Champions League draw seedings: who can Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City and Tottenham face?

Champions League
Can one of the Premier League teams get their hands on this trophy? Credit: epa

It's that time of year again. It's the most drawn out of all the many draws we have to watch: it's the Champions League group stage draw!

Liverpool overcame Hoffenheim in their play-off on Wednesday night to complete a five-team Premier League contingent alongside Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham in this year's group stage.

Is this the year England regain their stronghold on Europe's elite competition? Or will our teams once again struggle to make it further than the second round?

The draw will have a big say in that, with Europe's best waiting in line to show the Premier League what's what. Here are the pots for the draw:

The five English teams will all be kept apart for the group stage, but who can each of them face?

Chelsea

As champions, Chelsea are the only English side in Pot 1 - a pot made up of the league winners of the best eight leagues in Europe.

They can face any of the six non-English teams in Pot 2: Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, PSG, Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla or Porto.

Then they will draw one of the six non-English teams in Pot 3: Napoli, Basel, Olympiacos, Anderlecht, Roma or Besiktas.

There are eight non-English teams in Pot 4, and Chelsea can face any of them, including Celtic. RB Leipzig, who gave Bayern Munich a run for their money in the Bundesliga last season are probably the biggest threat in this pot, though no one will want a trip to Qarabag, in Azerbaijan.

Manchester United and Manchester City 

The Manchester clubs are both in Pot 2, and so face the same prospects in the draw later today.

They will each face one of the champions from Pot 1, Chelsea aside, and will be drawn against one of the six non-English teams in Pot 3 mentioned above, as well as one of the eight teams in Pot 4.

Liverpool and Tottenham

Liverpool and Spurs, both in Pot 3, could face some extremely difficult teams in the Champions League group stages but, both glad to be in the competition at all, will probably be looking forward to playing some of the biggest and best sides in Europe.

They will likely get their wish, with each facing one of the seven non-English champions from Pot 1 as well as one of the six non-English teams from a very strong Pot 2.

They will be hoping for some respite from their draw in Pot 4.

Here, 'dream' draw is taken as the teams that they will feel they have most chance of beating. Spurs fans, for example, may well be dreaming of facing Real Madrid and welcoming Luka Modric and Gareth Bale back to London, while Liverpool might well like to see Luis Suarez again.

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