Wenger and Fergie avoid Euro favourites
But both sides are guaranteed to face some stiff opposition.
UEFA's seedings and rules to keep clubs from the same country and those who met in the first phase apart, mean United will be definitely be in the same group as Spain's Deportivo La Coruna whom they played four times in the competition last season and Arsenal will be drawn with Italian side Roma.
Alex Ferguson's side will face Italian opposition from either Juventus or one of the two Milan sides, while the Gunners will be in the same group as Barcelona or Valencia.
Newcastle will have to face AC or Inter Milan and either Borussia Dortmund or Bayer Leverkusen.
Mancheter United ended honours even with Deportivo last season. The Spaniards did the double in the opening group phase only for Ferguson's side to gain revenge by winning home and away in the quarter-finals.
The draw for the Champions League, which takes place in Geneva at 10.30am this morning (live on Eurosport), will see sides seeded according to whether they finished top in their group or runners-up, and then according to their UEFA ranking.
The 16 sides left in the Champions League will be drawn into four groups for the second phase. Each will contain one top seed, one second seed, a third seed and a fourth seed.
Man United's ranking places them as top seeds with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, while Arsenal are second seeds alongside three Italian sides; Juventus and the two Milan clubs.
Those rankings mean the remaining Spanish side, Deportivo, must be drawn with United and the remaining Italian club, Roma, must face Arsenal.
Newcastle find themselves in the lowest-seeded pot though they have already shown from the first phase that being bottom seeds is no barrier to qualification.
The system should produce very even groups but Arsene Wenger and Ferguson must be pleased to have avoided holders Real Madrid, who have won Europe's top club competition a record nine times.
They have appeared in and won three of the last five finals, and have added Ronaldo to their other stars who include Zinedine Zidane, Raul, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Steve McManaman.
Madrid coach Vicente del Bosque said: ''We don't like being labelled favourites but we've had to learn to live with it. All it means is that we're given a degree of respect by our opponents.''
Meanwhile, the UEFA Cup draw will take place immediately after the Champions League draw and once again clubs from the same country will be kept apart.
The seeded groups for the Champions League draw are:
Pot 1: Real Madrid, Man Utd, Barcelona, Valencia.
Pot 2: Juventus, Arsenal, Inter Milan, AC Milan.
Pot 3: Deportivo La Coruna, Bayer Leverkusen, Roma, Borussia Dortmund.
Pot 4: Lokomotiv Moscow, Ajax, Newcastle, Basle.
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