It seems as though the Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger just cannot catch a break at the moment. As if the challenge to get back into the top-four places or even win the title was not already daunting enough, the Premier League fixtures, which were revealed on Wednesday, has only added to the Frenchman’s woes with five of their six matches directly after Europa League group stage fixtures away from home.
What this means is that after travelling the far corners of Europe during mid-week, Arsene Wenger’s men will be on the road again in the Premier League during the weekend, with Arsenal facing away trips to Manchester City, Chelsea, Everton, Southampton and Burnley directly after European excursions. This scenario will recur as many as five times, which is long enough to derail a campaign.
So with that being the case, I believe Arsenal must prioritize competitions. Obviously, the Premier League is the most important and I think Wenger should approach the Europa League like he approaches the FA Cup: play some youngsters and squad players during the early stages of the competition and should the team reach the quarter-finals, start taking the competition more seriously.
Should Wenger choose the same approach as the Champions League, the sheer fatigue of travelling and playing three games a week will have its toll on the squad and will have a negative impact on the players, both physically and mentally. If Le Prof is serious about winning the title next season, then the Europa League must play second-fiddle to the Gunners’ Premier League ambitions.
Who agrees?
AT
No
That’s a defeatist attitude
Mourinho, Ibrahimovich (who have won the biggest trophies) won the league Cup and Europa League and very extremely happy. They weren’t so arrogant to think of them as “Mickey Mouse” trophies. They wanted to win them more than be in the Top 4
Thats the attitude we should have
Winning Trophies should be a priority
Not getting back in Top 4
Winning the FA Cup saved me from complete sadness
Fatigue is just an excuse
Fatigue didn’t stop Sir Alex boys from winning the treble
If Wenger signs the right players and the right amount we can rest certain players for League Cup and FA Cup
But PL and Europa we should always play our best players available
No it didn’t, the referees in his pocket stopped everyone else. The sir almighty, what idiot came up with the idea of Knighting a manager while he’s still managing. Totally unfair advantage.
Jembut?
totally agree, if it’s good enough for Chelsea and Man Utd then it’s good enough for us, we can forget about winning the PL as the clown is incapable, so that leaves our FA Cup
With current squad, we HAVE TO play the unused players, if not reserves. We dont have quality depth. Ospian goes, means Martinez will play EL. May be Per can play too. Wenger does not rorate much, so our youngsters who dont start many matches can play EL. Now you can call it reserve or squad bench warmers, up to you
Yep a trophy is a trophy because that’s what it’s all about for a football club,nobody gives a rats rear in 15/20 years time if you finished 2nd 3rd or 4th.A trophy goes down in the history of a football club.Besides any Arsenal fan who thinks Arsenal are going to win the title with this manager and regime are completely bonkers and need their heads examining.
I wish we had a strong academy players to give it to them with matches on Thursday I think it would be of great advantage to divide the load across the club to the reserve and academy players so to keep all in good firing order which ever but Arsenal will have to compete and continue on to the final the pressure is on the club to perform on all fronts
Arsenal has enough depth to compete in both the EPL & Euefa League. With Wenger’s experience, he should be able to rotate the squad without a problem. The only question should be, can Wenger bring out the winning mentality out of this players for once and avoid any room for complacency?
rotate? when did that happen last with Wenger if not injuries?
hehehe and “With Wenger’s experience”, what experience? the experience of losing in the UCL every season in the knock out stages? giving Wenger that Godlike status, hehehe
If I had to choose, I’d prioritise the Europa League, because Wenger cannot win, or even compete for the league anymore. Even when ALL of our rivals finished below us, he still couldn’t get close to winning it! Winning the league just isn’t an option whilst Wenger is in charge. That being said, he can still rotate a lot in Europe, given how weak the opposition will be, and keep players fresh for the league if he wants to.
Arsenal’s record in Europe is very poor, and we’ve won hardly anything in our entire history, so I do not understand why some of our fans are so put off with the Europa League. Winning it would be huge in the contexts of our history! We’ve been an embarrassment for years in the Champions League, so one would think fans would want a break from it. We’re one of the favourites for once, we’ll see much better performances, and I’m sure we’ll be the one’s dishing out the thrashings for once. Even if we don’t win the competition, I’m sure we’ll get entertained, unlike with what we’ve had to put up with in the CL. I’m actually looking forward to it, because we have a great chance to partly restore our reputation on the European stage.
Hahaha ?? we will probably still get knocked out in the last 16 ?? we have seen how other teams have struggled in their premier league games after playing on a Spursday night. Why risk fatigue when we have youngsters with potential at Arsenal. I say treat the the Europe league in the same way as we treat the Mickey Mouse league cup, especially during the first stages of that competition.
Lets name a playing 11 of youngsters who dont get chance in starting 11, we can go from there. We do not have “youngsters with potential” who dont play in EPL. Our reserve is thin and not-so-talented as we think.
In what looks to be a potentially tricky season, Europa league victory might just be our only route back to the Champions league.
I think the early stages don’t be as difficult. We should rest a certain five or so players have them fresh for the league games.
The rest alone isn’t enough of an advantage, you still have to have a team capable of winning it, then it becomes a good advantage not being in Europe. In our case, it’s a little different, we need to be smart. Mourinho would have sacrificed the Europa if it was a league title he had a chance to win.
Our second team with some first teamers in it should be able to navigate the early stages. Then in the latter stages we’ll look at the league position, that should tell us if we’re in a position to prioritize.
If we can’t win the group stage with our squad players and first framers on the bench I’d be hugely surprised. Starting the first team players would be a bad idea. Keeping the first team fresh for the many games that pile up towards the end of the season is vital. Especially end of December through Jan. Also vital to give the squad players game time so that incase of injuries they are match fit. Not everyone can do a Mertesacker…
Question
You’re a young upcoming talent given an opportunity to leave the club you’ve been with since as a teenager to play with arguably the best footballer in history and win lots of trophies, what will you do?
Get some more pussy, that’s probably what I would do.?? I hope that was helpful to your pointless question. ??
Thumbed down. I hope that made your day 😛 ?
just like fabregas reached his full potential at barcelona?
Tolisso gone to Bayern.
Denis Suarez has said that Bellerin is torn between staying and leaving for Barca, so we can expect him to leave then.
In other words, this window is planning out just how everyone imagined it
If there is a lesson from the Premier League the past two seasons, it’s that teams who are not playing in Europe have a better chance of winning. Both Leicester and Chelsea won the league without the distraction of Europe.
Therefore, Wenger should have one squad for the Premier League and play his second squad for the European, League Cup matches, and the early FA Cup matches. They’ll be able to play Walcott, Giroud, Wilshere (?), Coquelin, Elneny, Iwobi, Mertesacker, Chambers, Reine-Adelaide, Holding or Monreal, Cazorla (when he returns), Gabriel (when he returns) … not too shabby of a team. It’ll get them regular playing time, or at least more than if they sat on the bench. We’d also be able to play some of the youngsters like Reiss Nelson or Ainsley Maitland-Niles more often than just an appearance in the League Cup.
Also, people are saying that window has only just opened we can’t judge Wenger too quickly.
But most, if not all, quality players that are up for grabs are available at the start of the window. They are going to get bought by our rivals if we don’t sign them quickly. Think of Morata, James, Mbappe, Lacazette, all available at the start of the window so unless we act quickly there will be no one left
Mr. last day panic buyer? we’ll see this time
I would rotate for the group stages of the Europa League, but still put out a fairly strong team. Just rest a few key players like Sanchez and Ozil (if they stay), Koscielny and Cech. Assuming we go through then reassess the whole situation in February when the knock out stages begin. If we are in a situation where challenging for the title or top 4 is unrealistic then prioritise the league but if we are competing for the title then rest players for the knockout rounds and prioritise the league.
Yeah, bec we cant win it even with our first team, and all of u f#$ers know its the truth
Teams like Sevilla and other team from germany and italia are no puch overs and Wenger will be focused to secure the cl trophy
Yea.. but they’ll be easier than Bayern or Barca.. so Wenger should focus on UEL. Coz the title is too much of a long shot ! United had a decent team n managed to win it ! Arsenal are better than United and should win UEL at all costs ! Direct UCL qualification
… And a chance to win the Super Cup. I don’t know if we would win it but it’s only 1 game so anything could happen
One and a half months to the season begins.
And not ONE player signed yet.
No messing with teams like Leicester and Everton – go out and sign players.
Always such a big deal for a club that is infused with incompetence as Arsenal are…
I think the bigger issue is not whether we play the reserves in the cup games but playing the appropriate team in the relevant game. Wenger has a habit of showing unrealistic loyalty to players that have progressed through the group stages and refuses to make the necessary changes when the stakes are higher i.e. by playing the appropriate strength team in each game. IMO it is unrealistic to think that a reserve team will win any of the cup competitions without assistance from the senior players. We have to go into each competition with the ruthless ambition of winning, Wenger needs to check the player’s egos at the door and do what is necessary to get the wins.
Everything will be fine! What could possibly go wrong..
We will win everything including the best coiffured team and selfie with expensive dog awards.
I think the best way is too rotate the. Squad and you need at least 25 players as well, mind you if Manchester United can do it then why not the gunners and we do have difficult league matches away afterwards
If you don’t have to travel far it might be a little easier so fingers crossed.
Arsene must prioritise the Europa League. The premier league is too tough to win with the current squad and more importantly THE CURRENT MENTALITY of Wenger. Even if we get 2 or 3 very good signings, over the course of the season our rivals are gonna spend good too ! Instead we should focus on winning a European Trophy and get automatically into the UCL. City United Chelsea Are all gonna strengthen and I really don’t see Arsenal topping the table. Maybe if they sign Mbappe Lacazette Lemar Seri and retain Sanchez and Ozil only then would Arsenal be SERIOUS title contenders. Besides City have already got 3 very good players ! We are lagging !
Oh,well… Here we gooooo!!!
Sanchez tells Arsenal he wants Chelsea lol ????
No, we should take this competition seriously and try and win it. Yes, there will be a bit of travelling but it’s not as if they are travelling in economy class is it. We should have a big enough squad to cope.
We have fragile injury prone squad that is not particularly deep. As we saw from Leicester and Chelsea it can be quite an advantage not to play European football.
I would use the Europa League to give valuable time to my youngsters and backup players and prioritize the PL top 4. Should the Europa League push be more successful than expected and our PL push fail we can always rotate starters to the Europa League.
But what would be the point of Kos or Mustafi or Ox picking up an injury in the Europa League?
If our backups can not progress well into the tournament our starters won’t either.
A Second String Arsenal Side should play the Europa League Matches so that Our First Team can concentrate fully on Winning the EPL.
Maybe Lucas Perez will stay as Our Main Striker for the Cup competitions.
AKBs What do you think?
Martinez.
Chambers. Gab. Nacho
M-Niles. Coq. Elneny. Gibbs.
Jack. Iwobi.
Welbz
Cech, BFG, Kolasinac, Ox, Jeff, Theo, Giroud.
Our reserves aren’t that bad, I’m sure a team like this could do some damage in Europa League? And that’s without any new players coming in (other than Kolasinac)