WENGER IS NOW BACK TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Arsenal return to Europa League, where Cologne wait to spring a surprise, writes Ian Hawkey
It is 20 years almost to the day since Arsene Wenger gave his first team talk to an Arsenal dressing room in preparation for a European match. By mid-September 1997, his players had put away their scepticism about this lean, professorial Frenchman who had arrived as a relative unknown into English football.
But Wenger was not quite deemed a magician at that stage in his long Arsenal odyssey. His Arsenal lost on that occasion, 1-0 at Greek club PAOK Saloniki, and their adventure in what was then called the Uefa Cup would be over within 180 minutes. In the home leg of that first-round tie, they could only draw 1-1.
Doesn’t that seem a long, long time ago? The Uefa Cup no longer exists under that name and Arsenal, after capitalising on the revolutionary momentum Wenger would give them in 1997/98, his first full season in charge, soon got into the habit of assuming that European club football only meant Uefa Champions League football.
Not since 2000 have Arsenal played in the secondary European club tournament.
Their last game in the Uefa Cup was its final in 2000, which they lost to Galatasaray on penalties, having dropped into that competition from the Champions League group phase.
It is hard to apply a rosy tint to the novel experience awaiting Arsenal tonight in North London. After 19 successive Septembers in the Champions League, it is Thursday night football for Emirates Stadium, and a Europa League campaign that may feel a little alien.
But peer through the halflight of the Europa League and Arsenal will glimpse others with greater pedigree than theirs in this environment.
AC Milan will be showing off their €150 million-plus (Dh660.4m) of summer recruits. Milan have seven European Cups to their name. Olympique Marseille have one, which is one more than Arsenal boast.
And besides London, the capitals of Germany – Hertha Berlin – and Italy – Lazio – will be hosting Europa League matches this autumn. Meanwhile, for the representatives of the city that hosts the final in May, Olympique Lyonnais, there is a strong motive to see out the journey until the end.
Arsenal begin against Cologne, and, mindful of the city derby at Chelsea in the Premier League three days later, Wenger will rest senior players from his line-up.
“Thursday to Sunday mornings is a short time,” Wenger said.
Cologne, European Cup semi-finalists in 1979 and Uefa Cup finalists in 1986, last participated in frontline European competition long before Wenger joined Arsenal. It has been a quarter-century of mixed fortunes – five relegations, five promotions – since they were knocked out of the Uefa Cup by Celtic in September 1992.
No wonder, then, that this return to British soil for a marquee match is thought too big an opportunity to miss for thousands of Cologne supporters. The official allocation of 2,900 away tickets was oversubscribed by almost 10 to one.
They came in expectation that some supporters of Arsenal, spoiled by 19 consecutive seasons of Champions League football, might feel lukewarm about the Europa League. And in hope that, if Arsenal’s approach on the pitch is tepid, there’s an opportunity for the Bundesliga club to spring an ambush.
“There is no doubt that we are up against a team of very high quality,” said Peter Stoger, the Cologne manager, concerned his team are yet to gain a point so far in the league this season. “And they will punish very quickly the sorts of mistakes we have made in the Bundesliga. But we’ll take on Arsenal with the idea we can pull off a surprise.”