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Arsenal may find it better to be in the Europa League next season

By Kian Long

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 26: Koke of Atletico Madrid and Hector Bellerin of Arsenal in action during the UEFA Europa League Semi Final leg one match between Arsenal FC and Atletico Madrid at Emirates Stadium on April 26, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 26: Koke of Atletico Madrid and Hector Bellerin of Arsenal in action during the UEFA Europa League Semi Final leg one match between Arsenal FC and Atletico Madrid at Emirates Stadium on April 26, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /
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The Gunners conceded a painful away goal late on last night against Atletico Madrid.

Arsenal find themselves heavily-reliant on the Europa League to salvage something from this disappointing season. The situation with Arsene Wenger leaving at the end of the season only makes the competition more important for the club.

However, they aren’t favorites to win the competition. Atletico Madrid are the best team out of the four remaining, and it showed when they met Arsenal last night. The Spanish side got the advantage of an away goal despite playing with 10 men, and the tie is truly in their hands now.

As for Arsenal, next season may be a sticky one. For the first time in over two decades, they will be playing without Arsene Wenger’s management. The new manager, whoever he may be, will need to get to grips with his squad, and find out which players suit his philosophy best.

This is hard to do when you have both the Premier League and the Champions League to focus on. We seen this when Antonio Conte came over to England, with Chelsea who were out of European competition, and won the title in his first season. This is because he could afford to stumble at first, before disciplining his squad to play his style of football.

That said, I don’t think it will be the end of the world if Arsene Wenger’s successor isn’t in the Champions League. We have seen this season that Arsenal has some talented youngsters, most of which were given time in the Europa League.

The likes of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson all performed well for Arsenal in the group stage, which was promising for the fans. If the new manager can deploy the same tactic which Arsene Wenger used this season, then he will learn a lot about his new squad.

Besides, nobody expects the successor to go on and win the Champions League in his first season. It’s something which Arsenal as a club has never done, so it would be unfair to expect such an outcome.

Taking away the sentimental value of giving Arsene Wenger a Europa League honor, there are plenty of positives to playing in the competition next season.

Next: Liverpool will not sell Mohamed Salah at any price

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