With the news this morning that Man City’s two-year ban from European football has been lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Arsenal’s chances of playing on the continent next season have taken a significant blow.
With Pep Guardiola’s side certain to qualify for next season’s Champions League, it means that a 7th place finish will be required to qualify for the Europa League.
As it stands, the Gunners sit 9th in the table, four points off 7th placed Sheffield United with three games left to play, the first of which is a home fixture against champions, Liverpool, on Wednesday night.
__
Remaining Premier League fixtures
Arsenal (50pts / max 59pts)
vs Liverpool (H)
vs Aston Villa (A)
vs Watford (H)
Sp*rs (52pts / max 61pts)
vs Newcastle (A)
vs Leicester (H)
vs Crystal Palace (A)
Sheffield United (54pts / max 63 pts)
vs Leicester (A)
vs Everton (H)
vs Southampton (A)
Wolves (55pts / max pts)
vs Burnley (A)
vs Crystal Palace (H)
vs Chelsea (A)
Man United (58pts / max 67pts)
vs Southampton (H)
vs Crystal Palace (A)
vs West Ham (H)
vs Leicester (A)
Leicester City (59pts / max 68pts)
vs Sheffield United (H)
vs Spurs (A)
vs Manchester United (H)
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There is another avenue to Europe, and that’s via the FA Cup, but that too is a difficult path when we face City at Wembley on Saturday in the semi-final and potentially Manchester United or Chelsea in the final.
We would have to win the cup to qualify because even if we made it to the final and were beaten, the rules state: If the FA Cup winners finish in the top five of the Premier League, their UEL group stage place will go to the next-highest ranked team not qualified for UEFA competitions in the Premier League.
There are further potential complications – although they won’t affect Arsenal – if English sides win both the Champions League and Europa League and one of them does so after finishing outside the top four in the Premier League, then fourth place will drop into the Europa League to allow the Europa League winners to enter the Champions League.
Anyway, back to City.
They have been fined €10m – which is a trifling amount when you consider the estimated wealth of their ownership, with Sheikh Mansour’s individual fortune believed to be around $20bn with his family fortune over $1 trillion.
FFP is a bust folks, a bit like our season unless we can pull off something remarkable.
Just like VAR, good idea but bad execution
VAR just magnifies the poor quality of officials.
At least, VAR issues are moŕe of technical errors not corruption.
But if basically any other team than us wins the fa cup, and the Europa League/champions League winner entry ended up being moot, then 8th would qualify for Europa right?
Would’ve been the caseif City had been banne, but not now with that being overturned. There’s only 3 spots for Europa and that’ll be 5-7th, unless we win the FA cup
Ah I see. Cheers for clearing up
A low hurdle we probably won’t be able to jump
How do Leicester play Man U without Man U playing Leicester ?
FFP doesn’t exist. UEFA are a corrupt waste of space. No more need be said.
They are, but tbf it’s the CAS who have overturned this, not UEFA.
Wouldn’t be surprised to know that the CAS has doubled their operating budget for 2021.
new sponsor: etihad
This time it’s Cas. Uefa actually did something good in trying to take on a terrorist regime who have slaves and murder their own citizens. The fault is the Premier League that accepts clubs being bought by torturers, murderers, homofobes and slave traders.
Well said mate. And another bunch coming to Newcastle.
Slave traders? Now where have I heard that before.. For your kind information, every single dynasty ruiling in the Middle East was put in place by the West after WW1 and are still protecting them to this day, supplying them with weapons and intelligence. Every single bomb falling on Yemeni soil was built in the UK and USA.. You’re also confusing Abu Dhabi (City owners) with Saudia Arabia. When did Abu Dhabi get involved in slave trade and torture and murdering their own citizens, any sources? Or all Arabs are the same to you? Nothing personal here but pls don’t… Read more »
Maybe make-the-world-right Mesut Ozil should look at this area of the world as well and not be too obsessed his otherwise dream destination, China.
Mesut is not an Arab, or is it a Muslim thing now? Mesut probably supported Uighur cause because of common ethnicity. He’s never said a word about Palestine or lesser known Kashmir issue.
Let’s stop discussing politics here or some people will start to show their true colours..
have a look at the UAE and its ‘guest worker’ program, then get back to us.
It’s a mud slinging match now yeh? Guest workers, bad practice I agree, building your country through cheap labour and appalling working conditions is a human rights crime. But is that as bad as building your countires on the back of systematic slavery and colonising half the world, stealing their resources and what not. You would think that’s history but Libya and Iraq are not. No one’s hands is clean in this world so let’s just not get into that, that’s all I am saying.
Trump said of occupied Syrian regions: “we will get the oil” so you are right on this one.
Ok so Abu Dhabi gets a pass because its ”not as bad as other countries 100s of years ago” great analogy.
“Ok so Abu Dhabi gets a pass”
Loll I called it bad and a human rights crime. You need to learn to start paying more attention while reading, it is exactly the problem that I pointed out earlier – partially informed.
“100s of years ago”
That says it all about how out of touch with facts and reality you are..
its not mud-slinging, chief- you’re the one who’s got this massive chip on their shoulder and bringing a combative attitude to the comments section. No one is attacking you personally here, but you’ve tried to make it about race and religion. you’ve accused other users here of painting with a broad brush when it comes to countries with muslim populations, yet you’re doing much the same. my point regarding the guest worker program in the UAE remains the same- these people are kept as prisoners and forced to live in inhuman conditions, often dying as they build monuments to capitalist… Read more »
“if you’d like to have a larger discussion about the geopolitical landscape, thats fine, but this isn’t the time, or place, to make things personal” Nothing personal here, just pointing to the facts. You don’t like facts? The first comment I objected to, confused Saudia Arabia with Abu Dhabi.. all Arabs are the same to you? “but you’ve tried to make it about race and religion.” The second comment I objected to, somehow linked Mesut with Arab issues. And you say there wasn’t a Muslim thing to it, can’t get anymore obvious than that. Then in the third comment, you… Read more »
Yemen’s legitimate government ASKED for Saudis help fighting Houthi rebels, go away.
Whats your point?
United have four games left.
#WengerIn
Nonsense.
So we wont be able to give platform to our academy stars and will be stuck with luiz and co. Sounds like a perfect recipe for us to get into top 4 next season.
What a big sham. Unbelievable.
By the way, can anyone please shed some light about 7th place and chance to qualify for EL?
5th, 6th and 7th place are eligible to play in the Europa League, as long as the FA Cup winner doesn’t land outside the top 6 in the league, which is almost impossible. The question is, however, how should we still land in 7th place? We are 4 points behind with 3 games to play. Generally in England the 5th placed PL team and the League Cup as well as FA Cup winners receive the EL spots. League Cup was won by City, so that spot did go already to the 6th placed team in the PL, as City will… Read more »
Thanks for clarification.
We just have to face facts. Despite all of the mathematical permutations, the current team are simply not worthy of European competition. We have some great forward players but until the shambolic defense and lack of mid-field creativity are addressed to a consistent level, we are in there with Sheffield Utd, Burnley and Wolves to make up the upper half of the league table. Man Utd and Chelsea are light years away never mind Man City and Liverpool who are scoring well over a point per game more than us! Four managers now (including Freddie’s brief stint) and little progress… Read more »
I wouldn’t say utd and chelsea are light years ahead
Chelsea are 10 points clear and Utd 8 with a game in hand. That is far too large a gap with only a few games to go.
Obviously we won’t catch them. I thought you were making a general comparison of both squads moving forward
Man U have been deadly since adding Bruno. We won’t be competing with them next year with our defence.
Not a bad thing to concentrate on the league and domestic cups next season. We’ll be back with the big boys the following season
It shows how far we have fallen when we depend on another club’s punishment to even gain access to the Europa League.
Some tough decisions need to be made this summer to dismantle a mid table team.
RIP FFP
In order to have died, it needed to have lived. It was only ever entirely fictional.
Fair point
Since i have started watching Arsenal in 2006 we have been screwed by FA and Uefa countless times . In the game u cant succeed by following rules to the T as Arsenal have all these years . Manchester United with FA and Chelsea , Liverpool and City with FFP . We cant do anything unless we become as ruthless as our competition
This is a huge blow for FFP, it now seems the only option for any club is to spend mega money
More like spend the money wisely. Stop handing out millions to pointless agents and players that don’t perform.
Yeah…. I just don’t see mr kroenke paying £300 millions for the naming rights of our stadium though
Max points total for Man United is 70, not 67 (four games left).
Now 68 haha
It stinks,doesn’t it? To be honest, I’ve never fully understood the details of Financial Fair Play. But however these rules were meant to work they never managed to stop City and the Chavs from pouring massive amounts of unearned cash into their playing staff. Wenger’s term “financial doping” perfectly describes what these two clubs were practicing. The advantage gained by having a bottomless pit of money to spend on player signings and salaries quite obviously allowed them to compete for trophies that otherwise would have been beyond their grasps. And the losers were clubs like ours, which were trying to… Read more »
Totally agree fats but we decry the fact that our owners wont dig into their billionaire pockets to do something similar.
No idea what the answer is but football for me is dying.
Over paid players who dont give a toss. UEFA and fifa run for its executives to get rich and its the poor fans that have to struggle to pay inflated prices on match days.
I fully agree with the dark lord….
Yes…. and no. The team that played the best football this year and won the League (+ champion league last year) has no unlimited funding.
On a hating note, I’d be rooting for wolves to win the Europa league. It’d be fun to see Chelsea or especially Penalty United finish fourth and play Europa league.
misery loving company here
Bah humbug!
Well played, Sir!
I really enjoyed the group stages of Europa League the last few seasons. Was great to see the youngsters in action. Gutted we’ll be missing it next season.
We were never ever going to compete for the top 5 let alone the top 4. Our hopes have not taken a dent because we had no realistic hope to begin with. I don’t give a crap about the Europa league. Can we just forget Europe and focus on making a working defence/midfield and go into next season with a reduced fixture list and a more experienced/wiser Arteta. I’m ok with this. UEFA/FIFA/FA are all as corrupt and useless as you can. We are always up against it with this lot. Always have been and always will be.
Yep! Back to basics approach required. First and foremost we need a real leader. None of this rediculous 5,6 or 7 captains malarky. Someone in the mould of Tony Adams or Patrick Vieira who gives a stuff about the performance of the team and can turn things around when it’s not working well. Even when Wenger was around, he never replaced the outgoing skipper with a decent quality one which is why we were in freefall backwards even then. Then we need a good clearout of all of the dead wood. I don’t need to name names but a quick… Read more »
This captain nonsense continues with Arteta.
We need someone to be held accountable for period.
Right now everyone is hiding behind each other pointing fingers.
Of course when Unai assigned Xhaka, the crowd let their own misinformed judgement colour their prejudice and scored their own goal.
when you can bribe your way out of a violation…
Wow, who’d have though it. Billionaire oil barron royalty gets let off with a slapped wrist.
FFP FFS…
We need a european league with a salaray cap. I’m a big fan of Basketball and American Football, and in my opinion non of these sports are as fluid, beautiful and majestic as football. But i’m tired of seeing the richest team win every single year. The league tables, in all countries, are almost identical to the ranking of teams from richest to poorest. It felt so nice when Mikhaïl Prokhorov, a russian oligarch, bought the New Jersey nets, relocated them in Brooklyn, built an awesome new stadium for them and… Watched them fail because he cannot pay his players… Read more »
Err… I wouldn’t have thought Liverpool were the richest in the Premier League but they have made everyone else look like amateurs this season!
Like it or not, Liverpool are a very well run outfit these days. They’ve learnt to sell well and buy wise. They were lucky to get the brilliant Klopp. (If only we had the ruthlessness to end the Wenger era when it needed to end we could have had him) Anyway that’s history. Our recruitment over the past few years has been haphazard and we’ve been left with an unbalanced squad, not to mention a ludicrous contract for Özil. At least there’s a glimmer of hope in our young players and future recruitment has to be smart. I just hope… Read more »
Cannot understand American sports.
How one can relocate a team and this ridiculous draft system.
College system introduced in some ways to MLS at detriment to the sport.
Money talks…
Alas not a surprise.
Unless they vote Wenger has head of FIFA, corruption will be the main agenda.
Who would have thought that the Court of Arbitration for Sport is MORE corrupt than FIFA?
If we don’t start to play the game and buy our way back in whilst we still have an advantage over certain teams, we are risking potential problems.
I mentioned this when WengerOut were making the case for better than top 4, ” be Careful for What you Wish For”…as much as it ‘could’ get better, it could very much also get worse.
Wenger end of tenure struggling to keep in 5th or CL, Unai after him in 5th or 6th…now Arteta unable to lift us off 9th. Same squad really.
We had a chance? We create our own problems. Margin was razor thin or next ot nothing without Leicester 10 men and then Spurs insipid derby loss. Arteta has yet to prove he can deliver on concrete results. As much as we do see improvements, it has not been enough to lift the boat. Teams like Wolves and Sheffield with more meagre resources and lesser players are out performing us. The worry is come this transfer window if we do not get it right, we will fall further behind with a rookie manager. There should be in theory no reason… Read more »
I don’t see us beating Liverpool or even Villa. Even if we did, its too little too late considering the run ins and the number of teams ahead of us. Arteta has not been able to deliver on concrete results even if he has shown glimpse of tactical awareness/innovation. ..not trying to diss him but as I mentioned practically during his appointment, massive difference between proffering ideas under the protective shadow of Pep and actual man management. We have not been able to sufficiently utilise/motivate some more experienced players in Ozil, Sokratis, Guendouzi (considering he had a good full season… Read more »
Another sad day for Football. It’s a game of whitewashing medieval government in the Middle East now and nobody will stand up against it. The exitement of following Arsenal and the hope for yet again win the League is slowly dying, it feels that whatever we do we start the season with a handicap.
Guardiola ? Excellent manager,no moral fiber.
The way our club is right now, I would rather sit out Europa for a year. Europa isn’t going to tempt PEA to stay, money will. Europa isn’t going to tempt players to join us, money will. The amount of money received from the Europa league is not enough to warrant playing an additional 15+ games which will deplete our squad.
Rather just play the 38 games & come back with a stronger chance at the title ala Leicester & Chelsea did without European football.
A dark day for football.
I wonder what our punishment would have been, if we ever breached FFP, if only by a tiny margin.
It’s how the world is. Money talks. “oh, no, I am rich and powerful, the rule doesn’t apply to me, it is meant for everyone else”.
Only way to fix it is that heads roll. In the french way.