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#1 Quite simply, they are far ahead of most of the competition
The increased difficulty of qualifying for the Champions League through the domestic leagues and the incentive of automatic qualification by winning the Europa League means that the days of Shakhtar Donestk and Zenit St. Petersburg triumphing in the Europa League are all but over.
There is a reason why the Europa League is classified as Europe's second-tier club competition and a cursory glance at the 64 clubs on display would reveal that most of them are relative minnows on the continent.
For all of their struggles in recent years, Arsenal still have a squad replete with a host of world-class players and the club would easily secure Champions League qualification from 99% of European leagues.
Football is a game of massive disparity and more often than not, the bigger teams post victories over the smaller teams and while there might be odd exceptions now and again, this trend generally holds.
Of the current teams disputing the Europa League, only a handful are genuine matches for Arsenal; maybe Manchester United and arguably Sevilla, but the rest are significantly beneath Unai Emery's men on the footballing hierarchy.
Unlike the Champions League where numerous clubs are evenly matched with their fixtures too close to call, the Europa League does not offer such competition and the results in recent years back this up.
Manchester United and Jose Mourinho began the 2016/2017 campaign by stating that the Europa League was beneath them and they would rather focus elsewhere, but by the time the reality of a sixth-place finish in the league dawned on them, Jose Mourinho took the tournament seriously and won it relatively easily.
A year later, Atletico Madrid were unfortunate to drop into the competition from the Champions League and they almost literally strolled their way to the trophy, with the only minor skirmish coming when they faced Arsenal in the semifinal.
Last season, Chelsea and Arsenal were by far the biggest names in the Europa League and it came as no surprise when the two teams made it to the final of the competition.
If Arsenal set their mind to the task of winning the Europa League this season, there is almost no cub that can stop them from doing so.
Their only threat could come from teams who drop down from the Champions League, but apart from Inter Milan, the remaining 'big boys' all seem primed to make it to the knockout rounds of the Champions League, thereby paving the way for Arsenal to win their first European honor in over 25 years.
