Should Arsenal Be Optimistic About Their Champions League Qualifier?

It is tempting to answer the question posed by this article's headline with a quick and simple "no." After all, this feels like a fixture which Arsenal can only lose.

Arsenal worked incredibly hard to save their season at the end of 2012/13. It took a 10-match unbeaten run and a nail-biting final-day finish to beat Spurs to the prize of fourth place.

However, fourth place comes with few assurances. While finishing third guarantees entry to the following season’s Champions League, fourth means you have to face a nerve-wracking qualifier. If Arsenal go out against Fenerbahce, all that hard work between March and May will have been for naught.

The portents are not good.

Arsenal’s season opened with a humiliating 3-1 home defeat to Aston Villa. All hopes of an uplifting start to the season evaporated as Villa’s counter-attacking game took Arsenal to pieces. The game was damaging both to morale and the general health of the squad: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs, Bacary Sagna and Tomas Rosicky all suffered injuries of varying severity during the match.

Arsenal now face a far tougher opponent with an even weaker team.

If Kieran Gibbs fails to recover from a cut to the face, Aaron Ramsey could find himself deployed in an unfamiliar role at full-back. The teenage pair of Gedion Zelalem and Isaac Hayden were both left out of Arsenal’s U-21 team this evening, which could indicate they are set to travel with the first team to Turkey. Arsenal’s squad is stretched to what could be its breaking point.

Fenerbahce have several dangerous players. Senegalese striker Moussa Sow is a dangerous penalty box predator, while former Chelsea and Liverpool midfielder Raul Meireles is a threat both inside and outside the box. Fenerbahce have strengthened their squad by adding the likes of Michal Kadlec, Bruno Alves and Emmanuel Emenike.

Arsenal have added next to nothing. Thus far, only injury-prone French youngster Yaya Sanogo has joined the squad. Arsenal’s dallying means that they will enter this crucial match with a substandard squad.

Optimism is the last thing on Arsenal fans’ minds.

Reaching the Champions League is the minimum requirement for the Gunners. Should they fail to do so, both their pride and their bank balance will be significantly dented. Their craving for new signings is unlikely to be quenched if they miss out on the financial windfall of Champions League participation.

The only potential hope for Arsenal is that this match could mark something of a turning point. If Arsenal can secure a positive result in Turkey and follow it up by making a couple of impressive signings, the clouds currently gathered over the Emirates Stadium could begin to dissipate.

It’s possible, but it doesn’t feel likely.

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and will be following the club from a London base throughout the 2013/14 season. Follow him on Twitter here.