UCL Draw: Chelsea, Arsenal, United Are Top Seeds

Started by Folami David, Aug 29, 2013, 08:52 PM

Folami David

The trio of Chelsea,Arsenal and Manchester United are among the eight top seeds for tonight's UEFA Champions League draw in Monaco.
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This means that the three English Premier League sides will avoid being drawn in the same group as Real Madrid,Barcelona and defending champions,Bayern Munich.
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The fourth English team in the hat,Manchester City could face a repeat of last year's Champions League horror draw.
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Twelve months ago, City's low seeding saw the club end up in a group with Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax, then the champions of Spain, Germany and Holland respectively.
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That contributed to a failure to make the knock-out stages - and possibly to the departure of Roberto Mancini as manager.
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Another effect of that failure is that City's co-efficient continues to be low compared to the other English teams in the competition, and raises the prospect of another 'group of death'.
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That leaves Manuel Pellegrini's side open to being drawn with holders Bayern Munich or Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid.
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The worst-case scenario would see City in a group with Bayern, now managed by Pep Guardiola, plus big spending French champions Paris St Germain - who will be second seeds - and Napoli, the Italian club now managed by Rafa Benitez.
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Napoli are expected to be among the fourth seeds, and are the club to avoid from that pot as Benitez has former Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain among his new recruits.
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The draw in Monaco will see 32 clubs divided into eight groups of four. Each group will be made up of one club from the pot of top seeds, one from the group of second seeds, one from the third seeds and one from the fourth seeds.