not a nightmare group by any stretch of the imagination, avoiding the Reals and Inter Milans of this world, for now. With our Emirates form we should expect three victories, and bearing the magical 10 points to qualify in mind, it is difficult to imagine that we won't be able to pick up that one point in our three trips, if not many more.