EPL
Why Arsenal’s Europa League exit should cause concern for future Champions League involvement
Whether it’s needless red cards, dramatically changing a fanbase’s opinion or the distribution of house keys, Granit Xhaka knows what he’s talking about.
The wily Swiss midfielder also has some pearls of wisdom regarding continental competition. “European football is totally different than the Premier League,” Xhaka declared with characteristic bluntness.
Arsenal may be riding high at the top of the Premier League, which ranks as the best in the world according to UEFA’s coefficient (and every Sky Sports advert), but they were dumped out of the Europe League, Europe’s secondary club competition, in the round of 16 by Sporting CP – one of Portugal’s so-called Big Three which currently sits fourth in the top flight.
With qualification for next season’s Champions League a formality, here’s why Arsenal could face a rude awakening on their return to Europe’s top table.
The Gunners have been all about consistency in terms of Premier League personnel this season. Eight Arsenal players have featured in at least 80% of the team’s league minutes this season. No other top-flight club in England has as many regulars.
Title rivals Manchester City only have three players with so much game time and Chelsea, the only other English side left in the Champions League, have just one player that has completed such a large share of minutes.
The revered Soviet coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi preached that the quality of the connections between players was more important than the ability of the individuals. This is borne out when Mikel Arteta deviates from his regular lineup, forming new partnerships which have had little time to develop and robbing his side of the normal fluency which has led them to the Premier League summit.
After the Gunners bowed out of the Europa League last 16 on penalties to Sporting following a 3-3 aggregate draw, Arteta bemoaned: “We didn’t find our rhythm and flow, allowed too many spaces, didn’t dominate and gave the ball away many times.”
After each week of watching Arsenal win with a scarcely unchanged team, opponents are no longer surprised by Arteta’s approach and have begun to form a blueprint of frustration by sitting deep and waiting to spring forward on the counter.
“You can see that every team is playing different against us; they are dropping a lot,” Xhaka said in February, “but this is [what happens] when you are top of the league.”
In Europe, teams are versatile enough to form a compact rearguard but also jump into a press, as Sporting demonstrated by repeatedly knocking Arsenal out of their stride.
“We gave every single ball away and we didn’t have the capacity to dominate the game and take the game where we wanted,” Arteta fretted after Sporting knocked the Gunners out. “We gave away the ball consistently and that created a really open transition game that we didn’t want to play.”
With a relatively thin squad at his disposal, Arteta is limited to a very good, but not perfect Plan A. One glance at how north London rivals Tottenham fared when sticking to Antonio Conte’s dogmatic approach should be enough of a warning to think about some alternative strategies.
Arteta has taken charge of just 24 European matches as a manager, all of which have come in the decidedly second-tier Europa League. During his playing days, Arteta appeared in 31 Champions League matches but only four of those were knockout ties and he never once progressed beyond the round of 16.
In Arsenal’s current squad, only January arrival Jorginho has won the competition. The European Championship winner has also made the most appearances in the tournament among Arsenal’s current contingent with Gabriel Jesus, Thomas Partey and Oleksandr Zinchenko – who started the final Manchester City lost to Jorginho’s Chelsea in 2021 – next in terms of experience.
However, Arsenal’s three leading scorers this season – Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard – have made two Champions League appearances between them.
Xhaka is the only player that appeared in Arsenal’s most recent Champions League match who is still at the club. Bayern Munich romped to a 5-1 win at the Emirates in 2017, condemning the Gunners to a humiliating 10-2 aggregate defeat and the club’s seventh consecutive exit in the round of 16.
No team in this season’s Europa League underperformed their expected goals by a larger margin than Arsenal, with the Gunners scoring just ten goals from chances that, on average, would warrant between 15 and 16 (per FBref). Arsenal had a worse conversion rate than Qarabag, Ludogorets and AEK Larnaka.
That lack of clinical edge was particularly costly in the second leg against Sporting. “We created three big chances and didn’t score,” Arteta lamented at the end of the tie.
The rest of Arsenal’s campaign will be solely focused on ending the club’s 19-year wait for a Premier League title, bringing greater “clarity” to the season as Arteta put it. However, when the season comes to a close and minds are allowed to wander to European nights that don’t take place on a Thursday, Arteta and his players have reason to be a little wary – whether they enter the competition as Premier League champions or not.
Tottenham Hotspur managing director of football Fabio Paratici has discussed the decision to part ways with head coach Antonio Conte.
Spurs reached a mutual agreement for Conte to depart the club on Sunday night following a disappointing run of results.
Conte oversaw exits in the FA Cup, Carabao Cup and UEFA Champions League this season despite high hopes of ending the club’s 15-year trophy drought.
In his personal life, Conte lost three close friends – Spurs fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone, former Italy colleague Gianluca Vialli and Serie A legend Sinisa Mihajlovic – while he had to undergo emergency surgery on his gallbladder at the start of February.
Speaking to Tottenham club channels, Paratici leaned on these reasons as to why Conte’s reign ended so sourly.
“About Antonio, we know how difficult this season was for him personally. Gian Piero died, Vialli and Mihajlovic [died], the surgery, the club supported him a lot about this and everyone was close with each other. But we arrived to this mutual agreement, and I think the decision we made was the right decision to everyone,” Paratici said.
Paratici went on to talk about interim manager Cristian Stellini – Conte’s former assistant who took charge of Tottenham in his absence this year – as well as speculation over a permanent successor.
“So Cristian managed the team even when Antonio was sick this season and was good. He has a lot of experience as a second and even first coach in the past. We have Ryan Mason who can help him a lot because he’s been part of this club for a long time, he knows everything about this club and this kind of group of players. So I think we are really, really confident that these two persons can do a very good job,” Paratici continued.
“The players doesn’t have to change a bit, the style of training. So change everything when you have just 10 games to go I think would be really difficult to the players.
“I would like to see, not just this season but even last season, when we came here we speak about ‘rebuild’ a bit. We started to play Conference League, starting not so good. Then at the end of the season we achieved a big result to get Champions League.
“Then this season, we played Champions League, we passed the group, it was a good achievement for us. And then we get out against Milan.
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“I think about growing up, the team and the club. The pathway for the club was good about results in that way. And then of course we are disappointed because we can be better in the FA [Cup] against Sheffield [United]. Every time you lose one game, you regret it.
“Of course we are focused and looking forward about being better arriving at the end of the season and the next season better again.
“The Premier League always is tough, so we have a lot of teams and clubs [who are] really, really prepared…but we fight, we like that. So we will fight to achieve our target, we are prepared to fight until the end of the season. We have to be focused on the last part of the season.
“We don’t speak about other coaches or follow the speculation in the media because this is just speculation. We are focused and now concentrating on helping Cristian and the staff, the players.
“I think today we have to be focused on our squad and our manager because it’s an important moment.”
Paratici is one of 12 former Juventus officials who were due in court this week regarding the club’s financial mismanagement, though a date for the hearing has now been pushed back until May.
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On this edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders, Graeme Bailey & Toby Cudworth discuss Julian Nagelsmann’s future and links to the vacant Tottenham head coach role, Barcelona’s ambition to bring Lionel Messi ‘home’, Brighton teenager Evan Ferguson, Florian Wirtz, Kalvin Phillips and more!
If you can’t see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
Bruno Fernandes has revealed he does not agree with teammate Cristiano Ronaldo regarding the impact of new Portugal head coach Roberto Martinez.
The former Everton and Belgium boss was named as the surprise successor to Fernando Santos following the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
While Martinez has been known to coach attacking and entertaining football, his teams are often characterised by their haphazard and sloppy defending – almost the inverse to how Portugal played under Santos.
Ronaldo, who scored four goals in two games for Portugal this month, was quick to tell reporters of the positive impact Martinez has had on the team.
“It’s a new chapter for everyone, for the players, the staff and the country. We feel good energy. It’s a breath of fresh air,” the Al Nassr forward said.
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But when speaking to Portuguese channel RTP3, Fernandes simmered Ronaldo’s excited judgement.
When asked if he agreed with Ronaldo’s comments, Fernandes replied: “No, it’s just a new coach with new ideas. There is no breath of fresh air at all. It’s just a transition period.
“The atmosphere in the national team has always been good. There’s never been anything that wasn’t fresh of the air, so I think it’s just new dynamics, new coach, and you have to assimilate his ideas.”
Portugal have made a perfect start under Martinez’s management, securing a 4-0 win at home to Liechtenstein before beating Luxembourg 6-0 on the road.
Fernandes and Ronaldo’s recent careers have been intertwined due to their prominence with the Portugal national team and their 15-month spell together at Manchester United.
Upon Fernandes’ arrival in England, the Old Trafford faithful devised a chant which referenced his arrival ‘from Sporting like Cristiano’.
The duo didn’t quite hit their best heights in tandem while at United, and Ronaldo’s bitter exit in November 2022 was followed by the two appearing to be on frosty terms ahead of the World Cup.
But Ronaldo dismissed this suggestion at the time, telling the press: “My relationship with him is excellent.”
LISTEN NOW
On this edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders, Graeme Bailey & Toby Cudworth discuss Julian Nagelsmann’s future and links to the vacant Tottenham head coach role, Barcelona’s ambition to bring Lionel Messi ‘home’, Brighton teenager Evan Ferguson, Florian Wirtz, Kalvin Phillips and more!
If you can’t see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
A number of Premier League sides are monitoring Lorient midfielder Enzo Le Fee after he confirmed his desire to leave the club this summer, 90min understands.
The 23-year-old has dazzled this season for Lorient, impressing both defensively and in attack and chipping in with four goals and five assists in 28 games.
90min reported in November that Leicester had begun tracking Le Fee as they prepared for the departure of Youri Tielemans, and sources have confirmed to 90min that the Foxes are by no means alone with their interest.
Both Fulham and Wolves have voiced an interest in Le Fee while one source also named Liverpool, Newcastle and Tottenham as admirers of the France Under-21 international.
The interest in Le Fee has follows the midfielder’s public admission that he does not plan to extend his contract, which expires in the summer of 2024, and his desire to secure a move away from Lorient this summer.
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“It’s time for me to leave,” Le Fee told Le Telegramme on Monday.
“I have a special bond with the club and that’s why I wanted to extend my contract at the start of the season. I waited for a contract offer from Lorient until December. It never came. Now, I don’t expect anything from the club and I won’t extend my contract.
“I hope to leave this summer so that my transfer will bring money to Lorient.”
Before that interview, Le Fee told L’Equipe of his desire to finish the season strongly to boost his chances of a summer transfer.
“I’ve never wanted to leave Lorient through the back door,” he stressed. “We’re having a very good season and I know these last few months are very important if I want to join a big club.
“I am someone who likes challenges, risks too. I want to show that I am capable of playing at the highest level.”
LISTEN NOW
On this edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders, Graeme Bailey & Toby Cudworth discuss Julian Nagelsmann’s future and links to the vacant Tottenham head coach role, Barcelona’s ambition to bring Lionel Messi ‘home’, Brighton teenager Evan Ferguson, Florian Wirtz, Kalvin Phillips and more!
If you can’t see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
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