When we finished the first half of our Europa League campaign back in November, the football world was a different place.
After an enormously frustrating previous season, the Gunners had made an electric start to the new Premier League campaign and had even found themselves top of the table, albeit with scarcely a third of the season gone and attentions about to turn to Qatar for the novelty of a winter World Cup.
At that time, there were precious few seriously considering a tilt at the league title – it was just nice to go into the break top of the table and to have seen some progress after a few seasons of promise unfulfilled. At that time, the Europa League presented an excellent insurance policy should our league campaign have stuttered as well as offering the chance to win serious silverware.
Fast-forward four months and the outlook is almost unrecognisable.
Now, as then, there is still a long way to go in the league and almost certainly disappointments to come but, unlike then, there is genuine belief that we can all the way to the title this season. It’s no longer wishful thinking or a flight of fancy, it’s a dream that’s tantalisingly close to becoming a reality. With just a dozen games to play and a five-point lead at the top of the table, we’re very much in the driving seat – in a way we haven’t been for some 15 years.
So where does that leave the Europa League?
There’s no question in my mind that the Premier League is, and always will be, the priority and where we must direct the best of our resources but there are no guarantees, even with maximal effort, that we will bring home our first title in some 20 years. Injuries, loss of form, poor officiating, outright bad luck – any number of things could combine to deny us what we have worked so hard for. So that leaves the Europa League as a real and important opportunity to win a trophy. After all, isn’t that what competitive sport is all about?
But what about the risks of playing the additional games that come with progress deep into cup competitions? We need look no further than Manchester United to see what can happen when a small squad is asked to play three games a week for months on end. Their 7-0 thrashing at Anfield should be no surprise in that sense.
And while I think it is unlikely we’ll get so bogged down in fixtures that we’ll simply implode in the league, there are a number of things we could certainly do without if we’re to make it over the line. Chief among those are injuries and fatigue.
If we go to Lisbon on Thursday, win 1-0 but pick up injuries to Thomas Partey and Bukayo Saka will it have been worth it? It’s tough to argue that as a worthwhile trade-off.
It’s important to point out that I’m not advocating for Mikel Arteta to simply roll over in the Europa League and put all our eggs in the Premier League basket. Rather, I’m arguing for a little more caution than he might otherwise be inclined to show.
Can we bring in Jorginho, Pablo Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Kieran Tierney, Jakub Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Matt Turner? Can we give Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard a rest? Can we look to approach at least the first leg a little differently than we might do if we were not competing for the league title?
The answer to all of these in Arteta’s mind might simply be ‘no’ and, if that’s the case, you have to trust that he knows what is best for the squad – he has shown a remarkable knack for it thus far. I can’t help feeling, however, that discretion might be the better part of valour.
With Eddie Nketiah, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus all sidelined for at least the next week or two, and Emile Smith Rowe only just returned from long-term injury, we really do find ourselves at the limit in an attacking sense. We are one more injury away from a serious problem.
As much as the manager is going to have to work on our tactics, our approach and our setup between now and the end of the season, he is also going to have to work on managing his squad from game to game and that process starts from Thursday.
Fingers crossed he can be as astute at squad management as he has been at everything else.
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