Champions League: Why This Could Just Be Arsenal's Worst Distraction This Year

Well, it's official, Arsenal are into one of their worst starts to the Premier League since 2006-07. 

The Gunners had been significantly strengthened after the unprecedented drubbing they received at Old Trafford.Thus, Arsenal took ground against Swansea expecting a huge improvement. However, what was on offer was pretty much a massive variant from their usual dominating style of play, especially in the second half when the competition looked very even. It would perhaps not be unfair to consider that the Swans were unlucky to go home without a point.

There are a few other points to consider as well to get a fair assessment. Arsenal were still without their best defender, their best buy of the summer and Alex Song in midfield, but considering a normal season for Arsenal in the last few years, injury has never quite been a stranger to the Gunner squad.

Being realistic, Arsenal are still not a squad which can win the league this season with both the Manchester clubs going great guns, and Chelsea seemingly catching up. Besides, Wenger and his boys also have to worry a lot about the other threats from clubs like Liverpool and Tottenham. Whereas the latter also has to follow a hectic schedule like Arsenal with challenging fixtures in European competitions coming up; Liverpool has nothing like that to worry about.

Keeping all these in mind, I have listed a few reasons why Wenger's men could very well be in for a pretty tough season this time around in the Premier League, and the Champions League could very well prove to be a major distraction .

Long Trips Midweeks Means More Matches and a Tired Squad

The Champions League is not a new avenue for the Gunners, but this time around, the pressure surrounding the elite European competition is a different story for them. Being one of the big clubs from England, Arsenal will again be under pressure to qualify from the group stages and proceed as far as they can in the competition, however, with a relatively new core squad that may prove to be a problem.

Arsenal have tours far away in Germany and Greece along with a competitive encounter against Marseille in the Champions League group stage. Now, added to the fact that Arsenal have to play these games in midweek, the Gunners look to be set for a pretty tiresome time ahead. (Now though, they have already finished their first match in Germany, they still have the Greece and France tour coming up in recent weeks). 

A mere glance at the Arsenal squad is enough for anybody to understand that they are a very injury-prone squad, and they have been, so for, the best part of the last two seasons. The problem that they have this time is also that they have far lesser quality in attack, and the options seem limited especially with Wilshere and Vermaelen (arguably two of their better players) having a long-term injury now. Thus, the extra games that Arsenal have to play will not help them either as it has brings with it the added probability of further weakening the squad.

Even some of Arsenal's new additions to the squad have had a history of injuries too e.g., Benayoun and Arteta.

Now keep in mind, Arsenal having to play the defending German champions Dortmund, Marseille and Olympiakos for six mid-weeks doesn't really look to be a good thing to happen to them.  They have to practically field their strongest outfit in almost all of them unlike United who have luckily managed a toothless group to qualify from.

Arsenal Don't Look Strong Enough To Win the Competition

This has been said often enough. However, just to emphasize my point, it is worth mentioning that the Arsenal squad doesn't look good enough to win the Champions League by any stretch of your imagination.

Even with Fabregas, Nasri and Co., all Arsenal managed was to bow out to Barcelona in the last two Champions League competitions. However, it would be worth mentioning that the Gunners only found Barcelona so early in the competition because they failed to qualify as the group winner among far inferior European counterparts in Shakhtar Donetsk, Braga and Partizan Belgrade. All that after they managed to fend off a last-group match scare against Partizan.

This time, after Arsene Wenger almost made a mess of the transfer window, he brought in Arteta, Andre Santos, Mertesacker and Benayoun in last-minute deals after he bought Gervinho earlier in the window. Of them, only Benayoun has a good European pedigree, and whilst the rest may have been in Europe, whether they really deserve to represent to Arsenal in such a big competition is debatable.

And although the Gunners did manage a rather flattering draw against Dortmund yesterday, their defensive lapses were there for all to see and had the German club managed half as good a finish as they did with their equalizer, Arsenal may easily have been forced to return empty-handed.

All in all, it is fair to say that although there may be some financial gains from Arsenal competing in the competition, if they qualify further, with little or no hope of winning the Champions League, Arsenal's voyage in the Champions League only has the makings of a major distraction.  

Arsenal Look Woeful in the Premier League so Far

Even though still very early days, it would be no exaggeration to say that Arsenal have had a woeful start to the Premier League. After being drubbed 8-2 at Old Trafford, it is only fair to assume that the North London outfit is very low on confidence. And even though they managed to secure their first win of the Premier League against newcomers Swansea at home, it would only be fair to say that the best thing that happened to Arsenal that match was that they were able to escape without a red card.

The only goal the Gunners managed in the match was an outcome of a comical mistake by the Swansea goal keeper tells that the squad needs to really get their acts together as fast as they possibly can.

Early indications in the season points out that only Manchester City, Manchester United and may be Chelsea look good enough to settle as the top three sides of the League.

Now with Champions League as an obligatory fixture, Arsenal could find it very difficult to nab the fourth spot with their only other competitors in Liverpool and Tottenham having nothing of that to worry themselves with.

It may be pointed out that even Spurs have to compete in the Europa, however, in the Europa League, the oppositions are usually weaker and fielding a weaker 11 is a normal; in the Champions League, that is surely not the case.

Now if Arsenal were to miss out on the Champions League next season, it is not tough to see them missing out on some of their major targets in the transfer window too, which may lead to a further perseverance with a less competitive team. Also, no less significantly, it would also mean a loss of major lump of cash going into next season.

Thus, it could be fair to conclude that the Champions League is more of a distraction than a chance to win silverware, and it could be better in the long run if Arsenal exit the competition this year sooner than later.