Arsene Wenger admits he doesn’t know a lot about our Europa League knock-out round opponents Ostersund, but says there’s time to study up on them side ahead of the games next year.
The Swedish side have risen from the fourth tier to the top flight under English manager Graham Potter, and despite having the lowest UEFA coefficient ranking in the tournament, finished second in their group to qualify for the latter stages.
It’s a big tie for a relatively small club – one that was only founded in October 1996 (after Wenger took charge of Arsenal) – and the Frenchman says there’s time to find out more about them.
“They have done very well the Swedish team,” he said. “I think they finished fifth in their championship, they are now on a break.
“Looking at their results in Europe, they have done well, so we have to prepare properly. I can’t tell you much more about them, I don’t know them very well. I think its 15th and 22nd February, so we have some time to study them better.
“They have an English manager who has done extremely well. You see that they can come back after they go abroad now to show their quality.
“They get an opportunity in Europe to show their quality and to come back later to England.”
The preparation Arsenal do will have to be heavily focused on video, because the Swedish league runs from March to November – and Ostersund will be in pre-season when we face them.
Perhaps an advantage for us, but as ever you can’t take anything for granted. No giant killing please.
I did my military service in Östersund – In February it’s likely to be freezing cold. Expect minus 15-20 in the evening. Add to that astroturf – could be a tricky away fixture. Nice town though for drinks and merriment afterwards
Merriment..me thinks the scouting staff would do well togive you a call…?
Looking objectively the Swedish league must be like the Championship (or below), they are in pre-season and our revenues and salaries are hugely greater, so there is no way we should lose over two legs.
I know anything is possible but it would be one of the greatest shocks ever if we did, on a par with losing to Sp*rs.
So essentially, Ostersund were formed as a club after Wenger took over at Arsenal.
That’s crackers!
Östersund is a club formed when two smaller clubs were joined together in -96. But their rise through the Swedish league system is impressive none the less.
In other news: the Pope‘s a Catholic
well, I hope so.
I live with a Swedish guy who is big into the league there. He supports Gottenburg. He says that the rules of the league are that any club in the Swedish league must have a 51% majority owned by the fans ( pretty awesome rule ) apparently Ostersund has had a bad name with corruption and finding loopholes in this rule. Owned by a guy who is big in real estate there, hes pumping money in through dodgy channels eg. Sponsorship with companys that he owns. Not taking anything away from what their manager has done, its incredible, but not… Read more »
An article from the Guardian last month mentions it, but is mostly about the manager. I think it came up in the comment thread, though.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/nov/08/graham-potter-ostersund–europa-league-premier-league-clubs
Why do you think its an awesome rule about the 51%
you need to
Sensible comments.