While Arsenal and every other club in the Premier League, especially now that last season’s shock triumph by Leicester City has made anything seem possible, sees the domestic title as the main goal of the season, I think that Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal fans would be just as happy to claim a first ever victory in the elite European competition that is the Champions League.
Some rival fans and even some Gooners may mock our record of qualifying for the competition every year under Le Prof and call it the Wenger trophy, but you can bet that every club wants to achieve it and would be even happier with our record of getting out of the group stage into the knockout phase.
The big problem is that recent years have also seen Arsenal claim the unwelcome record of going out in the first round after the groups, but there is a feeling that this year might be different. Not only have we been handed a decent draw, avoiding the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, but the fixture schedule has not thrown up any of the logistical nightmares that seem to be the norm for us.
All three of the away ties fall on a Tuesday and so give the players plenty of time to rest and recover for the domestic matches and we do not even have much travelling to do. As well as that we have the added bonus of our main group rivals PSG having lost their main striker Ibrahimovic, while Arsene Wenger has strengthened the spine of Arsenal with the transfers of Xhaka, Mustafi and Lucas Perez.
So could this season be the one where we make a decent go of the Champions League?
Bob.