Unai Emery says the prospect of lifting a trophy, as well as securing Champions League qualification, is fuelling his excitement about Arsenal’s participation in the Europa League, a competition he’s won three times with Sevilla.
The Gunners secured their place in the competition’s quarter-finals with a 3-0 win against Rennes last night ensuring they will continue to fight the season on two fronts when competitive football resumes in April.
With all of the Premier League’s top six clubs still harbouring European ambitions at this stage, Emery was asked about the strength of English football at the moment.
“I knew in the Champions League and the Europa League, in different moments it is sometimes Spanish clubs, other times English clubs or Italian or German clubs,” he told his post-game press conference.
“But it is one thing. Champions League is very important but the Europa League grew up a lot and now is giving every team the possibility to play in the Champions League. In the domestic league, like here, we have six teams playing to be in the top four.
“Two teams are going out and the Europa League is giving us a big opportunity also to take one way to go to the Champions League. And also, it’s one title.
“I said to the players today, I am excited about this competition. It’s not just because you can get to the Champions League through this competition.
It’s also because it’s one title and I think we can feel the possibility to win one title, doing this way with a difficult moment like today and playing also against big teams.
“But I think we can feel this competition like in the Premier League, to do a good way and create, with our supporters, a big atmosphere and a big feeling together to do this way in the Premier League and also here in the Europa League. Together and stronger.”
Having watched his side come through a big couple of weeks with a point at Sp*rs, a win against Manchester United and a hard-fought aggregate victory over Rennes, the boss highlighted how his players are starting to thrive when the pressure is on. He thinks it bodes well for the future.
“It’s giving us very big confidence on Sunday against Manchester United and the same with this performance and this victory.
“This comeback was very difficult but I think our reaction was a very good reaction from every player.
“Playing under pressure is good. Growing up under pressure, every player, like a team. And to feel difficult moments to give us our best performances in these moments. For us, today and Sunday, we were playing and being competitive. I think it’s good confidence for us to feel that.
“After, if I am very demanding of myself, I want to take the best confidence with the ball, with the control with the ball with the possession, because I think against Manchester United and today, we lost a little bit these moments with the ball to give us the confidence with the ball and to control the match with the ball.”
I think anyone would have taken our league and Europa league position at the start of the season. Let’s see how we finish, but I can’t see this season as anything other than success and progression. We just need to add some consistency and belief.
Spuds vs ManC and ManU vs Barca, best draw we could have hoped for from the top 4 fight perspective.
Hopefully we don’t draw Chelsea!
And we got Napoli…sigh
I like Emery’s attitude about playing in the Europa League. With all the focus on securing top 4 to get back into the Champion’s League, $$, not buying older players, etc. we forget that the point of playing these games is to try and win trophies and competitions! The reason we support the club is because the team brings us a certain amount of joy and entertainment and when we focus too much on balancing books and sell on values, we forget why we actually began to support the club in the first place. While obviously Europa is not as… Read more »
Would you rather finish in a Champions League position in the the PL, or finish 5th but win the Europa League to get in?
That’s the question of the Century. Lols
I would love to be in EL finals against Chelsea. Hope we are in top 4 and Chelsea is 5th and they lose to us to deny CL lol
I think in that secenario they get the CL place as runners up, since we don’t need it.
No brainer…at the end of the day you are getting a Trophy and entry to the UCL… 4th place only gets u an entry.
Although I would prefer to do both…just so we could keep 2 other top 6 teams out of UCL..
Technically all 6 could b in the UCL next year. Lets say the Spu*ds and Chelse finishes top 4 and us winning the Europa and Manure winning UCL could see all 6 teams get in to the UCL… correct me of I’m wrong.
Unai’s grammar reads like Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry. You have to piece the pieces together to make sense of what he is saying. Don’t I just love our Coach!!!
What I like with Emery is his clear opinion of our weakness with the ball, both controlling the game and avoid foolish breaks/have effective counterattacks. The two top teams im PL do that by either superior players ( City) or style of play (Liverpool). Much can be learned om the training ground, comparing our squad with Liverpool( ex Van Dijk ) we’re not weaker than them. The huge difference is that when they win the ball they immediately set predefined movements into action, making it easy to make good passes. Our guys must twist and turn first seeking out a… Read more »
Cmon, don’t be delusional. Yes we are weaker than Liverpool. They have a better squad on paper hands down.
A better team maybe, but I’m not sure about squad. I’d rather have our bench than Liverpool’s. I’d take Iwobi and Mkhitaryan over Sturridge and Lallana any day, and a good-day Guendouzi over Shaqiri. We’re short in defence right now, of course.