CITY / ARSENAL PRIORITY DYNAMICS SHIFTING

CALM YOURSELF!

That is the post.

Goodbye.

Just kidding, but not on the messaging.

Arsenal made 5 changes to their starting 11. The game turned on a fluke screamer. We lost on penalties.

I don’t want to hear that Arsenal bottled the game.

I don’t want to read people overanalyzing the loss.

I don’t want to hear it’s small club mentality to exit a trophy no one cares about.

If we’d won, my feelings on it would have been the same: Europa League is for clubs chasing Champions League spots… not titles.

Manchester City is in 2 cups and a title race. They have at least 6 midweek games over the next few weeks to our one.

Our one midweek game is against… Manchester City. By exiting Europa early, our Southampton game remains on the Friday night before City, giving us 3 days extra preparation. That is MASSIVE.

To make matters even more delicious, Sporting Lisbon drew Juventus in the next round – in the same bracket as United.

Juventus would have been a massive game. We’d have treated it like Champions League. It would have been emotionally significant. Then you’d get United, again, another emotionally draining game over two legs. Leg one would have been wedged between Newcastle away and Brighton at home. BIG PROBLEMS if that’s the case.

If we’d stayed in Europa, there was a much higher chance of collapsing in the league.

We’ve exited it, there’s no chance we don’t make Champions League.

All you lose out on is an away day in Romania and some good feelings you’ll forget very soon.

The priority is the Premier League.

Do NOT underestimate how powerful getting a week to prepare for games will be for Arteta.

Do NOT underestimate how the chances of injury are greatly reduced because we’re not caught in fixture congestion.

Do not think for one minute that all those City games won’t mean dropped points in the league.

This is advantage Arsenal.

The biggest cup final of the next three months is Sunday. City don’t play because they’re up against Burnley. So that gives us the chance to go 8 points clear in the Premier League over the international break. That’ll be huge.

We know City will have to prioritize at some point. If the league looks lost, they’ll go all in on Champions League.

Think about this: City could barely scrape a win against a shocking Palace side. They needed a soft penalty to get them through.

What did they do against Leipzig a few days later? Smashed them to pieces.

City did the inverse of Arsenal. They performed for Champions League / we showed up for the league.

I’m telling you… the only thing that matters to Pep is Champions League.

So let’s see what happens against a leaderless Crystal Palace this weekend.

Ok, that’s me done, check out the podcast below.