Arsenal now knows their opponents for the 2019/20 Europa League competition group stage following the draw by UEFA in Monaco this afternoon.
Over the last two seasons, Arsenal has played in the semi-finals and last seasons final losing 4-1 to Premier League rivals Chelsea.
The Gunners were drawn in Group F alongside German outfit Eintracht Frankfurt, who reached last season’s Europa semi-final before going down on penalties to Chelsea, Belgium side Standard Liege and Portugal’s Vitoria FC. At least the fans will not be facing any outrageously long trips to the other side of Europe.
Group F line-up
Arsenal
Eintracht Frankfurt
Standard Liege
Vitoria FC
The actual fixtures, dates and times will be released within the next couple of hours.
It is a tricky draw but Unai Emery and his men should be able to navigate themselves into the knock out rounds as long as they play to their true ability.
The final will be held in Gdansk, Poland on Wednesday, 27th May, a far better destination than the ridiculous Baku. Fans will not have too many issues getting to the Polish city and Arsenal will be able to take every one of their players in the event they do reach the final.
Great and competitive draw. I see us and Frankfurt going through to the next rounds
Competitive draw but we should get through.
What is the point of worrying about the draw? I would worry about Unai Emery and his team selection. He is lacking courage. That would be my worry.
Yes he is lacking courage but still took us to the final week a much weaker squad, why do you guys bring up Emery at every slight opportunity let the man be even if his not the best coach around he is also certainly not the worst
Bit unfair to judge a manager after only three games, two of them away from home, one of the away games being the hardest ANY team will play all season, with only Liverpool and City ahead of us, City by only one point.
I am stunned it’s “panic stations” already!
@Sean Williams
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Great draw for Arsenal.
Frankfurt and Arsenal will qualify easily.
Nice short trips no Russian snow skis needed.
This makes our league season so much easier as we can use
our fringe and youngsters while the likes of
Spurs and Chelsea have to use their top players all the time.
No excuse now for Arsenal to be lower than 3rd at Xmas.
Not necessarily. Frankfurt sold both of their top strikers, so the Portuguese and Belgian clubs could challenge them.
Even us perhaps if our youngsters fail to perform. Emery MUST and I mean MUST play the B team in the UEL. Otherwise we lose at least 5, 6 points (probably more) due to our A team players playing in the league a mere 2 and a half days after Europa games. Premier league has become more competitive and we see that even teams that have 3 and half days rest suffer all too often the weekend after their UCL games.
This is brilliant for Arsenal. A chance to field the youth & let the likes of Bellerin, Holding, Mavraponas & Teinrey all get easier games to play in and find their rhythm when they return. The premier league is a hard league to get straight back in the swing of things straight away as they are all tough games.
The final is in Poland, well that is alot better than Baku. We dont have alot of travelling for these fixtures either which is a plus.
Now go tank spurs, Unleash the PALs with their little pitbull Torriera & have a proper go at them. Hopeful lineup;
Leno
Amn Luiz Sokratis Monreal(last game)
Torreira Guendouzi
Cabellos
Pepe laca Auba
If Ozil is going to play put Cabellos beside Lucas and Guendouzi makes way as Mesut can supply these guys endlessly if his head is in the right place. He will have no excuses now but maybe that Ozil is gone… we will see.
Cool draw. We should get through easily cos of our quality and on the plus side we won’t have to make long journeys like we did last season. It’d help our recovery for weekend games.
Sean Williams, Emery does not lack courage, people who lack courage do not experiment much. He’s the master of the competition so whatever line-up he chooses, I’m confident we’ll progress from the group.
Sirjoe, I also think it faintly ridiculous to allege that Emery lacks courage. If you lack courage you do not take on managing a top club, no matter which top club. It is patently untrue !
One of the more trickier draws possible under the procedure, I’d say. We should win the group even so but I doubt there will be many opportunities, or even none, when Emery has the luxury of being able to field a weaker team. Perhaps though, if things go well, in just the final group game. Consequently THAT WILL LEAD TO KEY PLAYERS NEEDING RESTS IN OTHER GAMES.
And the Mancs will be making the 6,000 mile trip to Kazakhstan!
I think we’ve got a favorable draw with short trips to Germany, Belgium and Portugal. We should be able to get out of this group easily with Frankfurt the only worry, they sold their two strikers but they still have some quality in the team not much to say about the other two teams thou. Hopefully Unai take this opportunity to give the youth some first team actions so that we can see what they’re made of.
Please who knows if the 3rd place teams in the champions league will be joining the later stages of the Europa league this season?
If they finish 3rd in their group they join the Europa league.
If they finish 4th in their group they drop out all together.
If they make the last 16 they can not join the Europa league
if they drop out.
it shouldn’t be a problem, really. Group stage of this competition shuld never be a problem for us. None of these sides require we start our best players. Martinelli, Nelson, Miki & our 2nd string defenders should get plenty of time.
As An aside, we drew Nottingham Forest in Carabao cup. Hoping Carl Jenkinson gets a good round of applause
We are supposed to be no match to other teams in this group.
Not concerned with any of those fixtures really, we should comfortably cruise through the group. No trips to Russia or the arctic circle so a good draw IMO
I want us to play a weakened side in this seasons Europa. It might be better in the long run if players like… Martinelli, Nelson, Willock, Mavro, Martinez, Smithy, Saka, Chambers (no Nketiah, but the Leeds fans love him and it looks like it was a good move)
We’ve got a fair draw, our boys will navigate with ease. The most interesting thing this season is the squad depth. We have enough fire power to gin them down, the boys need to gel in and blend. This year is different.
Gun them down(sp)