The draw for the 2026-27 Champions League league phase was made in Monaco on Thursday, and we have been handed one of the toughest sets of eight in the competition. We will host Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Lille and Azerbaijani champions Sabah at the Emirates, and travel to Bayern Munich, Real Betis, Napoli and Slavia Prague. Exact dates follow in due course, with the opening round scheduled for September 8 to 10.

For a side that reached the final last season, there was never going to be a soft landing. Pot 1 was always going to hand us a heavyweight, and we drew the heaviest of them all in the 15-time winners Real Madrid, at home. Add Bayern away, and the two marquee fixtures alone would test any team in Europe.

Home: Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Lille, Sabah.
Away: Bayern Munich, Real Betis, Napoli, Slavia Prague.

The format is unchanged from the last two seasons. Eight matches against eight different opponents, four at home and four away. The top eight in the 36-team league table go straight through to the round of 16. Ninth to 24th drop into a two-legged knockout play-off in February, and 25th and below are out. Last season we finished top of the league phase by winning all eight, so the standard we have set ourselves is its own kind of pressure.

Hard, but not the nightmare it might have been. The seeding did its job at the top: Real Madrid at home is the tie of the round for the neutral, and going to Munich is never anything but awkward, particularly given Bayern's history of knocking us out. Napoli away is a genuine test on a hostile night, and Betis in Seville is the kind of away trip that has caught good sides out before.

Below that, though, the draw softens. Dortmund at home is a marquee name but a beatable one at the Emirates. Lille are a decent side rather than a frightening one. Slavia Prague away and Sabah at home are the two that, on paper, should return six points, and against the run of a demanding schedule those matter more than the glamour ties. Win the games you are expected to win and take points off one or two of the bigger names, and top-eight qualification looks comfortable enough.

The real question the draw raises is not whether we can beat any single one of these teams. It is whether a squad that has just lost Gabriel Martinelli and is bedding in a new spine has the depth to compete on this front while defending a league title. That is the balance Arteta has to manage from September, and it is a much more interesting problem than the identity of the opponents.

The opening round is scheduled for September 8 to 10, with exact fixture dates, times and the full match schedule confirmed separately. The league phase runs through to the final round in late January, before the knockout stages in the spring. The final is at the Metropolitano in Madrid on June 5, 2027, which, given who we host in the league phase, is a venue with a certain edge to it already.

For now, we know the eight teams standing between us and the round of 16. Real Madrid at home is the one everyone will circle. It is also the one that tells you exactly where this squad stands: back among the last handful of teams in Europe, and drawn to prove it.