Arsenal faces an uphill battle to finish top-four and must make the Europa League a priority.
Arsenal seems to be fighting a losing battle in their quest to qualify for the Champions League via the Premier League.
Unai Emery’s men are still within touching distance of the top four. However, anything short of a win over Leicester this weekend would risk claiming a Champions League qualification spot becoming an unlikely outcome.
Brendan Rodgers side will go nine points clear if we get beaten by the Foxes. If that happens I believe the time is right for us to prioritize the Europa League.
Last season, Arsenal struggled in the league but managed to reach the final of the Europa League. We may have lost the final to Chelsea, but it showed that Unai Emery continues to be a master of that competition.
This season we have resorted to using the likes of Shkodran Mustafi and other fringe players, but I believe Emery has to start fielding his best players from the knockout stages onwards.
We should target winning the Europa League not just because we would be winning a trophy, but because that seems to be the best route for us back into the Champions League right now.
It has been proven over time that Emery has the winning formula for games in that competition. Surely it makes sense to put everything we got into that competition and ensure a return to the Champions League?
I know that not all my fellow Gooners like the Europa League but if the route via the league is out of reach then maybe it is the appropriate time to start falling in love with the much-derided competition.
We are in top four race without a manager,for a great club like arsenal we should not have opted for a an out cast from other big club to be our manager. I mean emery could not win with all the money he got at PSG.Arteta must have learnt a lot by now under pep and with his premier league experience as a player who captained arsenal he was the right candidate to coach arsenal.
That’ll be music to Unai’s ears!
Not for much longer it won’t Sue. His ears , along with the rest of him will not be around the club very soon now. Sacked this month, I believe.
We are a quarter way through the season and even a loss on Saturday is not the end, even if the tabloids sat otherwise, because they really know everything dont they. A defeat would be damaging, very damaging but there is a lot of points to be won and lost, with many twists and turns. I think a win would change the whole dynamic and a draw wouldn’t be a disaster for Arsenal. I have seen bigger turn arounds with 5 games to go, let alone 75% of the season. Whatever happens Saturday, isnt the end of the league, if it is we may as well all save our money, turn off the football, turn up the heating and watch all the repeats on telly. And stop giving our money to Sky. Anyone who has ever played in a league knows nothing is final until the fat lady is singing. But yes The Europa becomes more important, i think its important for us wherever we finish this year.
We’ve dropped a lot of points lately, Reggie.. and if we drop yet more tomorrow, that mountain we already have to climb, will be even bigger! We’re too easy to play against right now.. and that mindset really has to change!
Realistically we have the FA cup and the EL to go for… let’s hope we can go one better in the EL this year (although that capitulation from last year is still in the back of my mind ☹)
But like you say there’s a long way to go in the season, who knows we may have a new manager soon and we may actually start having something to smile about on the pitch again!
Watched the first half of Norwich v Watford earlier and I can honestly say I’d forgotten what it was like to watch a lively end to end game!! COYG
Agree Sue, that mountain if it happens may decide a lot.
@admin I sacrifice my time to write a comment but you are always behind my back moderating and deleting my comments that’s arrogant of you!Some of us have have big titles in real life than admin just arsenal, our interest is interacting with fellow gooners we all love arsenal!
I am always behind your back deleting your comments and I’m arrogant. You have a funny way of being nice to people Mr counsel..
The ACTUAL reason your comment was automatically in moderation was because you used gsil.com in your email address instead of Gmail.com.
But whatever the reason, for you to assume and call me arrogant is very very arrogant and rude on your part.
Please do not do it again. You may think justarsenal admin is not as good a title as yours but it is a good enough title for what I do and no matter you’re station in life you are obviously not a better person than I am.
Damn bro that was so cool reply..Your tittle my ass
nope, naah, no chance of Europa if we cannot win against Victoria. And if we win what do we do in UCL? Draw the games and get chucked back to EL? Does not make sense.With Unai still around we would be lucky to finish 10th.
Not Unai’s fault, he is a mid table team coach and that is where he is leading us.If we were serious of being contenders, then they would have hired a UCL level coach, not an EL coach.
Group stage ends against Standard Liege in 12/12. By that time Arsenal should have played 5 more PL games including Tmrw, a total of 16 out 38 games, which is worth 15 pts. If we went away from fourth a question would come up, whether to sack Emery or keep him for Europa League.
I’m glad I never played in sporting teams with some of the people on justarsenal. I want teammates who never give up and fight for every point. If you go on the pitch thinking you can’t win, you are already beaten.
EUL is a good option to get back into the CL but we will be facing much stronger opposition in the knock out stages than the ones in our group presently. Arsenal must approach every game with a winning mentality be it the PL or the EUL. But sadly I feel with the tactics, formation and selection formed by our Coach, we are sometimes 2 goals down before kick off. Emery must change things drastically and sooner the better.