Tag Archives: Europa League

What should Arsenal prioritise this season?

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P 18 W 17 D 1

At the time of writing, that was Manchester City’s results in the league so far this season. It is awesome form that is seeing them average 2.88 points per game. Keep it up and they will end up with a record breaking 109 points.

They have blown the rest of the Premier League away this season. A mixture of having a top coach in Pep Guardiola, and having a squad that cost £632m has seen them have the strongest set up in the Premier League since those early Jose Mourinho days at Chelsea.

If the first XI is not working, Guardiola has a bench which contains £100s of millions worth of talent, including the likes of Bernardo Silva who cost £43m.

When Sergio Aguero, has easily been the best striker in Premier League over the last 5 / 6 years is no longer guaranteed a start, it shows the strength of their squad.

It is not just the money they have spent, the football that Guardiola is coaching his players to produce puts them a cut above.

This brings me on to the main part of my thoughts.

Whilst it is frustrating that it is Manchester City and not Arsenal running away with it, the fact is,. For 2017/18 at least, Man city are going to win the league, Arsenal or not.

So what else then do Arsenal have to play for?

  • Top 4 finish
  • Finishing above Spurs
  • League Cup
  • Europa League
  • FA Cup

There are 5 motivations for the players. What is important now is that as we are not going to win the league, we re-organise our priorities this season.

Firstly, finishing above Spurs and a top 4 finish can be put into one box.

Personally I think that Manchester United and Chelsea will both be good (and consistent) enough to finish top 4. That leaves one more place for Burnley, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal to battle over. Finish top 4 and we finish above Spurs.

Also, bar bragging rights, finishing above Spurs does not really mean much in the long course of history.

In the 1992/93 season, Arsenal finished 10th. Spurs finished 8th. Arsenal became the first ever club to do the domestic cup double. Spurs won nothing. I imagine if I asked the question (before I told you the answer) as to where Arsenal and Spurs finished in 1993, you would not have a clue. Bit if I asked who won the cups, you would know both.

This brings me on to the next point. If we are not going to win the league, should we be prioritising league games over cup competitions?

We got mocked for the Top 4 Trophy for 10 years. During that period, many Arsenal fans who have consistently called for Arsene Wenger’s head moaned that Wenger was prioritising a top 4 finish above winning cups. He was disrespecting cups.

Last year Spurs finished above us, they showed progression, they competed but ultimately they won nothing.

It seems now Arsenal fans have done a 360. Rather than win a trophy, suddenly that want the team to show progression and compete, to finish top 4.

The same people moaning that top 4 is not a trophy now what us to finish top 4, even if it means no trophy. They want us to prioritise the top 4.

My fear is, Wenger, and the board, will go the same.

They will go back to the old thinking that finishing top 4 is more important than winning a trophy. They will prioritise it, and continue to play a second XI in the cups. Ultimately this could leave us with no trophies and, on current form, outside the top 4.

Personally, I would actually like us to prioritise the trophies over the league.

Last season Manchester United won the League cup and Europa League. They made the decision to prioritise the cups over finishing top 4. Their hand was forced due to being about 10 points behind a top 4 position going into Christmas, but ultimately they won the trophies.

In years down the line, Manchester United will remember the trophies they won in the 2016/17 season, but will anyone remember who finished top 4? Probably not.

At the time of writing, there is just a single point between 4th and 7th, with Arsenal in 7th. But is there actually any difference between finishing 4th and finishing 7th, bar the Champions League football and finances it brings?

Now this would be controversial.

I would not be too unhappy if we played a B team in the league games that occur before a mid-week cup tie.

I would not care if we finished 10th, if it mean winning a cup.

Football is all about winning trophies. The winners are remembered. We entered 4 competitions at the beginning of the season. One we can no longer win, 3 we can. So why prioritise the completion we can no longer win?

Over the years, Sky and UEFA have brainwashed fans to believe that the only trophies that matter is the Premier League and Champions League. Sadly, some fans now believe this calling the FA Cup no longer the competition it once was.

Tell anyone who was at Wembley in May that finishing top 4 was more important, or those Manchester United fans in Sweden that finishing 6th means everything whilst winning a European trophy means nothing.

Now let’s play a game.

Below is a list of the seasons we won a cup. I have excluded the seasons where we also won the league. Name the trophy and Arsenal’s league position in the corresponding season:

How did you get on? I bet you were able to write down the majority of the trophies won quite quickly. But how about the league positions? I imagine the more recent ones were easy, but how many of the earlier ones did you guess?

Do you want the answers? They are at the end of the blog.

The point of the exercise was to highlight that history only remembers one league position. And that is first. But you will also remember the other successes. The other trophies won.

I could probably name every FA Cup winner between 1988 (I was 3) and now. I would struggle to name who finished 2nd in those season, let alone 4th.

It will require a change in mentality, but with us being 19 points behind Manchester City in the league, sacrificing the league position to potentially win 3 cups surely makes sense?

And finally, those answers:

Keenos

Who can Arsenal face in the Europa League?

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Arsenal have a genuine chance of winning the Europa League – as long as we follow Manchester United’s lead from last year and start to take the competition serious.

With the likes of Atletico Madrid, Napoli and Borussia Dortmund dropping into the competition, Arsenal have shifted from favourites to 2nd favourites, but the reality is, whoever wins the competition tends to be whoever takes it the most serious.

Last season, Manchester United were sitting in 6th place, out of the title race and a long way from Top 4. The Europa League represented both an opportunity to qualify for the Champions League and a chance to win a trophy.

The first would satisfy the money men, whilst the second would satisfy for the fans.

Personally, I do not care that you qualify for the Champions League if you win the Europa League. What is more important is the silverware.

Te situation Arsenal find themselves in is a little different from Manchester United, in terms of we are a lot closer to a top 4 position in the Premier League than they were 12 months ago. This might make Arsene Wenger prioritise the league over the Europa League, but this would be a mistake.

I would rather we win the League Cup than finish top 4. A visit to Lyon in May 2018 should be the priority for Arsenal.

Arsenal’s last European success was way back in 1994. Did anyone really care that we finished 4th that season? I imagine most can not remember where we finished.

The year before, Arsenal won the domestic cup double. They finished 10th. 1995 saw a 5th placed finish, but saw us make a second European final in as many years. 1995 was not a great memory.

My point is, if you are winning things, or making finals, league position does not really matter – unless you also win the league.

We need to get away from the Sky brainwashing that the Premier League and Champions League is all that matters. It is not.

I want us to win the Europa League.

The draw is about to take place, so how does it work?

  • There will be two pots of clubs for the round of 32 draw: the 12 group winners and the four best third-ranked teams in the Champions League group stage are seeded.
  • The group winners and four best third-placed teams in the Champions League will be drawn against the 12 group runners-up and the remaining third-placed Champions League sides.
  • The seeded teams will be at home in the second leg.
  • No team can play a club from their Europa League group or a side from the same country. Additionally, teams from Russia and Ukraine cannot be drawn together.
  • Games will be played in principle on Thursdays 15 and 22 February with the exact schedule released after the draw.

And who can Arsenal face?

AEK Athens, Astana, Borussia Dortmund, Celtic, Copenhagen, Steaua Bucharest, Ludogorets, Lyon, Marseille, Napoli, Nice, Östersund, Partizan Belgrade, Real Sociedad, Spartak Moscow

Bring it on.

Keenos

Arsenal fans get the result they deserve

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I did not go last night.

It had nothing to do with it being a dead rubber in Europe’s second tier competition. Instead I went to see an Oasis tribute act at Alexandra Palace. They were average.

Looking at the result and reading some reports, Arsenal were well worth their 6 goals to nothing result. The fans who turned up to watch the Arsenal got the victory and performance they deserved.

I imagine a lot will be written today by the media about the missing Arsenal fans last night.

The club released an official attendance figure of 54,648. As everyone knows, this is the figure of sold tickets, rather than fans through the turnstiles. Fans like myself, with a season ticket who had pre-paid for yesterdays game but did not turn up, are included in that figure of 54,648.

Anyone who has seen any pictures of the game yesterday – or watched on TV, will see that the figure was no where near the 54,648 mark. The ground was barely half full.

The media will use this to bash Arsenal. Like always they will ignore that Spurs, who won the Record Premier League Attendance Trophy earlier this season, played in front of a half full Wembley on Wednesday for their dead rubber in the Champions League.

But enough about attendances.

I have not seen the game last night, so I do not know about the performance, but at 6-0, the fans who did get themselves out on a cold Thursday night in a meaningless game at least got a decent result to cheer on.

Unlike the bore-draw against Belgrade a few weeks ago, Arsenal stuck 6 past BATE Borisov.

Reading through social media, Jack Wilshere comes in for a lot of praise, and everyone seems to be back on the Wilshere needs to start bandwagon.

As I discussed last time we beat BATE back in September, there is a big difference between performing against the likes of the Belarusian farmers, Doncaster and Norwich, and being Premier League ready.

Wilshere has blown hot and cold in the performances this season, and a 2nd start in 3 days against Southampton will be premature for the wannabe figure skater.

We are more likely to see him start in the consecutive mid week games against West Ham – one in the league, one in the Copacabana Cup.

With Arsenal set to play 7 games between now and New Years Eve, the squad will need to be used to its fullest and Jack will get his chance to show that he is Premier League ready.

I am off to hide in the meeting room after just 3 hours sleep last night. Have a good one

Keenos