How can Arsenal get in the Champions League next season?


Arteta + Saka

How can Arsenal get in the Champions League next season? 

By Tom Masters

After a long season that promised so much for Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal side, ultimately, they failed to reach the Champions League, finishing fifth at the expense of arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur. 


At the start of the season, following a year away from European action, Arsenal would no doubt have been content to have finished fifth and qualify for the Europa League, but with three games to go fourth place was in their control, something which the squad will have to look at and get over in the coming weeks before the start of the new season. 


But, ahead of the new season, we look at how Arsenal can qualify for the Champions League next season.

 

Smart signings

 

Ultimately, one of Arsenal’s clear failings was that their squad just wasn’t good enough to reach the Champions League this season, which makes getting so close more impressive. 


But missing out on the Champions League this season does make it slightly easier for Arsenal in that they now know that they must make signings in order to bridge the gap and make the jump back into the top four next season. 


Depth is a clear issue at the Emirates, with injuries to the likes of Kieran Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Thomas Partey costing them big time, with Nuno Tavares, Cedric Soares and Albert Sambi Lokonga not able to reach the same levels of performances as the first choice options. 


This makes signing wing-backs and a central midfielder a clear priority, while with Alexandre Lacazette on his way out, a proven goal scorer will also be high up on the list of priorities for Arteta this summer. 


Youri Tielemans, Aaron Hickey and Alvaro Morata are currently heavily tipped to make the move to North London, and all three of those would be upgrades on the existing players in their position, with Hickey acting as an able deputy for the often-injured Tierney. 


If the Gunners can get their signings right this summer, you feel that will massively help them towards reaching the Champions League for the first time in five seasons. 

 

Avoid poor start and end to the season 

 

Last season, in the opening three and final three matches of the season, Arsenal picked up a total of three points out of a possible 18. 


Those points were won against Everton when the pressure was off in the final game of the season, with Arsenal failing to get off to a good start or finish strongly to get into the Champions League when in a commanding position. 


Those early season defeats to Brentford, Chelsea and Manchester City put the pressure on from the very off, while defeats to Tottenham and then Newcastle effectively ended the Gunners’ dream of reaching the Champions League. 


They say that you can’t win the title in the first month of the season, but you can lose it, which also applies to reaching the top four and Champions League football in Arsenal’s case.

Every team targets the first three fixtures of the season, but for Arsenal they should be of even more importance next year as getting off to a good start could be the difference between success and failure. 

 

Win Europa League? 

 

The Premier League is set to be even stronger next year with the likes of Spurs, Chelsea and Manchester United all likely to spend big, making finishing in the top four an even tougher challenge. 


Arsenal will enter the Europa League next season as one of the favourites to win it and will be targeting victory on the continent next season to bring in a first European title. 


But it also acts as a safety blanket in some ways as if Arsenal are unable to bridge the gap between themselves and the Champions League, they can get there by winning the Europa League, a trophy they have been close to lifting a few times in recent years, losing in the semi-finals in 2017-2018 and 2020-21 while also losing in the final to Chelsea in 2019. 


If Arsenal cannot get into the Champions League via their league position, it is certainly possible they could make it through the Europa League. 

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