Ranking the English clubs on the difficulty of their Champions League draw | OneFootball

The Champions League draw was certainly kinder to some English clubs than others, with Liverpool quite content but one side faces an uphill battle…

Thursday’s draw berthed 144 fixtures in total, with some mouth-watering matches to look forward to.

The Premier League representatives will reflect on their assignments with varying levels of anticipation and trepidation.

Here’s how we’ve ranked the five English clubs on the difficulty of their draw, from easiest to hardest…

5) Liverpool

Atletico Madrid (h), Inter (a), Porto (h), Club Brugge (a), Villarreal (h), Fenerbahce (a), Lens (h), LASK (a).

Opponents’ average league position: 2.3

Opponents from Europe’s big five leagues: Four

Liverpool were handed the two teams they might have hand-picked from pot one, marking out their draw as the easiest of the English sides.

The Reds will embark upon the furthest trek of any English side when they go to Fenerbahce, but overall, one other English side will accrue more air miles.

4) Manchester United

Bayern (h), Atletico (a), Roma (h), Sporting (a), Leipzig (h), Villarreal (a), Sabah (h), Como (a).

Opponents’ average league position: 2.6

Big five opponents: Six

Distance to travel: 3748 miles (round-trips: 7496 miles)

Furthest away trip: Sporting Lisbon

United will travel furthest of any English club – even if their itinerary doesn’t have that feel with trips to Spain, Portugal and Italy.

They also face the joint-highest number of opponents from Europe’s top five leagues but, combined, their opposition has the lowest average domestic position from last season.

3) Arsenal

Real Madrid (h), Bayern Munich (a), Borussia Dortmund (h), Real Betis (a), Lille (h), Napoli (a), Sabah (h), Slavia Prague (a).

Opponents’ average league position: 2.1

Distance to travel: 3240 miles (round-trips: 6480 miles)

Furthest away trip: Real Betis

It’s a daunting-looking draw for Arsenal, having drawn Bayern and Madrid, the sides first and third in the UEFA club rankings with the Gunners second.

They also got the highest-ranked club in pot two, but the difficulty tails off dramatically as they go further through their assignments. And Mikel Arteta’s men will travel the second-shortest distance of the Premier League clubs.

2) Manchester City

PSG (h), Barcelona (a), Sporting (h), Porto (a), Napoli (h), Leipzig (a), AEK (h) and Lens (a).

Opponents’ average league position: 1.6

Big five opponents: Five

Distance to travel: 2693 miles (round-trips: 5386 miles)

Furthest away trip: Porto

City will face the champions of France (and Europe), Spain, Portugal and Greece and, overall their opponents have the second-highest average league finish last season.

Pots one and three were not very kind, while pot two offered a Portuguese double and City have bad memories of their last clash with Sporting.

1) Aston Villa

PSG (h), Barcelona (a), Dortmund (h), Club Brugge (a), Fenerbahce (h), Galatasaray (a), Viking (h), Slavia Prague (a).

Opponents’ average league position: 1.38

Distance to travel: 3396 miles (round-trips: 6792 miles)

Furthest away trip: Galatasaray

Oof. Really, Villa could not have asked for tougher picks from pots one and two. And pot three, a Turkish double, wasn’t much kinder to them.

Overall, the Villans will face five domestic champions and no side which finished lower than runners-up in their league last season.

All of which might have been daunting even before Unai Emery’s side had the spine ripped out of it.