All change for Arsenal or maybe not

07 December 2016 10:55

In each of the previous six seasons Arsenal have exited the Champions League at the Round of 16 stage and on five of those occasions that has followed their failure to command top spot in the Group Stage. On the one occasion they won their group, they were paired with AC Milan and even a heroic 3-0 second leg victory at the Emirates wasn't enough to make up for the 4-0 trashing dished out by Ibrahimovic et all in the first leg at the San Siro - and don't even mention Monaco in 2014/15!

Last night's completely unexpected result in Paris has supposedly made Arsenal's route to Cardiff on June 3rd easily, but has it?

Firstly the good news for Gooners everywhere, Arsenal cannot get neither Barcelona nor Atletico in R16 and they will play the second leg at home - a much vaunted, but questionable advantage. After that it becomes a bit less clear as too how much of a favour winning the group has been. We will know more after the final matches tonight and as Ludogorets showed in the Parc de Princes, anything is possible. With a fair wind blowing the options could be (guaranteed possibilities in bold):

Benfica

Bayern Munich

Beyer Leverkeusen

Borussia Dortmund

Copenhagen

Lyon

Giving then a five out six chance of a favourable draw, however if the footballing gods are against them, their potential opponents could come from:

Benfica

Bayern Munich

Beyer Leverkeusen

Real Madrid

Porto

Juventus

Thus reducing the likelihood of a favourable draw to three out of six. All in all, whatever happens tonight, both a plum tie and a nightmare one remain possibilities in Monday's draw. So whilst there will be quiet satisfaction at a job well done in Group A, Arsene Wenger will be acutely aware that nothing can be taken for granted and will have his fingers well and truly crossed come Monday lunchtime.

Source: DSG