Arsène Wenger doesn’t think that teams that win the Europa League should be rewarded with a place in the Champions League.
Last season Manchester United went into the last couple of months of the season with their hopes of top 4 fast fading, whilst their chances of winning the Europa League improved with each round. It reached the stage, with a match against Arsenal at the weekend and a Europa League tie during the week, where Mourinho had to make a call between fighting in the league or fighting in Europe.
Both options could potentially yield a Champions League spot in the end. United could beat Arsenal, win their remaining games and as long as Liverpool slipped up once or twice United would get top 4. Alternatively, they could focus on Europa League, and as long as they won the semi-final and the final they would qualify for the Champions League anyway.
Mourinho chose to focus on the European competition, played a weakened squad against Arsenal and lost, and went on to win in Europe. As it turned out, Liverpool didn’t slip up, so it seemed like the right call. But this is exactly the sort of situation that Arsène has spoken out against in his press conference ahead of the Community Shield this weekend.
Wenger doesn’t believe that clubs who win the Europa League should get a place in the Champions League, as he believes (seemingly correctly) that it causes teams to throw games in the league that they would otherwise have to fight for.
“I was always against it,” he said in quotes reported by the Evening Standard
“Because apart from Man United, who did win the Europa League, all the years before it was always a team who was kicked out of the Champions League by having been kicked out of it before.
“You cannot go into the season and think that (you will get into the Champions League by winning the Europa League).
“I always was not in favour of that, because I think at some stage it can influence on the championship, because if a team is in April in a position where they have more chance to win the Europa League they can let some games go in the championship, and not completely focus on that, on the regularity of the competition.
“I will always play a team that has a good chance to win the next game. In the Europa League if we can afford sometimes to rest some players we will do it.
“But we have to adapt to the level of the competition and see first what kind of group we play in.”