Should Arsenal be happy for chance to ‘do a Chelsea’?

Chelsea just won the Premier League title with a 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion, but would they have done so if they had to juggle Champions League football?

Arsenal are currently outside the top-four, and need Liverpool to drop points from one of their two remaining matches, while winning their last three, to have any chance of qualification.

The Gunners should not be too disillusioned with the possibility of missing out on this one occasion however, much in the way that a year outside the coveted European competition has allowed Chelsea to get back to winning ways.

The Blues endured a dismal campaign last season, in which they finished as low as 10th position, but bounced back to winning ways with an emphatic Premier League title win, their second in three seasons.

Arsenal haven’t fallen out the top-four in over 20 years, and should maybe welcome the opportunity to play a season without the elite European competition, especially considering the last two Premier League titles have been won by a team without any European football whatsoever.

As painful as it is to say, if the Blues DID have to play in Europe this season, they would likely have struggled to fend off those noisy neighbours of ours, but if another strong side had no Europe they would have of course been closer.

Our team has been hindered by injuries in each of our recent campaigns, which has to be somewhat blamed on our busy schedule, and maybe we should not be so downbeat about the prospect of playing outside the Champions League next term.

We are of course guaranteed a place in the Europa League should we miss out on the top-four, and we currently have a more-than capable squad to win that competition, but I would much prefer us to rotate our squad throughout the competition and concentrate on trying to win the Premier League.

Would missing out on the Champions League be such a big deal? Have Chelsea just proven that one year outside is not the end of the world?

Pat J

Tags Arsenal Chelsea

16 Comments

  1. Hahahahahah! Arsenal fans why do we always lower our ambition? Why not win pl while in ucl? I think we are far from winning the league though . The title talks about chelsea lifting pl because of no champions league but forgets to mention how Liverpool did not win pl yet they were not in ucl. Its all about quality from the manager to the players and just a look at the manager we will not win pl with him unless he changes overnight. The huge reason why we will not lift pl for years to come is our record vs the big teams. Chelsea,Leicester last year showed that to be pl champion you hve to beat the big boys. How many points hve we taken? I feel europa will be a distraction to us lets try all to gun for top 4

  2. Clubs can cope with both competitions, although it does make life a harder what with the extra games, travel, fatigue, etc. But what Wenger has proven over a very long period of time, is that HE cannot cope with both competitions.

    Frankly, I couldn’t care less about Champions League football, and Arsenal need a break from it to repair the club’s reputation more than anything if Wenger is staying. Getting humiliated every season in that competition is not a positive thing for the club. Obviously I’d love us to take another stab at it, but with a different manager. Amazing to think we’re pretty much the only big team (historically) that has never won the European Cup.

  3. Three years ago when sanchez joined us it looked like we were on the threshold of a wonderful new era with the stadium debt at a more manageable level and more funds available for the team. Sanchez has said that he joined us to win things.

    Now the situation looks very different, the team still stumbles from christmas onwards but this year it was worse and the recovery took longer. We no longer play the best football in the league and at times are boring. Still plagued by injuries. The opposition have got better, we have got worse. We need to strengthen the team and champions league football is a big pull, brings in a lot of money and is great for us fans. So yes I want CL football next year.

  4. Wenger will never win EPL and UCL no matter how many money he spends. He has zero tactics and doesn’t motivate players. He is also too obsessed with average players like Giroud, Theo, Ramsey, Gibbs.

  5. Arsenal have spend plenty of money last 3 seasons but we are getting worse.
    Xhaka 35 M
    Mustafi 35 M
    Alexis 35 M
    Perez 16 M
    Welbeck 16 M
    Chambers 16 M
    Elneny 10 M
    Ozil 42 M
    Cech 11 M
    Gabriel 10 M

    1. While 35 does seem allot I think it’s a mixture of inflation and overpaying, Alexis was a bargain. If Mustafi and Xhaka come good then 35 is not too bad. Ozil we overpaid to get. That’s only four players beyond the 30 mark, some of them aren’t even justified to be worth that. Ten years ago those other top clubs were spending more, and they’ve been introducing quality ever since. Suarez Firminho Mane Lalana Lovren Coutinho, three of those are over the thirty mark, and the others just came in under it I think.

  6. It is not certainly end of world for those team who don’t have any financial constraints on transfers…. Chelsea, Manchester City are owned by Oil Tycoons in world so they don’t even bother about financial loss arising out of non qualifications to Champions League…. But this is not the case for Arsenal…. Already Arsenal lack behind on Transfers Funds than their rivals as they cannot splash cash of 200M on players and not qualifying for Champions League will impact Arsenal Tremendously….. And ultimately we should understand that our Manager is Arsene Wenger and whether it is Champions League or not his team will fall in the month of February or March to Concede title to our rivals… This is happening several years in past….

  7. Kedar Damle, are you serious. Our 2 major shareholders are richer than Abromavich and the Sheikh from Man City. We can’t compete in transfer because our tight ass majority shareholder won’t invest his own money. Those idiots that sold him the shares where meant to be Arsenal through and through and look what they have done to us. Due to their poor decisions our beloved club is now a basket case and the laughing stock off European football. Had they sold to Usmanov we would have built the stadium and still been able to buy world class players cause he would invest his own money like the rest do.
    I hope and pray that in the not to distant future Dagnote or Usmanov buy this stupid American out
    #WENGER OUT
    #NO NEW CONTRACT
    #KROENKE OUT

    1. Man city is funded by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Authority, estimated wealth of 800 billion dollars, way more than abramovic, umanov and kroenke combined. Man city is an advertising mechanism for abu dhabi, it cannot be allowed to fail so has effectively unlimited funds available.

      Abramovic is a football fan and bought chelsea as a his toy. He is a self made man who has gone from market trader to billionaire. He has spent over one billion pounds of his own money on chelsea. He makes his money elsewhere and spends some of it on chelsea for his own enjoyment.

      Kroenke makes his money from owning major sports clubs. He is not an arsenal fan. He believes that arsenal should fund itself and only borrow money to fund the new stadium, seen as essential to generate future income. He does not believe in borrowing money to fund player purchase and salaries. In the past he has sold players to fund the stadium debt or to upgrade things like the training facilities. The problem is that his business model of top four is good enough seems to have generated a culture at the club which stops it even challenging for winning the PL come the latter part of the season.

      1. Abramovic is a clever dude, he’ll get that money back and then some, unless he stays there til the bitter end of course. How much is Che worth these days, because of success and after they build their stadium I’d say prob more than we are. He’s not in it for the profit, but I don’t think he’s gonna look at it like a black hole, at the very least it’s a great safety net, safer than a bank.

  8. The last two PL winners have had no European football. So if we are playing Europa, we still won’t win the PL.

    1. Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if Wenger goes all out for the Europe league next year and tries to enter the backdoor of the Champions League like Man U this season.

  9. Please arsene sign these players:
    Fabregas – if he can buy cech from chelski why not Fab
    Morata- difficult but not impossible
    Wojciech sczhesny- bring him back
    William carvalho or gueye or ndidi- steel required to protect defense
    Gaya or saed – LB
    Ross barkeley or isco – wingers or cam

    Arsene take role of director and give jardim or allegri the chance to change things aroubd. Don’t annoy or hurt us.

  10. It’s even annoying when some people wants wenger moving upstairs

    .

    Like i said….i don’t want him anywhere near upstairs

    .
    Unless there’s some kinda helipad sited up ere and a helicopter waiting to convey him to france!

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