Arsenal vs Valencia: 5 key players to avoid a complete disaster

Arsenal have only one way to get into the Champions League, with the next stop going through Valencia. Here are five key guys to keep us alive.

Arsenal will be finishing outside of the top four for the third straight season, and while some are calling the season a failure, there still remains one big way to make it a resounding success – the Europa League.

This club went down early against Valencia, but unlike in the Premier League, they actually looked bothered by that goal and fought back to take the match by a final score of 3-1 and give them a fantastic shot at going through to the finals.

All they have to do is travel into Valencia and now crap their pants. I know, no easy feat, but to the Gunners’ credit, they have actually been quite good at separating Europa League form with Premier League form, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

Of course, Valencia are coming off a 6-2 league win, with the Gunners coming off a top four elimination draw, so that is going to be put to the test in a big way.

We are going to see our best players out there, so let’s talk about the five guys needed to see this match through to where it needs to be.

5. Alexandre Lacazette

This match is going to be all about defending. We have to keep Valencia from running over our highly susceptible defense. But, that said, it worked against Napoli.

What really worked against Napoli, though, was Alexandre Lacazette scoring in the 36th minute and taking the sting out of the match. That is what set the game on the path to being one of our best fixtures of the year, easy.

We are going to be defending a lot, but we are also going to have our fair share of chances coming the other way, and the key is going to be taking those chances, and that falls on Lacazette, and I have more faith in him to take his chances than anyone else.

That said, let’s talk about the big question mark of the match and who can help it not be so questionable.

No. 4 is next.