Arsenal already have the edge over the other top six teams for the 2017/18 campaign.
What do Leicester City and Chelsea both have in common? The answer is that they recently won Premier League crowns without having the distraction of European football.
The Foxes famously landed the 2015/16 title against all the odds (5001.00 to be exact!) and Claudio Ranieri’s side were able to take full advantage of a power vacuum that existed among the top sides in England, many of whom were involved in European competition.
Similarly, Chelsea’s title triumph during the 2016/17 season owed plenty to being out of the Champions League and Europa League, with Antonio Conte able to focus primarily on each of the thirty-eight games that lay between the Blues and the silverware.
For the 2017/18 season, we have the unusual prospect of Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United all competing in the Champions League. It’s a competition which demands teams take it seriously, especially with the financial rewards on the table and the chance to establish yourself among the elite clubs in Europe.
Arsenal failed to qualify for Europe’s premier competition for the first time since Arsene Wenger took charge at the London club, with the Gunners participating in the Europa League although it might be a competition that they treat with contempt.
Wenger is entering the final stages of his long managerial stint with Arsenal and he will have been encouraged by the way his team finished the season strongly which actually saw Manchester City and Chelsea beaten en route to winning the FA Cup.
It won’t have gone unnoticed that the above quintet of teams will be competing in the Champions League, leaving Arsenal to potentially capitalise on the fact that they can spend more time preparing for Premier League games and they’re trading at 12.00 to win the title.
The big money has been spent on Alexandre Lacazette, with the French international arriving from Lyon for nearly £50 million and perhaps he’s the striker that can deliver a first title to the Emirates Stadium since the 2003-4 season.
Those FA Cup cup victories towards the back end of last season will have given Arsenal confidence that they can get the better of their title rivals, especially if Alexis Sanchez can be persuaded to remain at the club, something which looks more likely with every passing week.
Sanchez will be encouraged by the prospect of having Lacazette in the squad and we shouldn’t discount the possibility of Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey coming to the fore. Mesut Ozil is regularly maligned but the German regularly ranks among the top assisting players, while the defence can be bolstered by Sead Kolasinac.
It will be strange for Wenger to prepare for the new season knowing that the Champions League will merely be a television activity this term, although that extra focus on domestic matters could see the Frenchman go out with a bang.
