Unai Emery’s immediate focus may well be this weekend’s Premier League fixture against Cardiff City, but he has revealed that he is hoping to take his team deep into the Europa League.
Having finished outside the Premier League‘s top four for a second successive season, Arsenal find themselves playing in the second tier of European football once again.
The Gunners reached the semi-final stage last year, losing out to eventual winners Atletico Madrid, but this time around, they have a manager who has plenty of experience, with Unai Emery winning it for three consecutive seasons during his time at Sevilla.
Earlier this afternoon, Arsenal learned that they will face Sporting Lisbon, Qarabag and Vorskla in the Europa League group stages, and while speaking to the press ahead of Sunday’s game against Cardiff, Unai Emery said they will do all they can to do go as far as they can in Europe.
“First it’s three teams and we’ll have the recipe for them,” said Emery.
“After this, we want to go far in this competition. Each match is different and each match involves a lot of travel.
“For some, the travel is very long but it’s like that. The adaptation for these three teams needs to be positive and we need to face them with ambition and our interest to do well in the competition.”
Earlier this week, we brought you the news that Arsenal are among the front-runners to win their first ever European title.