UEFA have announced a emiment reconstruction of their seeding system in the Champions League, rewarding league glory rather than prolonged European success.
Under the new regime, from next season the holders and winners of the top-seven leagues will now be in pot one. According to UEFA, the seven highest-ranked domestic competition's are: Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France and Russia.
This means whoever wins the Premier League this year will be seeded as one of the top eight teams in the competition, on paper, being presented with an easier draw.
But arguably tougher when you look at the fact that one of these two teams will be drawn into pot two, unless winners: Barcelona and Real Madrid, Bayern and Dortmund, Juventus and Roma, projecting a strong possibility of Chelsea or City fighting out the group's top spot with one of these European giants.
UEFA have come under heavy criticism for their ranking system in the past few years.
The former, although still in use this year, is based on performances in the competition itself rather than domestic triumph, meaning for example Arsenal being consistently seeded higher than Manchester City because of their record in the Champions League, despite the Blues winning the Premier League twice in the last three years.
The Champions League from 2015/16 could bring many more heavyweights together in the group stage, creating a vast majority of king-sized clashes even before the knockout stages, making the toughest European club competition to win, even harder.