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5. Europa League is United’s best chance of European football next season
Jose Mourinho had hinted earlier this week that Europa League just may be the way. He’s right. After playing out what feels like the millionth draw at home against Everton, United let slip of yet another opportunity to close the gap to Manchester City and Liverpool and put daylight between them and Arsenal. As it stands now, Liverpool are five points ahead, Manchester City four and both Arsenal and Everton are just three points behind them.
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It promises to be a photo-finish for the coveted top 4 places, and with Manchester United sitting in a position where they simply can not have one more season of being outside the Champions League, their best hope seems to be in putting all their eggs in the Europa League basket.
Winning Europe's second-tier competition will put them automatically into the group stages of next season's Champions League (the route that Sevilla took last year) and while it will not be easy, Mourinho would be well advised to prioritize the continental competition he last played in with Porto (and won, by the by, in 2002-03).
