Arsenal have spent the last two decades playing Champions League football. However, last season’s fifth place finish in the Premier League means that the Gunners will be playing in the Europa League this season.
The Gunners opening group game is against one of last season’s surprise packages of the Bundesliga Koln at the Emirates Stadium. The team from north London head into this clash on the back of a morale boosting victory over Bournemouth last time out in the Premier League. The win ended a two-game losing run in the English top-flight.
Arsenal have never appeared in the Europa League under its current name. However, the last time the Gunners were in the competition’s predecessor the UEFA Cup was in 2000 when they finished runners-up to Galatasaray after exiting the Champions League at the group stages.
The Gunners previous two stints in the competition finished with first round exits, so they do not have a great record in the competition.
The German visitors have made a terrible start to their Bundesliga campaign, losing all three of their games and they are currently bottom of the German top-flight table. Last time out the visitors suffered a 3-0 defeat at Augsburg.
Like Arsenal, Koln have never played in the Europa League, but have history in the UEFA Cup. Koln were regulars in the competition in the seventies, eighties and early nineties. However, they have not featured in the competition since season 1992/93, when they exited the competition at the first round stage.
Without a doubt, Koln’s biggest achievement in the competition was finishing as runners up in the 1986 edition of the competition, when they suffered a final defeat against Spanish giants Real Madrid.
Forebet predicts that Arsenal will kick-off their Europa League campaign with a win and consign the visitors to yet another defeat this season.