If we finish 4th, will we face Bayern Munich in the Champions League play-off round?

We are assured Champions league football, but how will we get to the group stages?

Arsenal face the very real possibility of finishing fourth. We have to better City’s result on the weekend to stop this happening. Frankly, although it is possible, I doubt that we will. Even if City do drop points, our recent form suggests that we will not be able to take advantage of it. So, what happens if we finish 4th? We will (like 2 seasons ago) enter the play-off round of the Champions League. We will play two legs against an opponent from the following list:

Benfica, Dynamo Kyiv, Twente, Rubin Kazan, Villarreal, Udinese/Lazio, Bayern Munich and one from Marseilles/Lyon/Rennes/Sochaux/PSG

It is worth noting that this list is not finalised. These are the teams that are expected to make it to this stage of the competition. Bayern Munich is clearly the team to avoid. Amidst the doom and gloom of our frustrating end to the season, there is a silver lining. We will be playing champions league football next year, and we will not have to face the likes of Robben in order to make it to the group stages. Once the teams are confirmed, the UEFA coefficient will seed the top five teams. Each of the top 5 teams each be matched against one of the bottom 5 teams. Arsenal’s coefficient will only be bettered by that of Bayern’s, so we will definitely be seeded. Hence, it is not possible for us to play them. This means that it is highly likely that we will play one of the following teams:

Udinese/Lazio, Rubin Kazan, Twente, a team that has progressed from a previous champions league play-off round, and one from Marseilles/Rennes/Paris Saint-Germain/Sochaux.

This information makes for better reading. That said, even if we are to face a team such as Twente, this does not necessarily grant us automatic entrance to the group stages. We still need to win the tie, and if we fail to do so, we will enter the group stages of the Europa league (surely not…). Of couse, a lot of what I have said in this article is rather hypothetical. For all I know, we could still finish third and not have to worry about any of this. Let’s hope that we can finish the season with a win and overtake CIty.