Arsenal in Europe
2004-2005 
Group Stage
See also Newsreel article about the draw.
Final standings
Pld W D L F A Pts
[an error occurred while processing this directive] 6 2 4 0 11 6 10
[an error occurred while processing this directive] 6 3 1 2 6 7 10
[an error occurred while processing this directive] 6 2 3 1 11 8 9
[an error occurred while processing this directive] 6 0 2 4 6 13 2
schedule of matches
Format
- Like last year, there will only be one group stage.
- The winners and runners-up from
the initial 8 groups of 4 will go into the hat for the knockout stage.
- Presumably, winners will be drawn against runners-up at that stage
- The 8 third-placed teams will go into the third round of the UEFA cup.
- Clubs from the same country will be kept apart in the first knockout round
(last 16), as will teams that were in the same group. Group runners-up will
be at home in the first leg.
- Following that last 16 round, there will be a draw for all subsequent
rounds (ie quarter-finalists will know which other quarter-final their
potential semi-final opponents will come from).
- From the last 8 onwards, the draw is random (ie no not-same-country or
not-same-group stipulations)
- The full regulations are available as a pdf download from the UEFA site (Adobe Acrobat reader required)
Player eligibility
See UEFA.com's Arsenal page for our current squad list. As of 17the September it reads:
GK: Lehmann, Taylor, Almunia
DF: Cole, Lauren, Cygan, Toure, Campbell, Senderos, Clichy, Hoyte
MF: Vieira, Gilberto, Edu, Pires, Ljungberg, Flamini, Cesc, Pennant, Djourou
FW: Henry, Bergkamp, Reyes, Van Persie, Lupoli
- Clubs can register a maximum of 25 players in their "A list".
- In addition
they can have any number of "B list" registered players, who must must have
been born after 1981 and must have been eligible to play for the club for
a continuous period of at least 2 years, at some point since their 15th birthday.
- To take part in the group stage (and beyond), players have to be registered with UEFA by 1st September (noon CET).
- Clubs can register 3 new players for the knockout stage, with a
deadline of 2nd February 2004, so long as the total number of players
on the A List does not exceed 25 (players can be dropped from that list to make room for the new signings).
- A new goalkeeper can be registered at any time, if the club cannot count on having 2 keepers because of long-term injury or illness
- No player can play for more than 1 team during the season, in any UEFA competitions.
Determining the placings in group stage
If any number of teams are level on points, their order is
decided first by examining the "mini-league" formed by
considering only the results between those teams.
There is a common misconception that this method could
result in "loops" if there are more than 2 teams involved
but this is not the case because the
results are put into a table rather than considered pair-wise.
If teams are still level in the mini-league, according to
points, goal difference and then away goals scored (note
that goals scored is, unusually, skipped),
then it goes
to overall goal difference and overall goals scored.
It's weird that they skip goals scored in the mini-league,
particularly as when it returns to overall stats goals
scored comes after goal diffrence, and away goals aren't
mentioned at all!
If it's still level the teams are ranked according to
their UEFA cofficients at the start of the season
See this
newsreel piece for more including transcription of the actual UEFA rules.
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