The Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere started the season as a second string player and was only playing in League Cup and Europa League games, until he proved his form and fitness and won back a place in the Gunners first XI. The England midfielder, who has also earned his first call up to the national side in two years, believes that the club had always made the Europa League a major target.
Wilshere said: “We knew the Europa League was an opportunity for us to get into the Champions League. We understood that from the start and now it’s getting into the real business end, it’s exciting.
“All players want to be involved in Europe. Okay, it’s not the Champions League, but in the Europa you still get big European nights that give you something different to the Premier League.
“We travel away together and everyone enjoys it. There are some good teams in it and it’s a difficult competition to win — but we are confident in ourselves.”
I certainly believe this trophy is a major target for Arsenal now, but at the beginning of the season it was way down on Wenger’s list, in fact the Boss even admitted that he didn’t believe the winners should get automatic entry in the Elite competition. The Boss said before the season started: He said: “You cannot go into the season and think that [is going to be your route into the Champions League],” he said.
“I was always not in favour of that, because I think at some stage it can influence the championship, because if a team is in April in a position where they have more chance to win the Europa League they can let some games go in the championship, and not completely focus on that.”
Well now the wenger has fund himself in that position and now has no choice but to make the EL his Number One target to save Arsenal’s season, but if I was Jack I wouldn’t be getting too overconfident.
Darren N