The Europa League quarter-final draws have been named and it’s safe to say that the Gunners will have to sweat it out in order to progress to the next round.
Chelsea have been drawn against Czech side Slavia Prague which should be an easy game for the Blues – atleast on paper.
But Arsenal, on the other hand, will take on Napoli who moved into the Europa League after failing to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Up until now, the Gunners had been coming up with easy opponents and despite performing poorly away from home they were able to swing the ties in their favour at the Emirates.
Napoli though will be a totally different ball-game altogether. Moreso since the Gunners will play the second leg of the Europa League quarter-finals away from home.
Initially, though, this was not supposed to be the case but then UEFA chose to change the tie.
Many fans have been left confused as to why UEFA chose to make such a call but as per the rules, two clubs cannot play a Europa League game in the same city on the same night.
If you failed to notice then both Chelsea and Arsenal had drawn the same sequence of home and away games which meant one of the ties had to be reversed.
And it was Arsenal who had to compromise since they had finished below Chelsea in the Premier League last season.
The Champions League also faced the same dilemma where Man United’s tie vs Barcelona had to be reversed because it had the same sequence with that of Man City.
Here are the Europa League draws:
Arsenal vs Napoli
Villarreal vs Valencia
Benfica vs Eintracht Frankfurt
Slavia Prague vs Chelsea
EUROPA LEAGUE SEMI-FINAL DRAW:
Napoli/Arsenal vs Villarreal/Valencia
Benfica/Eintracht Frankfurt vs Slavia Prague/Chelsea
Read: 4-3-3 Chelsea’s predicted line-up vs Fulham.
Read: After Chelsea is ‘this’ Premier League club also going to receive a transfer market ban?
Read: Solskjaer has the most honest reply to United’s loss to Arsenal.
