Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker disagree on toughest Champions League draw with Arsenal verdict

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The Champions League gets underway after the September international break as teams look to make their way through the league phase.

Mikel Arteta will be looking at how he can get his team into the top eight and guaranteed a place in the round of 16.

Arsenal have received their Champions League fixture list and it’s full of tricky twists and turns along the way.

Clashes with PSG, Inter Milan, Sporting CP and Girona are just half of the ties that the Gunners will have to get through.

It certainly suggests a tough run of fixtures, kicking off with last season’s Europa League winners Atalanta away from home.

• READ MORE: How much Arsenal can make from Champions League prize money 2024/25 revealed

Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker disagree on hardest Champions League draw

So with the Champions League set to kickstart in the next few weeks, all four Premier League sides will fancy their chances this season.

There are some difficult fixtures in there for some of the teams involved, though former players Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer disagree on which English side has the toughest run.

Speaking about the new format and the fixture draw, Shearer said: “Probably Arsenal,” when asked which side has the toughest matches.

Lineker disagreed, saying: “I thought Liverpool actually, with Real Madrid, [RB] Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen [AC] Milan, even Bologna who had a brilliant season, Girona.”

Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and Aston Villa draw in the Champions League

With the layout of the new format, there are few places for teams to hide as they must face two opponents from each coefficient pot.

For Arsenal, the draw is:

• PSG (H)
• Inter Milan (A)
• Shakhtar Donetsk (H)
• Atalanta (A)
• Dinamo Zagreb (H)
• Sporting CP (A)
• AS Monaco (H)
• Girona (A)

As for their rivals Manchester City, they have:

• Inter Milan (H)
• Paris Saint-Germain (A)
• Club Brugge (H)
• Juventus (A)
• Feyenoord (H)
• Sporting CP (A)
• Sparta Prague (H)
• Slovan Bratislava (A)

Liverpool will face:

• Real Madrid (H)
• Leipzig (A)
• Leverkusen (H)
• AC Milan (A)
• Lille (H)
• PSV Eindhoven (A)
• Bologna (H)
• Girona (A)

And finally, who Aston Villa have drawn:

• Bayern Munich (H)
• Leipzig (A)
• Juventus (H)
• Club Bruges (A)
• Celtic (H)
• Young Boys (A)
• Bologna (H)
• Monaco (A)

• READ MORE: Thierry Henry thinks Arteta is about to face a ‘genius’ as Arsenal Champions League opponents revealed

Who has the toughest Champions League games?

While we can debate who may have the toughest time in the Champions League, the data experts at Opta have already crunched the numbers.

According to their ranking system, PSG have the toughest draw of any team in the competition this season.

Of the Premier League sides, they have ranked Liverpool as the toughest – and the joint-second most difficult of the whole draw.

Arsenal are second out of the English teams – 12th out of 36 overall – while Aston Villa and Manchester City follow on the easier half of the draw.

It all needs to be played out on the pitch though, where it will really count.