For the first time in 29 years, the Gunners will fall down in the rankings and be surpassed by bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur
Arsenal finally got some good news at the weekend after beating bottom place Norwich but now there is more bad news for the club.
After finishing in eighth place in the league last season, Mikel Arteta’s team failed to qualify for any European competition. This was the first time this had happened since Arsene Wenger took the job over 25 years ago.
They were only one point behind their North London rivals Tottenham who finished in seventh and qualified for the newly formed UEFA Europa Conference League.
Although this competition is not at the very highest standard, it will be enough for them to overtake Arsenal in the UEFA Rankings.
Welcome to The Arsenal family, Takehiro 😊#ARSNOR pic.twitter.com/Yyx3iGP8I9
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 11, 2021
The Gunners are currently ranked in 12th place on this list. The places are based on European results in the last five years. Arsenal have a score of 80 points and will not be able to improve that this season.
Spurs were only two points behind their enemy but after the Europa Conference League begins, they will be boosted to 80.5 points. If they manage to progress far in this competition they could open up a large gap on Arsenal that could take years to resolve.
This shift in power is expected since the London Reds have not played in the Champions League since the 2016/2017 campaign. This is while Tottenham lost out in the final against Liverpool three years ago.
Neither side is still close to the top five teams which are made up of Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Liverpool, Barcelona, and Chelsea in that order. Real Madrid are in sixth place while a reemerging Manchester United are in eighth place.
𝙎𝙞𝙭 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙜𝙤 𝙩𝙤𝙙𝙖𝙮…
Sonny made his Spurs debut! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/pHcUXkLIvW
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 13, 2021
This adds to what has already been a terrible year for Arsenal fans. After losing their opening three games, maybe their win will over Norwich will start them afresh.
Otherwise, the Gunners’ faithful will spend another year not celebrating St Totteringham’s day.
