Unai Emery says that the Europa League has become a much more attractive competition in recent years because the winners don’t only get a trophy, they’re automatically entered into the Champions League the following season.
It’s a tournament with two prizes, and the Spaniard – who won it three times in a row with Sevilla – is keen to replicate that success with his new club.
Arsenal have only twice won a European trophy, so adding another one to the cabinet would be a fine way to cap his first season in charge, and Emery is keen to make that happen as his side take a 3-1 advantage into the second leg against Valencia.
“It’s an attractive title and it’s getting more attractive,” said Emery.
“I first competed for this title when it was still the UEFA Cup and was a lesser title than it is now.
“It has grown and I have seen that shift. Giving teams a Champions League place through the Europa League is a fair reward and it’s a title they all want to win.
“Arsenal only have two European titles in their history: the old Fairs Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup, neither of which exist, so I have a lot of ambition to win a title.”
The 47 year old knows that all the eggs of success are in this Europa League basket now, saying, “We’re finished in the Premier League, no possibility, but we have a possibility in this competition.”u
For more on tonight’s game, check out today’s Arseblog
Can Arsenal withstand the pressure to make Europa League final?
Sigh!
COYG let’s put up a professional performance and get the job done tonight.
Can I just ask out of interest, to see if its maybe just me… but does anyone really care about the result tonight? After last nights Ajax disaster, I am completely apathetic towards this game and any subsequent Europa League Final. I honestly just don’t care. If the unthinkable happens, and Spurs win the Champions League at the third of fourth time of trying, in the same season when they have opened their shiny new super stadium, then Arsenal might as well call winding up orders and cease to exist as a football club anymore. We might as well reopen… Read more »
Unbearable thoughts. Your words cut me through like a broken beer bottle.
But my organs haven’t been touch yet and a Europa League title coupled with the trashing of those Spuds would unequivocally heal my wounds and restore my faith in life. Who knows I might even start thinking there is some kind of justice in this world.
This is the only thing we have to hold on to.
If there is any justice in the world Spurs will take an absolute hiding at the hands of Liverpool in the final of the Champions League.
I couldn’t care less about our final — all that matters is they don’t win theirs.
I have no intention of moving to a isolated forest but this should bring into sharp focus the sheer quantity of shit that came out of Wenger’s mouth for the last 10+ years.
@John C
Its beyond that point now. It doesn’t matter whats been said by Wenger, or by whoever else. Its too late. The damage is already done. The horse has already bolted.
And all this talk that the media have been peddling about a power shift in North London — if Spurs win that final — it will be sealed, stamped, and certified.
Its game over man.
It’s makes my blood boil to think how we surrendered our position of such superiority with such a level of incompetence, ineptitude and arrogance.
Yeah it is absolutely gut wrenching. Things are so much harder to take knowing that we have done this to ourselves — well, not us, i.e. the fans, but the people who we trusted to run the club accordingly. They have absolutely done us over.
And all for what?
Money.
So sad.
Oh, FFS, dude.
Not like anyone at the club wants failure, or to lose matches. AW certainly didn’t. But time marches on. Nothing lasts forever.
Adapt or be obsolete. Welcome to today!
And “IamaGoober” may be spot on, for a name.
‘Cause you sure don’t sound like a Gooner.
Chin up, boys. The EL is near at hand. And, sadly, we have to root for those pretentious cretins at Klopperpool. Worse shit has happened.
Please explain to me in a football sense, a worse scenario than Spurs winning a Champions League final…
Not wanting failure is not the same as wanting success.
As a club we’ve spent the last 10-15 years doing the bare minimum to qualify for the champions league so we could pocket as much cash as we could . We’re now on the cusp off watching either one of 2 teams with less money than us about to do what Wenger told us was impossible!
I’m really scared and I genuinely don’t know if I can handle it if this happens. I feel similarly to you in terms of the apathy. AFC might as well just disintegrate.
Liverpool won the champions league in 05, where did that get them for the next 14 years? You’re honestly being pretty melodramatic, especially when you look at the position Liverpool and spurs were in a few years ago. Comparing then to now doesn’t really make sense either, the landscape of football financially has completely changed. If spurs win it’ll be pretty fucking unbearable but that isn’t going to mean I don’t care about our Europa league campaign. The Europa league is huge for us; we have shit European history and this is a route back in to the champions league… Read more »
Liverpool won the champions league in 05, where did that get them for the next 14 years?
It got them the glory, the trophy and the ability to say they were Champions League winners in 2005!!
They won, and that’s the whole fucking point!!
@Frank — Are you mental?
You can keep the Europa League.
I honestly could not care one single bit about that second tier trophy whilst that lot from the Lane are on the cusp of winning the Champions League before us.
If you are genuinely okay with Spurs winning the Champions League, whilst we are sitting 6th in the table, you are not an Arsenal fan.
Frank, I mean obviously aside from the fact that we’re not being 100% serious, you must surely feel a bit upset at the prospect of…. I’m not even gonna say it but you know. That being said I see where you’re coming from and tonights performance has cheered me up a little I’ll admit.
Reasure me guys, Liverpool will win the final, right? Right?
I’ll join you. Any ideas on your geo coordinates yet?
@AP86 — at this point I am exploring the option of the north Sentinel Islands, either Andaman or Nicobar.
I mean they are home to the Sentinelese who are in fact cannibals, and are known to eat intruders and trespassers.. but still… figured they’re worth a punt.
I reckon I could win them over with whimsical tales about the time I saw a Great Dane score a goal in the Camp Nou.
I would maybe suggest South Sentinel Island, I believe it is uninhabited. Cannibals that eat intruders sounds a bit spursy….
92° 13′ 19.428″ E, 10° 58′ 40.294″ N
F**k man, now I am depressed… This is exactly how I feel, you just put it in words… Can I quote you? 🙁
The thought of that lot winning the CL is too awful to contemplate. I never thought I would want Liverpool to do well in a competition but that time arrived last night. But it is easy to dismiss Tottenham as a bunch of cunts. They are, of course, but they are a bunch of cunts with a team spirit that I would love Arsenal to have. They are a bunch of cunts run by a bunch of cunts who happen to know how to run a club unlike our bunch of cunts who don’t. If the unthinkable happens and the… Read more »
Let’s just win the whole thing & hope Liverpool absolutely smash Spurs. Pretty much the only option if we don’t want to delete this club & hang our heads in eternal shame.
So, YNWA!*
* absolutely fine with anyone walking alone the second there’s a final whistle on June 1st and Liverpool lift the trophy
Terrible attitude! Everton smash spunts 5-0 and we smash Burnley or whoever it is we play in the final game 5-0 winner winner chicken dinner
I started smoking crack this week and it’s really helping
Sssh, this is a top secret plan
I think you’ve found the solution!!
The crack that is…..
At least then you would not care
I wonder if anyone could sneak dodgy lasagne into the spurs training centre…
Cocaine is a helluva drug. – Rick James
Emery: “My ambition is to bring European success to Arsenal”
But in the meantime, the Europa League will do.
Actually his ambition is to bring European success to Spurs – it is he who sold Moura to Spurs. Just gets worse.
BTW this was said in jest and frustration at the same time…..last night was a shocking experience for an Arsenal fan. It was like hiding behind the sofa watching Dr Who and the baddie wins.
Does anybody know if now that a top 4 club will (shudder) win the champions league and possibly another featuring in the final of the Europa whether that opens up any further English places in the CL?
No it does not
So if England is allocated 4 spaces as standard and one of those wins the CL and say Liverpool won the league as well and just hypothetically Chelsea beat us (obviously not going to happen) then wouldn’t the CL draw be 3 teams light?
Soon Carabao whatever Cup quaterfinal will be his highest ambition.
The negativity is too much. I was here in the 60s when we won fuck all. If you have issues with “ambition”, get your arse out on the street and start protesting about KSE.
Arsenal v Tottenham in the UEFA Super Cup on August 14th – you read it here first.
Disgusting. Would rather Arsenal vs Liverpool
I’d rather Chelsea vs Liverpool if it meant spurs didn’t win the champions league
You’d rather we lost a final, worrying about what those cunts do? I obviously feel sick at the thought but I’d still rather we won and started the process of getting back to where we’re supposed to be.
If we don’t win the cup can the club write me a note excusing me from work for a few weeks, Liverpool and Sp*rs fans are insufferable at the best of times but that would be too much.
The problem is the pressure is on all of us Arsenal fans as well. Big time.
No one here needs reminding what the effect of Sp*rs scoring a fucking 95th fucking minute fucking winner against L*verpool would have.
Endless wanking, endless parades, and even their first arguably semi-‘legitimate’ DVD in their history.
It’s bad enough them raking in huge amounts of handouts from UEFA as it is.
But we’ve now got to finish Valencia off AND beat Frankfurt in the final as well.
What are the chances?
A parade a wanking sp*rs fans sounds like my worst nightmare
Lets go direct instead of passing to eternity and shoot asap .
If not if a pass is directed,a swift counter attack and thats it
Pro tip: Start winning more games
I’m happy that Emery’s vocalising this, no matter how trivial and obvious it may seem. It’s become horribly apparent that we never actually had the ambition to try and have a good run in the Champions League – instead, we seemed content at just taking part and cashing in the money. If Pochettino’s first ever trophy is the Champions League – the one trophy that Wenger maintained was near impossible to win for 22 YEARS of being here – then I’m going to cry every minute of every day for the rest of my life and then pass those tears… Read more »
Absolutely, if you keep on saying you can’t do something then that will manifest itself into reality. Amongst the biggest gripes i had with Wenger was his constant talking down of the club. The constant talk of what we couldn’t do and how we couldn’t sign the best players or win the champions league and how we never won it before so qualifying was an achievement. The truth is he couldn’t win it not Arsenal and having a manager now vocalising his ambition is an important first step. Does it put Emery under pressure, yes but maybe he values winning… Read more »
Anyone else feel sick! Feels like a bad dream…
Make it a reality. This is the more realistic route now to CL. We need to play today like we are behind in goals. That away goal will be critical as some discipline and effort. Barca and Ajax both lost their concentration levels and succumbed to high pressure. I suspect we will be up against a Valencia team who will take heart from those come backs and go at us with intensity through 90 minutes. The players better be made to feel hurt from the previous 4 league games and put in a performance for their futures. No one should… Read more »
I dont care one bit about the european cup trophy. The only thing that keeps me interested is that winning it would get us into the champions leauge and maybe it could make better players come to the club. If we still not were to make big signings i would rather see us get knocked out tonight and if given the choice between spurs wining the final or we loose tonight it would be real simple.