Arsene Wenger says he’s hoping for a good draw when Arsenal are pulled out of the hat in the Europa League draw later today.
The Gunners stumbled into the competition’s last-sixteen despite an embarrassing second-leg defeat against Swedish side Ostersund at the Emirates last night. The minnows had the home side on the ropes when they scored twice in 70 seconds in the first half before Sead Kolasinac’s strike calmed frayed nerves and secured a 4-2 aggregate victory.
Speaking in his pre-Carabao Cup final press conference, Wenger noted: “It looks like the level is high. You have some Russian teams, you have French teams, German teams.
“Overall, I believe that the competition will become tougher and tougher, so let’s hope we have a good draw.”
Asked whether last night’s result represented a blip, he continued: “Yes, you can say that [it was a blip], of course.
“Overall, I must say, having the [League] Cup final and having won 3-0 last week, subconsciously we were not at the focused level we needed against any team. We played against a good side.
“Having said that, we would have needed to concede four goals to go out last night and I still believe during the game that we’d respond at some stage and not go out.”
Our list of possible opponents is as follows:
AC Milan
Dynamo Kyiv
Athletic Bilbao
Atletico Madrid
CSKA Moscow
RB Salzburg
Zenit Saint Petersburg
Borussia Dortmund
Lazio
Sporting Lisbon
Lyon
Marseille
Viktoria Plzen
RB Leipzig
Lokomotiv Moscow
The draw, which takes place in Nyon, Switzerland, begins at 12pm UK time.
There’s no seeding or country protection so all 16 balls will be placed in the same bowl. That said, because they seem to hate each other quite a bit, teams from Russia and Ukraine cannot be drawn together.
Probably says a lot about our current level that I’m looking at the list of teams and reckon everyone there is capable of beating us
It does kind of bother me a fair bit that you’ve got the manager of Arsenal FC sitting there in a presser after getting beaten by Ostersunds at home asking for a ‘favourable draw,’ to progress in the Europa League. I know that you’d obviously want an easier tie, but where’s the battle cry? You’re the Manager Arsene. You should be saying artery pumping stuff like ‘Bring on whoever, and wherever,’ whilst beating your hand on your chest like a Gorilla. Just say something motivational to try and spark a bit of life back into the dressing room. Why not… Read more »
I just lost my shit when wenger said that he is looking for a favourable draw in Euopa league!! Cant even fuking beat oestersunds , who is going to be favourbale for us. If anything every other team would be praying to draw arsenal. And high
level russian and french clubs…fuking hell. how does the press not ask anything back to this level of crap. arsenal have twice the budget of any other team there and its as if wenger is already looking for excuses
If it takes drawing one of the European super weights to bring out our A-game then I’m up for it. Tired of the shitshow we constantly churn out against supposed minnows
Is that true about Russia / Ukraine teams? Or are you being cynical?
true
https://deadspin.com/uefa-emergency-panel-russian-and-ukrainian-teams-cant-1606744456
How about the final?
I think the issue is the potential dangers of the away games if they were drawn together, so the final in Paris wouldn’t be a problem
Final will be hosted in france.. While all other matches they have to play home and away which might start a war.
you cant get much better of a draw than ostersund, and we only just managed to scrape through that
So now we are reduced to wishing and praying for favorable draws in a cup we should be winning considering our wage bill and ticket pricing?
Nice strategy Arsene
Tougher the better. Let’s raise our game as we clearly weren’t motivated well enough last night.
We’ll probably draw Atletico Madrid and its frightening to imagine what Costa and Greizmann could do to our defence…Wenget out!
I wonder where this optism about winning Europa came from?This Arsenal side is a disaster because of one man…..Arsene Wenger. The sooner this man is chased out of the club,the better!
Its only fair that we too aren’t paired against teams of countries we hate (Spain, Germany, Italy and France)
Only happiness I can get out of Europa league is if we win the UEFA super cup. Coz I think winning the Europa league is bare minimum.
Blip blip blip blip blip blip blip…. like a alarm bell and nobody’s waking up.
We’re a shambles
How anybody can defend this manager is incredible. Defeat last night wasn’t surprising. His comments on us dominating the second half are ludicrous
We drew Milan. Go big or go home I guess.
”Overall, I must say, having the [League] Cup final and having won 3-0 last week, subconsciously we were not at the focused level we needed against any team. We played against a good side.” Seriously this isn’t even sane never mind logical….The players who played yesterday should be doing everything to get in the first team, and at least the bench for the final. I can understand SOME players taking it easy in challenges if they are guaranteed to start the final but wow, just wow lol.