A host of European giants have dropped down into the competition (Picture: PA)
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta believes this season’s Europa League knockout stages will be at a level ‘never seen before’ after the likes of Barcelona and Juventus dropped out of the Champions League.
A 2-0 defeat to PSV in Eindhoven on Thursday evening means the Gunners have yet to wrap up top spot in their group and could still face a play-off tie in February against a Champions League drop-out.
Barcelona, Ajax and Atletico Madrid were all knocked out of Europe’s premier club competition on Wednesday night, while Juventus were dumped out a day earlier after losing to Benfica.
The likes of RB Salzburg, AC Milan and Sevilla could also join Arsenal in the Europa League depending on what happens in the final round of matches and Arteta knows his side will in all likelihood need to overcome a host of very accomplished teams to lift the trophy.
Asked about the calibre of the teams now confirmed to be dropping into the Europa League, Arteta told BT Sport: ‘Yeah we knew that.
‘Obviously we knew the results and what was coming and the competition is going to be at a level probably that it’s never been at before. This is the challenge for us.’
Had Arsenal secured a point against PSV, their final group match against FC Zurich would have effectively been a dead rubber, but only a win will guarantee their progression as group winners now.
Asked if that changes how he will approach the fixture – which is a few days before they visit Stamford Bridge – Arteta replied: ‘We never planned to have a day off in that fixture because we know how difficult it is to win in Europe.
PSV netted twice in the second half to see off Arsenal (Picture: Getty)
‘You just have to see the other groups and where everybody is. We’re in a really good position – we’ve won four games and we have to finalise the job against Zurich at home in a week’s time, and we will prepare for that.’
Reflecting on the performance against PSV, he said: ‘It’s the end of a long run. Today’s the first defeat after a long period. It’s time to reset, to analyse what happened.
‘Congratulations to PSV – they were the better team and they deserved to win the game. There’s no question about that. We were nowhere near our level today, especially the way we competed.
‘We have periods where we’ve been excellent and periods where we’ve suffered. For sure, we haven’t had the consistency for 95 minutes to maintain the level we want. That’s the next challenge and the next aim for this team.
‘Today I think it was very different, right from the beginning. Even though we had periods where we controlled the game, I didn’t feel that we had the threat and the aggression that we’ve been playing at.
‘That was worrying. In the second half, the moment something went wrong, we just went down and we didn’t really find moments to give us some hope to react and get something out of the game.’
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The Gunners could now face a host of European giants.