Quote Originally Posted by sydenham red View Post
Yea i think i phrased that badly.
Don't sweat it.

Pot 1 will consist of last season’s Champions League winners, the UEFA Europa League winners and the champions of the six highest-ranked nations who did not qualify via one of the 2020/21 continental titles.

Pots 2, 3 and 4 will depend on club coefficient rankings. No club can play clubs from their own country in the group stage.

We didn't win the League or the Champion's League, but are ranked highly, so we'll be in Pot 2. You can imagine if you're in Pot 3 or 4 you will, more often than not, be looking at the team's you might face and potentially be very worried about the draw, as the teams in Pots 1 and 2 are (usually) the best.

It's not to say that you could never be in a "Group of Death" but the higher you are ranked yourself, then the better your chances are. A good seeding can mean a kinder group, a kinder group increases your chances of qualification to the knock-out stage (ideally as group winner) and the further you go, the more points you're accumulating for future seasons and thus future chances of good groups etc etc etc - it's a very positive cycle if you can maintain a high score, basically.

Now, for a side like Arsenal, they could (if they're poor this season and next) potentially face having three years of 0 points on their 5-year co-efficient "CV" and thus would face a massively uphill battle to ever dream of winning Big Ears again. Though Cup football does throw up surprises.