Opinion: Arsenal have good reasons to be fearful of Europa League failure

Arsenal was very poor in their 3-0 loss to Liverpool at the weekend and it is a performance we cannot repeat in our remaining games of the season.

The weekend result makes it even harder for us to reach our European goals at the end of the campaign and makes beating Slavia Prague and reaching the next round of the Europa League all the more important.

Mikel Arteta’s side will face a Slavia Prague team that has already eliminated Leicester City and Rangers from the competition.

They are unbeaten in the Czech league after 25 league matches that have seen them win 20.

They will also head to the Emirates having not conceded a goal in any of their last four matches in all competitions.

These numbers should frighten the Gunners’ fanbase considering how poor the team has been recently.

However, the players cannot use that as an excuse, neither can they head into that match with fear.

Their return from the international break seems to have affected their performance against Liverpool, but they have to get over that and win this game.

Arsenal had 3 shots against Liverpool’s 16, two of the Gunners’ were on target while Liverpool had 7 on target. The Reds also won more possession with 65%. 

A similar performance in the Europa League could send them crashing out of the competition and the consequences of that are not worth thinking about.

An article from Ime

Tags arsenal v slavia prague

23 Comments

  1. It’s crazy or exciting or at least interesting that the entire season success or otherwise comes down to a 3 hours of football against a team from the Českà republika.
    Making the Champions League
    from 8th or 9th in the league will seem strange but I’m sure we will take it.

  2. Team Selection is very crucial in EL
    Drop Aubameyang and play Martinelli
    Front 4 should be Martinelli, Saka, ESR and Odegaard if all available..
    Or at least Martinelli on left and Lacazzett upfront…
    Please No Ceballos…
    I could take Elneny because no other option if Xhaka is not available…
    Holding and Mari should start as CB pairing as it seems Luiz will not be available…
    Cedric on left back as Tierney’s season is almost over
    Bellerin on Right Back

    1. Would love to see that front 4 if they’re all fit. Time to unleash the youth! Fed up of the lackluster performances from our senior attacking players.

    2. I think I’m done backing Arteta, his man management and favoritism is not helping the team. He should be shown the door if he fails to win Europa

  3. The senior players have flopped. Even if we lose, I would be happy to see:

    Martinelli Nketiah Nelson
    Smith Rowe Oodegaard Xhaka
    Saka Mari Holding Bellerin

    We need to see a lively press, merciless hunger for goals, and real team solidarity. What we saw vs Liverpool was total capitulation.

    It may be that Arteta was the one who put an attacking lineup on and asked them to play hyperdefensively instead of assertively, Instead of pressing and imposing their game, they handed the initiative entirely to Liverpool. Why not just ask to be lined up in front of a firing squad?

    If Arteta’s tactics are similar this time out, we’ll lose. If Arteta can’t keep us in Europe with the squad he’s got, he’s lost the plot. There are many good players to choose from.

    I hope we’ve learned our lesson of signing old players on astronomical wages. It doesn’t work.

  4. I’m sure we will score at least one goal, because:

    – The players will be more motivated, since their season depends on the match

    – They have experimented with long balls from Leno, so they should’ve known how to retrieve it with better ways

    – Sparta Praha would likely park the bus to counter us, so we’d be able to play from the back with less pressure

    1. These Arsenal players and Arteta seem to be very unpredictable. Very inconsistent.

      Can’t trust them at all.

      1. We will be crippled without Tierney and Xhaka

        But we might be able to solve our front line issue by fielding only Aubameyang or Lacazette. Starting both of them doesn’t seem to work currently

  5. Did u see how easily Real Madrid opened up Liverpool defense? I can’t believe we failed to created one clear cut chance against them!

    1. – Liverpool had to travel far to Madrid and Klopp rarely competes against Zidane
      – If Real Madrid’s fringe players are good enough to start in our games, imagine the abilities of their first team players at Bernabeu

      1. A 2.5 hour flight, gai 😆
        Admit it- we made them look really good – even their fans said so on twitter last night!! Real didn’t even need Ramos to take Salah out!!

        1. Yup. We literally gave the ball to them, through Leno’s long goal kicks

          I hope the players learn some stuff from our long goal kick experiment

          1. GAI
            Going long isn’t a problem.
            Problem is leno’s decision making of when to go long or go short is the problem…he need need on work on that double lively.
            Clean slate Thursday and we go again for another roller coster night of unpredictable football..who says being a gooner is boring 😴
            Onwards and upwards

          2. @Alanball08 : If you watched how Real Madrid played from the back against Liverpool, that was the kind of confidence our players should’ve had

            We tried to avoid aerial duels with Liverpool’s CBs by passing the ball long to Aubameyang and Pepe, but Lacazette, Odegaard and our DMs lost in ball retrieval duels against Liverpool’s midfield. Hopefully it will be different in EL

        2. 👍 Sue, a 2.5 hour flight is a walk in the park where I come from. “travel far” ; GAI must be having a laugh!

        1. Liverpool had to go through immigration process and Real Madrid forwards kept the ball better than ours

          1. Excuses after excuses
            We played long
            Liverpool went on a trip to Madrid
            Liverpool went through Immigration
            Leno played long
            Arsenal forward didn’t do duals with liverpool CBs
            Arsenal played with real Madrid fringe players etc
            Are you not tired of making excuses
            We were complete annihilated by an average liverpool team as Madrid have once again shown
            Madrid had so much chances that they should have killed the game yesterday

  6. This is it – last chance saloon! Of course we’ll see a reaction after that horror show against Pool, right???

    I’m bricking it already 😆

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