Arsene Wenger may be viewing the Europa League as the competition in which to blood youngsters and give fringe players game time but before long it could be Arsenal’s top priority.
Though eight games into the Premier League season is too soon to discount anything it is difficult to envisage how Arsenal’s campaign does not descend into the customary scrap for Champions League qualification.
Indeed many doubt that even a return to the top four is on the cards for Arsenal this season, including Gunners great Liam Brady, until 2014 a key component of Wenger’s backroom staff as head of youth development.
For Brady September’s unbeaten run in the Premier League was another false dawn and, in light of an all too familiar 2-1 defeat at Watford, he fears that Arsenal will struggle to keep pace with Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool, let alone the Manchester clubs.
“I’ve watched Arsenal a lot this season and they were on a good run going up to Watford, but I still wasn’t confident because we were playing teams that we really didn’t have to do much to beat,” he said on The Stand podcast.
“I’ve got major doubts. Every time we come against a team with character and strength, are we up for it. Can Arsenal cope with it?
“And I think it’s going to be a season where we won’t threaten to the top four, and I think it’s going to be a season where getting into the Champions League probably relies on the Europa League, where we would have a chance of winning it when we get into the latter stages and he [Arsene Wenger] puts his best team out.”
Arsenal young guns - Unai Emery's bright prospects
Whilst most bookmakers have Arsenal sixth on their list of most likely top four finishers the betting community offer a far more optimistic assessment of the Gunners’ chances of claiming European silverware this season.
Twenty-three years after their only victory in a Uefa competition, when Alan Smith scored the only goal in Copenhagen to overcome a Parma side bristling with talent, Arsenal are widely considered the bookmakers’ favourites to lift the Europa League.
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Though that might change if the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Napoli slip out of the top tier at the end of the Champions League group stages the reality is Arsenal have a realistic opportunity to win a European trophy that they haven’t had since they lost to Barcelona in 2006.
And whilst Wenger will always view that Champions League final as the one that got away there is no realistic chance that he can plug that gap on his Arsenal CV.
The Europa League has already offered the Gunners that special something different and, for all the affection the trophy retains in north London, Arsenal fans would delight in lifting a trophy that isn’t the FA Cup.
Not just that but with Wenger’s side so firmly in the lurch on the domestic scene it may be that a trip to Lyon next May is Arsenal’s only hope of returning to Europe's biggest stage.