Champions League draw: how Chelsea, City and Arsenal fared

Manchester City's chances of finally enjoying a long run in the Champions League were dealt a blow when they were drawn against Barcelona in the last 16 of the competition.

Premier League leaders Chelsea were also handed a tough draw against French champions Paris Saint-Germain, while Arsenal will be the happiest of the three remaining English teams after coming up against another French side, Monaco.

Man City v Barcelona

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Man City scraped into the knockout stages by beating Roma in the final game of the group stages, but if they thought that performance meant that their run of bad luck in the Champions League had come to an end, the knock-out draw appears to prove otherwise.

Last season they got out of a group featuring Bayern Munich only to lose to Barca in the last 16 and it looks as though the same thing could happen this time.

But some have put a positive spin on the draw. "A recurring nightmare or a chance to introduce themselves as a genuine European force for Manchester City?" asks David Kidd in the Daily Mirror. "Victories over Bayern Munich and Roma will have gone some way to easing City's inferiority complex in the Champions League. They will feel that, with a fully fit squad, they have a chance of defeating the Catalans - the club they are doing much to model themselves upon. Can imitation prove to be the sincerest form of battery?"

PSG v Chelsea

Another rematch from last season sees Chelsea take on the French champions, who lost to the Blues on away goals in the 2014 quarter finals. Since then they have sold defender David Luiz to PSG for £40m, a deal that will add spice to the meeting.

Jose Mourinho "would have hoped for an easier draw, but they did beat PSG last season and have the second leg at home", notes The Guardian. "And this time, they have Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa, who will relish locking horns with David Luiz. It was tight last season but Jose Mourinho excels in these situations; can the same be said of Laurent Blanc?"

Arsenal v Monaco

The best-looking draw for an English side sees Arsenal come up against probably the weakest of the group winners in Monaco, who only scored four goals as they won Group C.

The tie will be a homecoming of sorts for Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, as he managed the French side from 1987 and 1994. It is also very winnable.

"Arsene Wenger said that he was going to church over the weekend because so many times recently they had got the pointy end of the draw. And look what happened," says the Daily Telegraph.