Liverpool got lucky, and the numbers say so
Not every Champions League draw is created equal. Opta ran its Power Rankings across all 144 league-phase fixtures generated by the 2026-27 draw, rating every club’s eight opponents on the same scale, and the gap between the softest schedule and the roughest one is wide enough to shape a season.
Liverpool came out of it best among the English clubs. Their opponents carry an average Power Rating of 90.0, the ninth-kindest list in the competition. From Pot 1 they pulled Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan, statistically the two friendliest heavyweights on offer. No Bayern. No Barcelona. No Real Madrid.
Stuttgart did better still in absolute terms, with an opponent average of 88.9, the lowest of all 36 clubs. Inter, drawn as a Pot 1 side themselves, landed the second-easiest list at 89.5. That counts for something at a club still sore about last season’s knockout play-off exit against Bodo/Glimt, a year after reaching the final.
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Arsenal drew two different tournaments
Arsenal sit near the friendly end too, for a much odder reason. Bayern Munich away, Real Madrid at home and Borussia Dortmund at home is about as brutal as the top of a draw gets. Then it falls off a cliff. From Pot 4 they took Sabah, 170th in the world, and Slovan Bratislava, 224th, the two lowest-ranked sides in the whole competition.
Average that out and Mikel Arteta’s team look comfortable. Play it matchday by matchday and it will feel like two separate competitions bolted together. Worth remembering that Arsenal topped the league phase last season off one of the kindest draws going, while Bayern finished second off the hardest of all 36.
City and Villa got the bill
Manchester City begin a European campaign without Pep Guardiola for the first time in 11 years, and Enzo Maresca has inherited the hardest fixture list of any Premier League club at 91.7. Barcelona and PSG out of Pot 1, then Napoli, 34th in the world, out of Pot 3.
Aston Villa also drew Barcelona and PSG, then the worst possible Pot 2 pairing in Club Brugge and Dortmund. Unai Emery has history with the French champions, winning the home leg 3-2 in the 2024-25 quarter-finals before going out 5-4 on aggregate, but this squad has turned over heavily since.
Manchester United are back after two seasons away and host Bayern, the toughest Pot 1 opponent available, with Como waiting as the most awkward Pot 4 draw of the lot. Sporting CP sit 21st in the world, Roma 22nd. Not a disaster. Not far off one either.
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