Before Thursday’s Champions League draw in Monaco, Manchester City were already the favourites to win the tournament this season.The Premier League champions have never managed to land their hands on the European Cup, falling short on numerous occasions in recent years.But with a star-studded squad, managed by arguably the world’s best coach in the form of Pep Guardiola, the bookmakers fancy City to go all the way this time around.City’s odds shortened even further once Thursday’s draw took place.Guardiola’s side have been dealt what appears to be a very kind draw on paper.

They were handed Shakhtar Donetsk from Pot Two - avoiding the likes of Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid in the process - while Dinamo Zagreb and Atalanta completed Group C.

For a lot of football fans, this wasn’t entirely unexpected.

They thought City would get an easy draw because, well, it seems to be happening quite a lot recently.

City’s luck in cup draws has been pretty ridiculous of late.

As Patrick Timmons pointed out on Twitter, these are City’s cup draws since the start of the 2018/19 season.

They will also play Preston North End in the Carabao Cup third round next month.

City were placed in a Champions League group featuring Lyon, Shakhtar and Hoffenheim last season.

They went on to hammer Schalke 10-2 on aggregate in the Round of 16 before losing to Spurs in the quarter-finals.

The season before that they faced Shakhtar(!), Napoli and Feyenoord, finishing top of Group F.

They then breezed past Basel before losing to Liverpool in the quarters.

And the season prior to that, in 2016-17, they were drawn in Group C alongside Barcelona but still qualified for the knockout rounds ahead of Borussia Monchengladbach and Celtic.

They were beaten the Round of 16 by AS Monaco.

City will almost certainly get out of the group again this season but whether they can go all the way is another matter completely.