Champions may face off

The worst-case scenario for Manchester City would see the Premier League champion having to face Spanish champion Real Madrid, Italian champion Juventus and German Bundesliga winner Borussia Dortmund.

City will be the only English club not among the top seeds for the draw in Monaco - despite being domestic champion, Roberto Mancini's side still have a relatively low UEFA co-efficient meaning it will not be among the pot of eight second seeds, while European champion Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United are in the pot of eight top seeds.

That means City could be drawn in the same group as European powerhouses such as Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, which would make the task of qualifying for the knockout stages that much harder.

There are potentially dangerous opponents among the third seeds and fourth seeds too - Juve lurks in the third seeds and Dortmund is the side to avoid among the fourth seeds.

City suffered from being ranked as third seed last season when it ended up third in a group containing Bayern, Napoli and Villarreal.

Porto is the lowest-ranked club among the top seeds, and City would hope to be in its group and avoid the bigger guns among the third and fourth seeds.

But whatever the outcome of the draw, Manchester United's experiences of last season stand as a warning about any team expecting an easy ride. United's group last term appeared the easiest on paper, yet Sir Alex Ferguson's men failed to qualify for the knockout stages.

The financial rewards from progressing into the latter stages are significant - Chelsea's share of TV and prize money was $73 million from going on to win the competition, while Manchester City's was $31 million.

The draw will see the 32 clubs drawn into four groups - each group will have one top seed, one second seed, one third seed and one fourth seed.

The four clubs in each group will play each other home and away with the top two progressing to the knockout stage of the tournament, while the third-placed side goes into the knockout stage of the Europa League.

None of the Premier League sides can be drawn in a group with another English club, but there could be British opposition with Celtic among the fourth seeds.

Likely seed pots

Pot One: Chelsea, Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Porto, AC Milan.

Pot Two: Valencia, Benfica, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St Petersburg, Schalke, Manchester City, Braga, Dynamo Kiev.

Pot Three: Olympiakos, Ajax, Anderlecht, Juventus, Spartak Moscow, Paris St Germain, Lille, Galatasaray.

Pot Four: Celtic, Borussia Dortmund, BATE Borisov, Dinamo Zagreb, CFR Cluj, Malaga, Montpellier, FC Nordsjaelland.