Arsenal manager Unai Emery feels that his club lags well behind Manchester City and Liverpool and hopes to reduce that difference in the future. Arsenal’s top four hopes took a massive hit after they drew against Brighton and Hove Albion at the Emirates.
An early penalty from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put Arsenal ahead before another penalty from Glen Murray at the hour-mark levelled things up for Brighton.
Arsenal are now 5th in the Premier League table, three points behind Tottenham Hotspur. The Gunners will need a humongous win over Burnley and will need Tottenham to lose their final group game to Everton in order to finish in the top four of the Premier League. This seems highly unlikely because given Arsenal’s away record lately, even a win will be a major achievement for Unai Emery’s team, let alone a big one and Spurs may not lose against Everton at home.
Hence, Arsenal’s best shot at Champions League qualification is by winning the Europa League. The Gunners already have a 3-1 advantage over Valencia and even a defeat by one goal could see Arsenal through to the Europa League Final against either Chelsea or Eintracht Frankfurt.
With Arsenal’s top four hopes all but over, Unai Emery feels it will be a very difficult task to secure Champions League qualification. The Spaniard said, “We know it’s going to be very difficult [to qualify for the Champions League]. There are six teams going for the top four and we fight with very big teams. Our way is to make the difference [smaller] to them. Then we have another competition, the Europa League, and we are doing our way [in that]. On Thursday we have the second leg and have this one title to play for. It’s a way to get into the Champions League. Above all, for us the Premier League is the first competition and we couldn’t be in the top four.
We are close to that, with Chelsea and Tottenham, but there’s a big difference to Manchester City and Liverpool. Our work in the future is to reduce this difference.”
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