Arsenal: The best impact of Europa League draw

On Friday, Arsenal found out the three teams they would face in the group stage of the Europa League. The draw has been rather kind to them. Here is why.

The dastardly Europa League got underway for Arsenal at Friday lunchtime. While qualification stages have been taking place throughout the summer, fellow English side Wolves flying through every round thus far, the Gunners, having finished in fifth, had to wait until this week until anything concrete related to the Europa League unfolded.

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That concrete development was the group stage draw, which is always slightly less relevant than the attention that everyone pays to it. While it is always nice to know who the Gunners will be facing, especially for those fans who are thinking of a trip abroad, realistically, the north London outfit should beat whoever is put in front of them.

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However, there is one element of the group-stage draw that is extremely impactful on the season as a whole, and it is has nothing to do with the quality of the players on the pitch. Instead, it has everything to do with travel.

The Thursday-Sunday schedule that those in the Europa League must contend with is not easy. While some people scoff at this suggestion, that professional footballers, who are paid to be fit, cannot play two games in three days, there is a noticeable and proven toll on the body when the normal routine of the season is not followed.

Thus phenomenon is only intensified by the teams that partake in the Europa League. Many are from Eastern Europe and beyond. The travel can be exhausting and long, meaning that Arsenal are flying back, late on Thursday night, in time for a match on Sunday.

This year, however, Unai Emery’s side have fared a damn-sight better regarding their impending travel. They were drawn in Group F, alongside Eintracht Frankfurt, Standard Liege, and Vitoria SC.

Liege are based in Belgium, Frankfurt in Germany and Vitoria, Portugal. The longest flight from London takes two hours and 20 minutes, that is to Porto in Portugal, the nearest airport to where Vitoria are based. It is the least strenuous group that the club could have hoped for, in terms of travel.

These are the matches immediately following Europa League matches: Aston Villa (H); Bournemouth (A); Crystal Palace (H); Leicester City (A); Norwich City (A) and Manchester City (H). Three of these fixtures will follow an away tie — as of writing, the exact fixture dates have not yet been released.

All in all, then, Arsenal’s Europa League group stage annoyance is not all that bad. The fixtures following the matches are relatively kind and the travel is minimal. This was a very good draw for the Gunners.