The 2022/23 UEFA Europa League round of 16 draw will take place in Nyon, Switzerland on Friday lunchtime, and Arsenal will find out who they will face as they attempt to win the trophy for the first time.
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We would hope to have an easy tie to start off, but we could face a very difficult game if we don’t get the luck of the draw. The seeded teams that we can’t face in the last 16 are Real Betis, Fenerbahce, Ferencvaros, Feyenoord, Freiburg, Real Sociedad or Union Saint-Gilliose, and to be honest I wouldn’t be too worried if we got one of them!
But we can’t can’t get any of them unless we get to the Quarter finals, but the teams we could get will be one of the winners of these play offs – Ajax/Union Berlin, Juventus/Nantes, Bayer Leverkusen/Monaco, Salzburg/Roma, Sevilla/ PSV Eindhoven, Shakhtar/ Rennes and Sporting CP/Midtjylland.
But the big elephant in the room is that we could draw the Spanish giants Barcelona IF they manage to beat Man United at Old Trafford on Thursday, so we hope Ten Hag’s side knock them out as we can’t face another English team at this stage.
One team that are surely going to be in the hat is Sevilla, who won the first leg 3-0 against PSV, but all the other games could go either way on Thursday, so we will be watching the scores closely.
Arsenal are currently the favourites to win the competition, but if we carry on playing the excellent football we’ve seen this season, there is no reason we can’t beat all comers and finally get the Europa League trophy in our cabinet.
Personally I can’t wait!
Gabriel Jesus enters ‘final’ week of recovery ahead of potential Arsenal return
Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus has hinted that this could be his last week recovering from injury after a lengthy spell on the sidelines
Gabriel Jesus may be about to take the next – and biggest – step in his rehabilitation process as he enters what could be his final week of recovery, barring any setbacks.
The 25-year-old has been out since December after undergoing successful surgery on medial ligament damage to his knee which was sustained during Brazil’s group-stage match against Cameroon at the Qatar World Cup.
However, speaking to former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at the Emirates Stadium on January 22, Jesus said that he hoped to be back in “four or five weeks”. This is now the fifth week since he made those comments, which could suggest that a return to first-team training is just around the corner.
Sadly, no one has been able to relay that question to the club doctor so far, but with Jesus’ admission to Nurmagomedov last month as well as Arteta’s latest quotes, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before the Brazilian is back on the pitch.
For the most part, Arsenal have coped very well in the absence of one of their star men, although the lack of striking options is becoming apparent. Eddie Nketiah has now played for the entire 90 minutes eleven games in a row and is without a goal in four matches, making Jesus’ return even more desirable.
Talking ahead of Arsenal’s clash with Man City last week, Mikel Arteta provided an encouraging update on Jesus but was unable to offer a timeframe on when the forward would be back.
“Doing really well. he’s been doing quite a lot of work on the ball already and his rehab is going well,” the Gunners boss said. “Unfortunately no (with regard to a return date). Ask the doctor maybe he’ll give you one,” Arteta added.
