Unai Emery believes that Arsenal control their fates in terms of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
The Gunners slipped up in the race for a top-four finish by losing 2-3 against Crystal Palace at home. They could have propped up to the third spot but instead are stuck at fourth, level with Chelsea.
After the match, the Spanish boss said, “A big frustration, it was a big opportunity. But we can say we had a big opportunity in the matches before and we took a lot of points in a lot of key moments that give us the opportunity to be now, in our way, with the possibility to achieve our targets.
“Our first target is to get to the Champions League through the Premier League or Europa League. We lost a big opportunity but it doesn’t change our idea. It’s in our hands, we can continue winning and being in the top four.”
Emery has managed a historic tally of winning the Europa League three consecutive times with Sevilla before. The Spaniard might just be far too confident with his chances in the tournament rather than in the Premier League.
The real question lies in whether the manager is truly banking all his efforts on a knockout tournament. With Napoli out of the tournament, Arsenal’s chances have improved in winning the ultimate tie but they still have to overcome Valencia in the semi-finals, with Chelsea being the other favourite to win it.
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