Champions League League Phase: English Teams Challenge PSG
The League Phase returns as five English sides try to knock PSG off their throne
The Champions League is back in Monaco this evening, and so is the sense that something has to give at the top of Europe.
Paris Saint-Germain arrive as the team to beat yet again, chasing a third straight crown after edging Arsenal on penalties in last season’s final. They have spent the summer hardening their grip on the continent. Everyone else, not least the Premier League’s five-strong contingent, is lining up to loosen it.
England’s champions Arsenal lead that charge. Manchester City, pushed into second at home, are alongside them. Manchester United have fought their way back to the top table, Liverpool return after a season of domestic resurgence, and Aston Villa arrive as Europa League winners and fourth-place finishers, a reminder of how sharply their trajectory has turned.
Five English clubs. One dominant French champion. A new-look competition. The stage feels crowded, but the target is clear.
Arsenal, PSG and the new order
PSG’s shoot-out win over Arsenal in last season’s showpiece still stings in north London. Mikel Arteta’s side had one hand on the trophy before it slipped away under the harshest of lights. That near miss, and a summer of smart reinforcement in Paris, explains why the holders begin as favourites again.
Yet the bookmakers’ logic does not tell the whole story. Arsenal are widely viewed as the most serious threat to PSG’s reign, a team that now marries their domestic authority with a hardened European edge. They are not alone in the chasing pack.
Barcelona and Real Madrid, both seeded in Pot 1, lurk ominously. Madrid have turned back to Jose Mourinho, the man who knows this competition as well as anyone and returns for a second spell with the 14-time champions. His presence alone shifts the temperature of any Champions League night.
So as the draw balls rattle in Monaco, the question hangs: can anyone dislodge PSG, or is Europe braced for another year painted in Parisian blue?
When and where the draw happens
The answer starts to take shape at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
The league phase draw for the 2026/27 Champions League begins today, Thursday, August 27, 2026, from 5pm BST. The ceremony, as ever, is as much theatre as admin, with 36 clubs waiting to see how their route through this new format will unfold.
Arsenal, still haunted by that final, will be desperate for a path that lets them go one better. Manchester City, who have turned qualification into routine, will want something sterner than a procession. United, Liverpool and Villa simply want proof that they truly belong back in this company.
How to watch the draw
For fans in the UK, the drama unfolds on TNT Sports 1, with coverage starting at 5pm BST and the draw following shortly after.
Subscribers can stream the event live via the HBO Max app and website, while UEFA.com and the TNT Sports YouTube channel will also carry the draw free of charge. For those who prefer words to pictures, Standard Sport will run a live blog, capturing every twist, every tough pairing, every sigh of relief.
The seeding picture: who sits where
This is the first moment the new landscape becomes visible. All 36 qualified clubs are split into four seeding pots of nine, based on their UEFA club coefficients at the start of the season.
The pots were locked in on Wednesday night, once the play-off ties were done.
Pot 1
- Paris Saint-Germain
- Bayern Munich
- Real Madrid
- Liverpool
- Inter Milan
- Manchester City
- Arsenal
- Barcelona
- Atletico Madrid
This is the elite tier. The holders, the traditional giants, and three English heavyweights all squeezed into the same bracket. Liverpool’s presence here, alongside City and Arsenal, underlines just how strong the Premier League’s top end remains.
Pot 2
- Borussia Dortmund
- Roma
- Sporting CP
- Aston Villa
- Porto
- Manchester United
- Club Brugge
- Real Betis
- PSV Eindhoven
This is where the intrigue deepens for English eyes. Aston Villa and Manchester United share Pot 2, both dangerous floaters who no Pot 1 side will relish drawing. Villa arrive as Europa League holders, United as a club trying to reassert themselves among Europe’s elite rather than just its hopefuls.
Pot 3
- Feyenoord
- Lille
- Bodo/Glimt
- Napoli
- RB Leipzig
- Villarreal
- Fenerbahce
- Shakhtar Donetsk
- Galatasaray
A pot full of traps. Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal and Galatasaray all have the pedigree to turn any league-phase schedule into a slog. No one coasts through this tier.
Pot 4
- Slavia Prague
- Slovan Bratislava
- Stuttgart
- AEK Athens
- LASK
- Como
- Lens
- Viking
- Sabah
The names may not carry the same weight, but dismiss them at your peril. Stuttgart and Lens, in particular, have the energy and tactical sharpness to turn a supposedly kind draw into a nightmare away trip in winter.
How the new Champions League format works
The familiar group stage is gone. In its place, the league phase.
Under this revamped system, each team plays eight matches against eight different opponents. No more home-and-away ties against three rivals. Instead, a rolling carousel of fixtures: four at home, four away, each against a different club.
The draw uses the four seeding pots to build that schedule. Every side is drawn to face two opponents from each pot. One of those fixtures against each pot is at home, the other away. So a Pot 1 team like Arsenal will meet two fellow heavyweights, two clubs from Pot 2, two from Pot 3 and two from Pot 4.
It is designed to broaden the competition, to offer more variety, more heavyweight clashes, and fewer dead rubbers. It also means a tougher, more relentless calendar for the clubs chasing PSG.
When the league phase will be played
The dates are already circled in every manager’s diary:
- Matchday 1: September 8–10, 2026
- Matchday 2: October 13/14, 2026
- Matchday 3: October 20/21, 2026
- Matchday 4: November 3/4, 2026
- Matchday 5: November 24/25, 2026
- Matchday 6: December 8/9, 2026
- Matchday 7: January 19/20, 2026
- Matchday 8: January 27, 2026
Eight games to define a season. Eight chances to prove that last year’s hierarchy is not fixed.
Manchester United, back at Europe’s top table, will feel the weight of that expectation as keenly as anyone. Liverpool, rearmed and restless, will want to show that their Pot 1 status is more than historical credit. Villa will test how far their renaissance can stretch against the continent’s best.
And then there is Arsenal, staring up at PSG again, knowing exactly how close they came. The draw in Monaco will not decide the trophy, but it will tell us this much: who is really ready to chase the champions, and who is just happy to be invited back into the room?
