Chelsea drawn against AC Milan, RB Salzburg, and Dinamo Zagreb in Champions League group stage

For the penultimate time ever (or at least until the next time the format changes), the Champions League group stage draw, for the familiar eight groups of four, was held today by UEFA. Chelsea were seeded in Pot 2, alongside Liverpool, Spurs, Barcelona, Juventus, Atlético Madrid, Sevilla, and RB Leipzig.

Yaya Touré and Hamit Altintop were the guests of honor twirling the balls this year, and thanks to their lucky (and a bit slow) fingers, we got drawn into an eminently winnable Group E, which already contained the Italian champions, AC Milan. Austrian champions RB Salzburg and Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb then joined from Pot 3 and Pot 4, respectively. Unlike last year the first attempt at the draw looks to be a valid one this year, despite the always esoteric process of what team can go into what group to maximize TV revenues and such.

And the games will start almost immediately, and thanks to the winter World Cup, finish by the start of November. The exact schedule and timing of the games (Tuesday or Wednesday) will be determined shortly.

West Ham (H) | CL MD1 (Sep 6-7) | Fulham (A)
Fulham (A) | CL MD2 (Sep 13-14) | Liverpool (H)
Crystal Palace (A) | CL MD3 (Oct 4-5) | Wolves (H)
Wolves (H) | CL MD4 (Oct 11-12) | Aston Villa (A)
Man Utd (H) | CL MD5 (Oct 25-26) | Brighton (A)
Brighton (A) | CL MD6 (Nov 1-2) | Arsenal (H)

The draw, in full, for the 2022-23 Champions League group stage:

GROUP A
Ajax, Liverpool, Napoli, Rangers

GROUP B
Porto, Atlético Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Club Brugge

GROUP C
Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Viktoria Plzen

GROUP D
Eintracht Frankfurt, Tottenham Hotspur, Sporting CP, Olympique Marseille

GROUP E
AC Milan, Chelsea, RB Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb

GROUP F
Real Madrid, RB Leipzig, Shakhtar Donetsk, Celtic

GROUP G
Manchester City, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund, FC Copenhagen

GROUP H
PSG, Juventus, Benfica, Maccabi Haifa