Unai Emery has reacted to today’s Europa League draw which sees us face Sporting Lisbon, Qarabag of Azerbaijan, and Ukrainian side Vorskla Poltava.
The Spaniard has a fantastic track record in the competition, winning it in three successive seasons with Sevilla, and he says he wants Arsenal to go as far as possible, knowing that winning it provides entry into next season’s Champions League as well as a trophy for the cabinet.
Speaking earlier today, he said, “First it’s three teams and we’ll have the recipe for them. After this, we want to go far in this competition.
“Each match is different and each match involves a lot of travel. For some, the travel is very long but it’s like that. The adaptation for these three teams needs to be positive and we need to face them with ambition and our interest to do well in the competition.”
The trip to Portugal is relatively easy, but the travel to Azerbaijan – which comes with other complications – and Ukraine will add to a hectic schedule, and Emery is determined to use the full depth of his squad during the group stages.
“When you play two matches in a week, you have more time to prepare for the matches, to prepare the players physically,” he said.
“When you play three matches in a week, it’s hard. There’s less time to prepare for the match and work physically, but we want it like that. We want to play three matches in a week with the league and the cups.
“After the international break, we are going to play a lot of matches. In this moment, we are not playing every player in this squad because we’re only playing one match every week.
“But I am sure we’re going to use a lot of players after this international break.”
Let’s win it this time. We weren’t that far off last time so would be good to get Emery a trophy in his first season.
Looks like our best option of UCL football this season.
City will win, Liverpool will come 2nd…daylight, then Tottenham.
And unfortunately I see Chelsea snagging that very much open 4th spot.
I think we will leave our run too late!
If we don’t get champions league football next season , we will be finished as a club.
By that logic the Premier League would be no more ???
Fuck that, Sp*rs scum for the drop. Come on Arsenal!
Surely their incredible squad depth, boosted by their astute summer signings will see them through?
Ah…. hang on a minute…. must be thinking of someone else….
We want to win it.
With ATM in the Champions League, we should win this
It’s when the Champions League teams are dropped into the knockout stages of the Europa that we will have a better view of what lies ahead. Like Atleti last season, some big names can finish 3rd in the CL group stages. And I must admit, looking at the CL groups this year, we’d struggle in that lot at present.
Chelsea should be a pushover in the later stages…