With 23 matches played, it is still too early to say that Arsenal won’t make the Champions League finish. They are just 3 points behind Chelsea with 15 games still to go, and their recent win over The Blues would have spurred them on even more. Yet, there is still a question over whether the team has lost its confidence in the past month after suffering two defeats including a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Liverpool.
Arsenal with a big win over Chelsea In the event that the Gunners fail to finish in the top 4, they can still qualify for the Champions League by winning the Europa League. Either way, Arsenal will have their work cut out if they don’t want to miss out on the Champions League for a third consecutive season. In their past 10 games they have won 5, lost 3, and drawn 2. The two Premier League defeats were both away, showing how the players look tentative and unsure when they are playing away from the Emirates. The recent victory over Chelsea at home though will certainly give the team a boost, especially as their next match is against Manchester United in the FA Cup 4th Round. With the Premier League almost certainly out of reach, the FA Cup and Europa League is their last chance to pick up some silverware.
Next in the Europa League they are set to face reigning Belarusian Premier League champions FC BATE Borisov. As things stand, Arsenal’s chances of winning the Europa League are arguably slightly better than making the Premier League top 4. The Europa League is filled with teams that Arsenal will fancy themselves against on any given night, with bwin placing only Chelsea above them as the favourites. Napoli and Inter Milan are third and fourth favourites respectively. But then again, being one of the favourites is one thing; actually winning the tournament is another. Arsenal are more than capable of doing exactly that if they can improve their recent away form, and play with the confidence they show at the Emirates. And Emery has a lot of success in the Europa League having won it twice with Sevilla.
But, and this is a big but, Emery’s players will need to regain their confidence to make that one final push for Champions League football next season. Arsenal are very capable of putting a sustained run together, and there’s no reason why they can’t do the same moving forward. For that to happen, though, they’ll have to show the same resolve they showed after suffering back-to-back losses at the start of the season. Their long unbeaten run in the first half of the season showed how far this Arsenal team has come under Emery. They’ll need to show all of those attributes from now until the season’s end — in both the Premier League and the Europa League. Otherwise, Arsenal will miss out on the Champions League yet again. And for the Gunners, that is unacceptable.
