By Simon Collings

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Arsenal face a clash with Lyon as part of the defence of their Women’s Champions League crown.

The match with Lyon is one of six games Arsenal have in the new revamped format of the Women’s Champions League.

Previously, sides played three opponents twice – home and away – and the top two teams from each of the four groups progressed the knockout stages.

The Women’s Champions League now follows the style of the men’s competition, though, and is a league format.

The 18 participating teams, who were in three different seeding pots, each face six different teams – playing half of those matches at home and half of them away.

The clubs face two teams from each pot, with Arsenal’s matches against Lyon, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Benfica, Twente and OH Leuven.

The top four sides from the league phase will qualify automatically for the quarter-finals.

The teams that finish fifth to 12th will compete in a two-legged knockout phase play-off to secure their path to the last-eight. The sides ranked 13th to 18th will be eliminated.

Chelsea, like Arsenal, were in Pot 1 for Friday’s draw and they have been handed games against Barcelona, Wolfsburg, Roma, St Polten, Paris FC and Twente.

Manchester United are the third and final English team competing in this season’s Women’s Champions League after qualifying on Friday.

Elisabeth Terland scored a hat-trick as United beat Norwegian side Brann 3-0 at Leigh Sports Village Stadium, progressing 3-1 on aggregate.

Manchester United’s reward for reaching the league phase is matches against Lyon, Wolfsburg, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Valarenga and Atletico Madrid.

The full fixture list with match dates and kick-off times will be communicated on Saturday.