It would appear that Arsenal will stop being the short favourite to win the Europa League after this weeks Champions League matches relegated some excellent teams into the secondary competition. The quality of the third-placed teams in the Qualifying Groups means that it will get progressively harder the further we go, and here is the final list of teams now entering the Europa League….
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE THIRD-PLACED TEAMS
Group A – CSKA Moscow
Group B – Celtic
Group C – Atletico Madrid
Group D – Sporting Lisbon
Group E – Spartak Moscow
Group F – Napoli
Group G – RB Leipzig
Group H – Borussia Dortmund
I would say that, other than Celtic, these are all teams that can make life hard for the Gunners, especially Athletico Madrid, Dortmund and Napoli who are traditional big hitters.
When you consider some of the teams that are already in the draw like AC Milan, Atalanta, Lyon, Lazio and Zenit, it would appear that this years knockout stages are going to be a lot more interesting than usual.
It is little surprise that Atletico Madrid are now the new favourites @ 7/2 after finishing third behind Roma and Chelsea in their Group, but currently Arsenal are still quite low priced at around 11/2. But if Wenger continues to only play his reserves in all the games then surely we should be closer to 100/1….
Should Wenger now switch priority to trying to win the Europa League and play his very best side from now on?
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