The Europa League 17/18

Ok never mind the last comment.

 

Great finish, not that he looked particularly happy about it

 

Stunning goal by Sanchez. Great from the team to turn it around, but it annoys me that we don't utilise the first half enough. Seems to me like we're very much a second-half team. But we won't always get away with it, against higher quality opposition, they would punish us for not taking advantage of the full game.

 

Say what

 

3-1. Bellerin. Good build up play. Wilshere's looked lively seen he's come on.

 

Good second half, Cologne have barely got near our goal

 

Good win in the end. Great goal from Sanchez and good to see Wilshere back in an Arsenal shirt, doing well when he came on.

Arsenal top of the group. Good start

 

Second half performance was a huge improvement.
Kolasinac is an absolute animal. He can defend, is quick, works hard and is built like a military vehicle.

Have to take my hat of to Wenger on this one. Basically this was a best case scenario.
Rested a lot of first teamers, Sanchez got a run out and we got a decent moral boosting win.

 

Never understood this?

This is a comp Arsenal have a chance of winning. It's also a bona-fidie European one and they don't have many of those!

Surely a run deep like utd and pool and actual chance of the pot and the CL is preferable to a last 16 humiliation by europes elite and a desperate battle for 4th.

Utd were 6th last year but outside of chelsea who had a better season??

 

Well, I think Arsenal fans are divided. A section of the fans think the only trophies worth winning are the CL or the PL, or at least they say that, and then others are happy winning the FA Cup or the Europa League as well. Unless the club wins the PL this year as well, winning the Europa league is not going to be considered very important by a substantial group of the fans.

Me, I'm happy with any kind of win, but we should be able to go pretty deep before we have to wheel out the big guns.

Excerpt from the Express play by play (LOL):

50: Arsene Wenger’s a genius, obviously. Arsenal are back in the match thanks to substitute Sead Kolasinac!

Theo Walcott’s deflected cross loops backwards to the left-back, who unleashes a thunderous volley that almost broke the net.

Overheard in the office: “That would have killed a small child…”

Tank, Tank, Tank...

 

I understand what you're saying, but there's a different point of view to this argument.

The group stages of the Europa League are pretty dull. The teams in each group are, generally, pretty bog standard. They're not the type of games to get you off your seat or have you filled with jubilation. Playing some misnomers from Serbia or Belarus isn't exactly mouthwatering. It's only when it gets to the latter parts of the knockout stages where the bigger clubs start to take it seriously and, depending on the opposition of course (as some of the Champions League dropouts from the group stage are still very good sides), see it as a great chance to qualify for the Champions League, whilst winning some European silverware.

Assuming we get to the knockout stages, I'd say it's probably then when we'd start paying more attention to it.

 

Last season, the CL dropouts were all eliminated long before the final. Usually, CL dropouts are dismal when having to play in the EL although there are the exceptions such as Sevilla and a team from West London.

 

On the other hand there are some very good teams there. Zenit, the three La Liga teams. Milan are beginning to prove they are on their way back towards the top table, Maccabi Tel Aviv. These are all high quality teams.

 

I'm not denying that there aren't some good teams already in the competition, but most of them are not pitted against each other and most likely won't be until the knockout stages. Which is what I mean when I say it won't gather a substantial amount of interest until this point.

 

The beauty of this competition is the huge mix of teams, ranging from the fallen giants of Milan, teams with a proven European pedigree such as Zenit, yourselves, Athletic B and Villareal to the mysterious who are capable of a surprise, as Everton found out last night, and the unknown. You should qualify for the Round of 32, then it becomes squeaky "bum time" knowing it is about time that the club should be capable of progressing to the latter stages of this competiton, regardless of the CL dropouts. Good luck to you guys.

 

It's a mediocre competition.

For me its a similar status to winning the FA Cup and a similar difficulty level.

Still a trophy is a trophy and winning it would be good for the sides confidence and there's also the bonus of a guaranteed Champions League spot.

 

I'd love to win it. Much as I'd love England to win the world cup. But, the two year dirge of 'watching' (does anyone really watch them?) international qualifiers for a world cup is about comparable to the dirge of the first 2/3s of the europa up until the knock out stage. And getting enjoyment from that dirge would probably mirror the enjoyment I would imagine i'd get from sewing off my testicles with a spoon. These competitions are dull as dishwater until you get near the end. The challenge is to get to near the end with a team half full of randoms, most of whom aren't that fussed about it, before most fans start to give two hoots.

Spurs were clearly one of best teams in the competition last season... but also clearly couldn't have given two stuffs about it. If they'd somehow stumbled their way to the quarters then their players would have started really feeling the possibility of a trophy. But until you get there the competition has very little interest.