It’s everyone’s favorite European competition, and Chelsea are back in it. There ain’t no fever like a Thursday Night Fever! Except all the other nights of course. Thursday is the worst. But we’re here, we’re the favorites, and we’re contesting the group stage of the Europa League for the very first time — Making History!™ — so let’s see what wonderful new and obscure locations in Europe we shall be visiting. What: Europa League group stage draw Where: Grimaldi Forum, Monte Carlo When: 12pm BST; 7am EDT On TV: BT Sport 2 (UK); Univision Deportes (USA) Streaming online: BT Sport (UK); B/R Live (USA — for free); UEFA.tv (int’l — also free) Since we’re entering new territory, let’s go over the rules. The Europa League group stage is very much like the Champions League group stage, except with 12 groups of four instead of 8 — that means 48 teams in total instead of 32 — to decide the 24 teams to advance into the Round of 32, where they are joined by 8 third placed teams from the Champions League groups (this is where we joined the competition back in 2012-13). The draw rules are the same, where teams are drawn from four pots and teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other — though both Chelsea and Arsenal are in Pot 1, so this isn’t really a concern for us. Speaking of the seedings, here are the four pots: POT 1: Sevilla, CHELSEA, Arsenal, Zenit St. Petersburg, Bayer Leverkusen, Dynamo Kiev, Besiktas, RB Salzburg, Olympiacos, Villarreal, Anderlecht, Lazio POT 2: Sporting Lisbon, Ludogorets, FC Copenhagen, Marseille, Celtic, PAOK, AC Milan, Genk, Fenerbahce, Kuban FC Krasnodar, Astana, Rapid Wien POT 3: Real Betis, Qarabag, BATE, Dinamo Zagreb, RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt, Malmö FF, Spartak Moscow, Standard Liège, FC Zürich, Girondins de Bordeaux, Stade Rennais POT 4: Apollon Limassol, Rosenborg, Vorskla Poltava, Slavia Prague, Akhisar Belediyespor, FK Jablonec, AEK Larnaca, Videoton (or whatever they’re called these days), Rangers, F91 Dudelange, Spartak Trnava, Sarpsborg 08 Certainly some famous or familiar names in there, but also some teams I’ve never heard of (Sarpsborg?) and some that would pose rather significant travel times (Qarabag, that old bag, for example — Baku is where the final will be, by the way). For ultimate fun-ness, I’d love for us to draw a group with AC Milan, RB Leipzig, and Videoton (“MOL Vidi”) ... but just about any option in Pot 4 could be fun.<doc-sep>Ahead of Friday's draw for the Europa League group stage, we run through the vital details for British clubs. Arsenal and Chelsea secured their places in the group stages due to their league finishes while Celtic and Rangers advanced through qualifying rounds. Here, we run through those complicated seeds and pots, and all the key dates for the Europa League group stage draw... When is the draw? On Friday August 31 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, with the ceremony scheduled to start at 12pm. Image: Unai Emery replaced Arsene Wenger Who is in the hat? Automatically qualified: AC Milan, Akhisarspor, Anderlecht, Arsenal, Chelsea, Eintracht Frankfurt, Jablonec, Krasnodar, Lazio, Leverkusen, Marseille, Real Betis, Rennes, Sporting Lisbon, Villarreal, Vorskla, Zurich Teams qualified from Champions League qualifying: Fenerbahce, Slavia Prague, Spartak Moscow, Standard Liege, BATE Borisov, Dinamo Zagreb, Dynamo Kiev, PAOK, Salzburg, Vidi Team qualified from Europa League play-off round: AEK Larnaca, Apollon Limassol, Astana, Besiktas, Bordeaux, Celtic, F91 Dudelange, Genk, FC Copenhagen, Ludogorets, Malmo, Olympiakos, Qarabag, Rangers, Rapid Vienna, RB Leipzig, Rosenborg, Sarpsborg, Spartak Trnava, Zenit St Petersburg, Sevilla Draw make-up * 17 teams qualify automatically * 21 teams advance from the EL play-off round * 6 teams defeated in UEFA Champions League play-off round * 4 teams defeated in UEFA Champions League third qualifying round league path How does the draw work? The draw adjudicators will pick 48 teams from the hat and split them into 12 groups of four. The teams are split into four different pots. Each group will include one team from each of the four pots. Pot one will contain the top seeds and pot four the bottom seeds. The rankings to determine which pot each team go into are based on their club coefficient ranking. The pots Arsenal and Chelsea will be in pot one and won't face each other, while there is no chance of Rangers and Celtic being drawn together as clubs from the same country can't be drawn together until the knockout stages. Image: Maurizio Sarri will be looking to conquer Europe with Chelsea Pot one also consists of Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen, La Liga side Villarreal, Italian giants Lazio and AC Milan and Sporting Lisbon. Celtic will be in pot two while Rangers will be in pot four, which means both sides could draw Arsenal or Chelsea in the group stages. Image: Brendan Rodgers and Steven Gerrard Key dates The group stages get going on 20 September and the first stage of six matches lasts until mid-December.<doc-sep>Arsenal and Chelsea were handed favourable draws, although the Gunners will face a hefty amount of travelling in the Europa League group stages<doc-sep>Arsenal will take on Sporting Lisbon in the group stage of the Europa League. The Gunners, last season's semi-finalists, were drawn in Group E alongside the Portuguese club, Azerbaijan champions Qarabag and Ukrainian outfit Vorskla. Portuguese club Sporting have started their domestic campaign unbeaten despite a troublesome summer that saw seven players cancel their contracts following an attack by fans at the training ground last season. Arsenal boss Unai Emery has won the competition three times as manager of Sevilla. Chelsea face some long trips on their return to Europe's second-tier competition for the first time since they lifted the trophy in 2013.<doc-sep>
Premier League sides Chelsea and Arsenal will discover who they have drawn in the Europa League group stages shortly as the draw gets underway at midday. Those two clubs will have watched the Champions League draw with envy last night, as Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester United were pitted up against some of the giants of European football. However, the Europa League is still an important European competition, with of course the incentive of Champions League football next season if either side manages to win the whole competition. Both sides have been placed straight into Pot 1, which gives them the best chance of qualification. Alongside them are Sevilla, Zenit, Bayer Leverkusen, Besiktas, Salzburg, Olympiacos, Villarreal, Anderlecht and Lazio. Celtic, having come through their qualification rounds are placed into Pot 2 and could draw one of these Premier League sides. Rangers who also made it through a difficult qualification process are placed into Pot 4 and could be in for a rough ride if the draw does not go their way. The Scottish Champions came through last night, winning their second leg 3-0 against Suduva in what was a comfortable performance. Meanwhile, city rivals Rangers, were reduced to nine men away at FC UFA but managed to hold on for a 1-1 draw which saw them progress to the group stage of European competition for the first time in seven years. You can follow the whole draw below live as it happens, with a particular focus on the British teams involved in the competition.