Morning all.
Finally, the Europa League Cup Draw is here as today we find out who our next opponents are. 16 clubs are left in the competition but none of the below will be drawn against each other after finishing top of their respective groups.
- Arsenal
- Real Betis
- Fenerbahce
- Ferencvaros
- Feyenoord
- Freiburg
- Real Sociedad
- Union Saint-Gilloise
In the other pot, one of whom will be Arsenal’s next opponents, is:
- FC Union Berlin
- Manchester United
- Juventus
- Bayern Leverkusen
- Roma
- Sevilla
- Shakhtar Donetsk
- Sporting Lisbon
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the fixers of football pair Arsenal with Italian giants Juventus and Man Utd with Union Saint-Gilloise. The first leg takes place a week on Thursday, the 9th March. Being the seeded team, the first of the two legs is away and for once, our League fixtures either side don’t involve much travelling. Pre Europe, we’re at home against Bournemouth whilst post Europa, we’ll have a short trip across London to face a Fulham team which has being getting excellent results both home and away. Other than Arsenal, Marco Silva’s side must be one of the surprises of the season so far.
Before then though, there’s a lot of football for Arsenal to play. Tomorrow we’re away to Leicester City, on Wednesday we have Everton at The Emirates and then next weekend, it’s Bournemouth as already said. 9 points up for grabs.
The draw kicks off at 11am although it’ll probably be gone midday before we actually find out who we’ll be playing as these occasions do seem to drag on and on. And on…
The big news doing the rounds this morning relates to Bukayo Saka. Arsenal, having tied down Gabriel Martinelli to a new contract, Mo Elneny to another year, Bukayo Saka is apparently close, very close to signing his own contract extension. A deal which is reported to be worth £10 million a year, will keep him at the club until 2028.
🚨 Arsenal have an agreement in principle on a new contract for Bukayo Saka. Long-term deal for 21yo England international attacker not signed + may take some time to complete, but now in place. Fantastic news for #AFC @TheAthleticFC after @SamiMokbel81_DM https://t.co/cCjpgD29Ut
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) February 23, 2023
I know it’s only media speculation at the moment, but I cannot see any reason why Bukayo would want to leave his club right now or indeed any time in the next few years. If ever really and is David Ornstein ever wrong? Lol
William Saliba next I reckon…..
Catch up in the comments…
Good morning Rico, all good news on the contract front, it’s good to know that there are people beavering away in the background to tie down our best players.
Morning Cicero. Indeed.
We meet sporting Lisbon
Very hard
How good are Sporting JM? What style of football do they play?
The first leg will be away. That’s to our advantage.
Morning Rico and all, as others had said, it’s great to hear that we are trying to tie down our good players,
talking about new contracts, according to Transfer Market the following players contract expires.
Reiss Nelson ends June 2023
Saka-Saliba-Jorginho-Xhaka-Holding and Elneny all end June 2024
while Odegaard-Party-Ramsdale-Tomiyasu and Matt Turner all end June 2025
Sporting is good and play an interesting fottball.
They have good players.
averaging 2 – 1 a match over the season so far and currently 5 th in the league .
JM will know more but they look a decent team that we need to take seriously .
Still there are other fish to fry before we get there although it’s a decent trip for our away fans.
Afternoon Geoff.
Sporting eh, piece of cake. 😂
Ah Sporting, experts at simulation and diving, we’ll need a strong referee…
Football Insider are reporting that Arsenal have opened talks with William Saliba over a new contract.
No surprise Cicero, they’ve probably been talking for a while. Same with Martinelli, Saka etc..
New post up now