Arsenal must decide whether to take Europa League seriously, says Petr Cech

Euro choice: Cech says Arsenal must decide whether to prioritise other competitions
Arsenal FC via Getty Images
James Olley11 September 2017

There isn’t anyone better qualified at Arsenal to discuss the mental adjustment from Champions League to Europa League than Petr Cech.

Alexandre Lacazette’s former side, Lyon, played in the Europa League five times in the last six seasons but have not been an established Champions League club for some time.

The same cannot be said for Arsenal or, indeed, Chelsea, where Cech had to deal with the shock of demotion to the Europa League in the 2012-13.

Arsenal will watch Europe’s elite from their sofas this week for the first time in 20 years. Thursday’s visit of Cologne represents their new reality and Cech believes they have a choice to make.

“You make your decision,” he told Standard Sport. “At Chelsea, we were really disappointed to have been knocked of the group stage [of the Champions League] but we decided that for the first time and the last time, hopefully, we play in the Europa League so we want to win.

“So you decide what you want to do — either you take it seriously and you go to win it and you give yourself the chance to do it or you give yourself different priorities and see how it goes.”

Arsene Wenger, buoyed by the 3-0 win over Bournemouth but with Sunday’s trip to Chelsea in mind, is expected to give chances to fringe players David Ospina, Per Mertesacker, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere and young Reiss Nelson.

Wenger must weigh up whether to include Alexis Sanchez, whose 15-minute cameo from the bench against Bournemouth began to a mixture of boos and cheers.

Cech said: “I spoke with Alexis and he wants to win.

“Sometimes people say ‘he does this, he does that’ but I think in a way, he is a guy who plays with all his passion and all his heart.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in