Arsenal are preparing to face Slavia Prague in Czechia in the Champions League

Arsenal will be unable to face Slavia Prague in Czechia next season due to a UEFA ruling. The Gunners are aiming to earn another three points in the Champions League as they prepare to take on the Czech side at Fortuna Arena on Wednesday.

It is a familiar fixture for Mikel Arteta’s team, who faced the same opponents at the same venue last November. Arsenal will hope for a repeat of their previous meeting, which saw a Bukayo Saka penalty and a Mikel Merino brace guide the Gunners to a 3-0 win.

The Premier League champions returned to top spot in the Premier League after defeating Liverpool to end their Anfield hoodoo on Sunday and will be confident of collecting another win against Slavia Prague. However, Arsenal will be unable to face their upcoming opponents at Fortuna Arena next season.

A Champions League rule change included in last season’s regulations prevents the same home side from being drawn against the same opponent in the league phase of the tournament for three consecutive years. It means that while Arsenal would still be able to host Slavia Prague next term, they would be banned from serving as the away team when facing the Czech club, unless they meet in the latter stages.

Paragraph 16.03 of last season's Champions League rules read: "UEFA administration may determine alternative conditions for the draw in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee and may adapt any of the conditions of the draw to avoid deadlock situations and/or take into account any relevant constraints in light of decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee.

"The UEFA Club Competitions Committee has determined an additional condition that may be applicable to the UEFA Champions League draw for the 2026/27 season, deciding that any individual fixture between the same two teams may not be repeated in the same competition with the same home team for three consecutive seasons.

"This means that if any teams that already played against each other in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League in the 2024/25 season are again drawn against each other, with the same home team, in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League in this 2025/26 season, those teams will not be able to be drawn against each other with the same home team in the 2026/27 season."

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Arsenal are seeking to get back to winning ways in the Champions League following their recent 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich. The Gunners narrowly missed out on lifting the famous trophy for the first time in the club’s history last season and Arteta is feeling positive about his squad after their hard-fought win over Liverpool at the weekend.

"Just loving the mission," the Arsenal boss said of his side’s win at Anfield. "And the mission was something that we didn't accomplish in 14 years. And there were reasons for that. Some of them were psychological problems. Some of them were related to the quality that we showed on the pitch, certain moments or decisions.

"And we knew that we need to nail absolutely all of them. And we're going to have to navigate through periods that we're going to have to suffer because they are extremely good at doing that and creating those vertical attacks, those chaos moments for almost nothing. And you really need to enjoy that.

"If you don't, there will be a moment they will switch up and they will punish you. And yeah, I think the way we competed and played and the chances that we generated as well, it was really impressive. So I'm really happy."

Watch Slavia Prague vs Arsenal live on TNT Sports:

Watch Slavia Prague vs Arsenal on TNT Sports

Arsenal face Slavia Prague in the Champions League on November 4. Fans can watch the game live on TNT Sports via HBO Max or Prime Video's TNT Sports channel.