The Europa League draw took place earlier this afternoon, and our European adventures will take us to Belarus, Germany and Serbia as we face Bate Borisov, Cologne and Red Star Belgrade.
The dates and kick off times of the games have been arranged, and are as follows.
Matchday 1
Arsenal v FC Cologne
Date: Thursday September 14th
KO: 20.05
Matchday 2
Bate Borisov v Arsenal
Date: Thursday September 28th
KO: 18.00
Matchday 3
Red Star Belgrade v Arsenal
Date: Thursday October 19th
KO: 18.00
Matchday 4
Arsenal v Red Star Belgrade
Date: Thursday November 2nd
KO: 20.05
Matchday 5
FC Cologne v Arsenal
Date: Thursday November 23rd
KO: 18.00
Matchday 6
Arsenal v Bate Borisov
Date: Thursday December 7th
KO: 20.05
All times UK.
COYGS – Podolski with Köln? Oh wait, he is jet skiing …
Didn’t the Americans nab him off the coast of Brasil for freedom of navigation violation and domestic terrorism charges? Guantanamo FC?
I hope we take it seriously and play to win. Red stars – still burn.
I envy you and expect buzzilion of down-votes for sharing my feeling here-i truly couldnt care less about europa league despite i know this is the place we now belong (or maybe not despite but rather because).
Red Star is not what it was, but slowly returns. Welcome to Belgrade, you will enjoy in a wonderful atmosphere.
So the furthers we have to travel is Belarus. Not bad… Also lots of scope to use younger players
Can we put winning and youngsters in the same sentence? If we are serious about winning it, we must prioritise it over the FA cup.
6pm kick offs ?
Sp*rsday…
I play football each Thursday so not good.
im just waiting for the OX rejects 180, 000 deal article to cement 4 place again.
and lift another trophy .
Bring it on!
Means we have away games before Brighton (H), Everton (A) & Burnley (A) (shorter trip). Could have been a lot worse, avoid long journeys before Chelsea, Man City, Soton
The problem with these fixtures is that there’s almost always a tough fixture after it.
Thu Sep 14 – Cologne (H)
Sun Sep 17 – Chelsea (A)
Thu Sep 28 – BATE (A)
Sun Oct 1 – Brighton & Hove Albion (H)
Thu Oct 19 – RS Belgrade (A)
Sun Oct 22 – Everton (A)
Thu Nov 2 – RS Belgrade (H)
Sun Nov 5 – Man City (A)
Thu Nov 23 – Cologne (A)
Sun Nov 26 – Burnley (A)
Thu Dec 7 – BATE (H)
Sun Dec 10 – Southampton (A)
Really influences our attitude towards EL games.
Away at Belgrade followed by away at Everton will be really, really tough.
I’m sure with all the money they’ve got that they’ll be alright. It’s tough for us fans having to watch this shite
Everton will also be playing the Thursday, at least.
Time for the team to show us why they deserve to be earning the big bucks.
This is exactly why we need a largish squad. I would personally keep both Gibbs and Lucas as they could prove more then useful
It’s only the Everton game though. The fixtures organisation had been nice for us here. chelsea away and man city away would have been catastrophic if we had to play away…. far away!
If me managed to win the two first game we could even imagine to play the B team in Belgrade no?
There is no way on earth an inexperienced team can go to belgrade, the atmosphere there is fucking horrid.
If Arsenal have to consider Brighton H Albion, Burnley and Southhampton tough fixtures then we belong in Europa
Ahh Thursday nights…
opposition is almost emirates cup level.
Still should not take anything for granted. We like to bottle it against poor opponents. Its a tradition.
Just for fun –
(from transfermarkt.com’s “Total Market Value” estimates)
Arsenal: 566 million euros
FC Koln: 106.45 million euros
Red Star Belgrade: 21.1 million euros
Bate Borisov: 17.25 million euros
Alexis+Ozil: 115 million euros
I’ve no idea how seriously these numbers should be taken, but they seem intuitively “in the ballpark”. Wenger could buy all three of our opponenents entire teams! One of them is bound to be top top quality, surely!?
Millions dont play football mate.
Do you think we will win it?
I think we can! There aren’t any teams in the entire tournament that are outright better than us, and any 3rd place team from the Champion’s League is by definition worse than what we usually do when we’re in that competition, so there’s no reason it can’t be a serious goal.
The real question is: Are they going to move the match at West Brom? We’re supposed to play on a Monday and then fly to Belarus for a Thursday match? It doesn’t make any sense for the league to make us play that Monday–First, ARS-WBA isn’t exactly a huge MNF draw for the TV ratings; second, Monday’s not even a real match day.