Enitan Abdultawab

For the first time since 2016/17, English club Arsenal make a return to the UEFA Champions league.

Recall Mikel Arteta side pulled off stylish return to the top-tier of European competition after finishing second ahead of Manchester City on the league table.

Arsenal will face Europa League winners Sevilla, 1988 European Cup winners PSV Eindhoven and Lens of France in Group B of this season’s Champions League.

PSV, who beat Rangers 7-3 on aggregate in the play-offs to reach the group stage, faced Arsenal in last season’s Europa League.

Lens are back in the Champions League for the first time in two decades but they have history with Arsenal.

The French side beat the Gunners 1-0 at Wembley in the Champions League group stage in 1998, while Arsenal came out on top when the teams clashed in the UEFA Cup semi-finals the following season

In other group, fellow English side Manchester United will face the Bayern Munich of Harry Kane in this season’s Champions League while Thursday’s group stage draw also placed Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle United together.

Bayern and United will be favourites to advance from Group A, which also includes FC Copenhagen and Galatasaray, the Turkish champions.

Group F looks to be the toughest of all with Saudi-owned Newcastle facing AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund as well as Qatar-backed PSG.

Newcastle are appearing in the Champions League for the first time in 20 years and their lack of recent pedigree in Europe’s elite club competition meant they were left lurking dangerously among the sides in pot four for the draw.