To be perfectly honest, when Arsenal were struggling last season and looking likely to miss out on the top four and a subsequent Champions League spot, I half hoped that we would crumble and not even make it into the Europa League. The chances are that the club would then have had to part company with Arsene Wenger and the new manager would not have had any distractions with the European midweek games.
The last two Premier League winners did so with no European games, so maybe Arsenal could have benefited just as Chelsea and Leicester City did. As it is we did not even need our league position to get a Europa League place because we won the FA cup and so Wenger and the Gunners just had to get on with it, but most of us were dreading the effect these Thursday games would have.
Not nay more. It is still early days, of course, and we could still suffer on the following Sundays, but so far the Europa League feels to me like a good thing for Arsenal. Two good games with lots of excitement, which is what we all watch football for at the end of the day, and two good results have helped with the growing confidence and good feeling around the team.
We have seen players like Wilshere, Walcott and Giroud get valuable match minutes and goals and assists and we have seen a few young Gunners starting to break through. Arsenal are in charge of our group and look certain to progress and without having to risk the fitness of the really key players, so do you agree that this season out of the Champions League could still be a good thing for us?
Bob.
I think its a reality check and rude awakening. Harsh reminder no team is entitled to champions league.
Its a real fight for top four now; clubs are investing now because so much money to be had from tv revenues.
Support is so important; just a little extra fight from players, and a little less criticism from fans (myself included) maybe is worth a few points down the line.
Its vital to give Nelson, Maitland-Niles, Willock, (too bad about Bielik) games to develop and be challenged.
It is what it is, be smart and make the most of it
Well we deserve to be here after last seasons performance and if we don’t win it, it’s unlikely we will finish in top 4 to get back into Champions League. I hope we do though obviously
I like to look at this in a positive way
1. Winning it will give us a trophy
2. We have never won this before and it is a prestigious trophy, not as prestigious as Champions League but still a good trophy
3. It will give us a ticket to Champions League regardless of the PL outcome
4. Winning trophies helps us in different ways ie getting players, reputation, money
5. We are currently the Top ranked team in competition which means we have a good chance of winning as long as Wenger takes it seriously and good teams from Champions League don’t enter into it.
I hope we take this competition seriously and win it.
If done right this could be the start of a better future for us
Well I’ll be ********* never in a million goal I see arsenal gal praise the team I’m getting a good sleep tonight
Like everything in life, you have to make the best of what you have.
Yes I agree as the board and and manager must wake up and realise that we are sliding down the hiearchy in English football! Anyway I like to win the competition now we are int it to raise our profile so hope AW gets serious later on but for now perfect to blood youngsters – Willock played well yesterday! – and get valuable minutes for likes of Giroud, Wilshere, Mertesacker, Holding, etc.
Chelsea and Lieciester did it
but remember Arsenal are bottlers they never take their chances
I admit it, I hate Europa league. I think CL would benefit from expanding by say another 8 teams, and this way EL could be scrapped all together. There’s no real quality in it until probably quarterfinals. Having said that, we’re in it now, and I think any trophy should be treated with respect, especially the one that gives you a straight way back into the Champions League. What do players want? Money, and prestige. I’m not sure how realistic top 4 is, so we have try and qualify via other means, i.e. Europa League. That’ll give us a chance to offer new potential signings something that we didn’t have this past summer.