'Gunners have a tough league phase to contend with'

The Champions League is the elite of European football so having tough matches is not a surprise.

However, the Gunners do have a tough league phase to contend with as they face Inter Milan away from home and Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid at home.

They faced Inter Milan in the league phase away from home last season and suffered their only loss before the knockout stage to Inter thanks to a Hakan Çalhanoglu penalty in added time of the first half.

The Gunners reached the semi-finals of the competition last season but were without a recognised striker as they beat Real Madrid before being beaten by Paris Saint-Germain in the last four.

Mikel Arteta has strengthened his squad so they have much more quality and depth this season and he will hope that is enough to take them another step further in the competition this season.

Arsenal's final pre-season game of this season was against Athletic Bilbao, a match they won comfortably. That will give them confidence and hope that they can replicate the result as they travel away to Bilbao for one of their eight league phase games.