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With matchday 4 of the Europa League having been completed, the die has been cast for teams in the second tier of European club football. While some clubs still on course in their quest for glory, and others are in danger of dropping by the wayside.
The difference in size and structure of all 64 clubs contesting the Europa League means that they all have differing objectives, with anything other than victory come May representing a massive failure for some, while others would be happy to make it out of the group stage.
One such club with aspirations of going all the way is Arsenal and the English side would have genuine ambitions of lifting the Europa League trophy in Gdansk, Poland.
Given Arsenal's poor run of form of late, many might dismiss their chances of triumphing in the Europa League this season, but it would be foolhardy to suggest they cannot go all the way.
In this piece, we shall highlight three reasons why Arsenal could win the Europa League this season.
#3 Unai Emery has an excellent track record in the competition
While his stock might have taken a nosedive in recent years, in the not too distant past, Unai Emery was a man on the rise and his reputation was boosted massively with his track record in the Europa League.
Having made steady progress in the Valencia dugout, Emery was appointed as Sevilla manager in January 2013 and he earned rave reviews for his performance with the Andalusians.
He guided Sevilla to consecutive fifth-place league finishes in his first two seasons and a seventh-place finish in his third, but it was his work on the continent that won him many admirers.
His first season saw him dispatch Benfica on penalties in the 2014 Europa League final in Turin and the trick was repeated the next year, with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk the victims on this occasion.
The second triumph earned him automatic qualification to the Champions League, but a third-place finish in the group stage saw Sevilla drop back into the Europa League and they triumphed over Liverpool 3-1 in a comeback victory in the final at St Jakob Park, Switzerland.
Following his spell with Sevilla, a high profile job with PSG was secured, but the Spaniard failed to step up to the plate and oversaw the embarrassing elimination of the Parisians to Barcelona having posted a 4-0 first-leg advantage.
His dismissal from PSG saw him hired by Arsenal and in his first season with the club, it was back to business for Emery, as he led Arsenal to the final of the Europa League where they were defeated by London rivals Chelsea.
Unai Emery might struggle elsewhere, but he feels right at home in the Europa League and his excellent track record in the competition could see him guide Arsenal to victory in the final.
#2 It could represent the only viable route to the Champions League next season
Once upon a time, Arsenal were bonafide members of a hallowed group of elite Premier League teams called the 'top four' and this select group of clubs always qualified for the Champions League virtually without breaking a sweat.
However, Tottenham Hotspur's steady progress and an injection of cash at Manchester City has increased this group from four to six, with the result being that Arsenal have found themselves knocked off their perch atop the English game.
The Gunners qualified for the group stage of the Champions League for 21 consecutive seasons from 1996 to 2017 but failed to do so for the first time at the end of the 2017/2018 campaign.
Since then, it has been three consecutive seasons of heartbreak for the North Londoners. With clubs like Leicester City making a genuine push to gatecrash the Champions League places, the reality is that Arsenal would find it almost impossible to make the top four this season.
The club's frugal financial methods mean that Champions League qualification is essential to their revenue generation and the club's finances have taken a hit in recent years due to their non-participation in Europe's elite competition.
With a top-four finish in the Premier League looking more improbable with each passing week, the Europa League would represent Arsenal's best bet of qualification for next season's Champions League, hence they would go all out to win the competition.
#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.
