Is this the toughest Europa League ever?

Man United had a reasonably easy run to win the Europa League last season, beating teams like St-Étienne, Rostov, Anderlecht and Celta Vigo before beating Ajax in the Final, but Arsene wenger believes that this is the toughest group of teams he has seen in the last 16 of this years version.

Le Prof was asked if it is better to go far in the Europa than lose in the Champions League, and he said: “You never compare. You’re right, I want to be in the Champions League – and in the Europa League, if you look at the teams that are in there, it is very strong. We play Milan to have a chance to qualify for the quarter-final. You look who is in there [the current round] and there is Milan, Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, Arsenal, we have all the French teams, some good French teams. You have many good teams in there and this competition is maybe this season, at a higher level than ever.”

“Anything can run against you. What we want is to produce a performance that is expected from us and then you give your best and you have to accept that this competition is very tight.”

I agree there are some good teams in it, but really only Atletico Madrid and Dortmund could be considered to be top, top teams in recent times. So do you think that Arsenal are going to get a much harder run than Man United did last year?

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11 Comments

  1. “….you give your best and you have to accept that this competition is very tight….”

    Not very confident heh le prof? No wonder we suck. Have to wonder, why you want to be in the Champions League anyway? You know that it’ll be much tougher, right? Considering they have Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, etc… right,… right?

    1. it is not easy when you have strong teams such as A.Madrid, Lyon, Dortmund, Milan and etc….. are still completing….

      didn’t the mighty utd lost to Seville and Basel as well?

      1. John Ibrahim,
        These questions should be asked IF we beat Milan!!
        We lost at home to a team i can’t even think of and played absolute rubbish during the game.
        The noises coming out from the players suggest that they are realising just what a balls up this season has been and I hope that winning two games in a row might just see us playing with some confidence.
        Wenger is right as far as the calibre of clubs that look like being in the last sixteen and I believe Utd did have an easier set of teams to play against.
        BUT this is Arsenal and we should be comparing our club with the likes of Barca and Madrid.
        No excuses please Arsene and the players, we expect a committed, determined and winning performance tonight and through to the final.
        Right then, I’m off down the motorway again, so don’t make it a long journey home, we’re 2-0 up for christs sake!!

        1. i do agree with you…

          we are 2 nil up at home and there should be no excuses…

          hope wenger dont go soft on these millionaires…which is his weakness

          yes, we should compare with the likes of barca and real…those clubs are global clubs and have spend big on youth system to have a strong foundation for a very long time….90s maybe? they are financially well supported based on their stars signings as well…

          city have spend big and could potentially be on par with them…
          psg have spend big to be like them but have failed….

          its not that easy…huge financial support may be required

          1. John , You make a potent and under rated point when you talk about Wenger’s softness. It is this total inability to speak the blunt truth, directly face to face to half tryers and shirkers which has been his most absent quality that ALL top managers need. If you let certain players walk all over you, you must not be surprised when they continually do so. He has never had this vital strength to call out lazy players and so he has sown what he has reaped.

    2. what a load of crap…”this year it is maybe tougher”…this year it is the teams that weren’t good enough to qualify for the the Champions League as any year. Arsenal and a bunch of other mid table teams. Man U won it last year and got found wanting in the Champions League…Its a long long way back to the top for Arsenal. Lets just concentrate on winning against Milan. I have a feeling it will be a tough contest.

      1. Atletico are the main difference as well as AFC, Atletico usually go far in the CL so in that respect we are unlucky. We’ve been playing to a Europa league standard so Atletico will not feel the same as we do on them. Dortmund, sometimes they go past the group stages and sometimes they drop to Europa. All the other teams will see us three as the biggest threat to their own chances. So Atletico should really be the fav’s, then I’d have us and Dortmund on same odds, if Auba could play I would put us closer.

  2. “We were knocked out because this year’s Europa was the toughest ever”……..wenger

    Pre-excuse!

  3. The problem with us is that we can win against any of them just as much as we are capable of losing against them,we can be a real Jekyll and Hyde team, if we go out playing like we think we already won tonites match, we could easily get stunned by AC, when was the last time we won a home game in the knock out stages of a European tie, 6 or 7 years ago.

  4. Arsenal can win it against all odds because they don’t have the usual mental block against outside teams. These Man u team and Chelsea are not good enough it’s just that we don’t have a coach who can bring out the lion in our players. That is why the gap between man city and others is so wide, just wait and see what will happen to Man city in quarter final stage. Hhhhhhhhhmmm am so sorry for Sanchez, I hope this will not be the greatest mistake of his career, he needs to call Alexander Hleb now for advice.

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