Another UEFA Champions League group stage draw will pass by with Arsenal not involved.
Going into the final three games of last season, the Gunners were on course to end their five-year absence from European football's elite club competition but defeats away at Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United ultimately proved costly as they missed out on a top-four finish by two points.
But it wasn't all doom and gloom as there are plenty of positives to take from Arsenal being back in the Europa League season following a full season without any European football whatsoever - the first time the club had experienced such a feat in over two decades.
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Simply put, European qualification was, perhaps, never as important for Arsenal as it was last season as it is all in relation to the upcoming changes to Champions League qualification and if the north London outfit finish outside the top four in the Premier League this term and next.
As previously announced by UEFA, the 2024/25 edition of the UEFA Champions League will follow a new format as there will be a single league made up of all 36 competing clubs. This means a departure from the current format of a 32-team group stage and most importantly, as the statement explains: "This will give four more sides the opportunity to compete against the best clubs in Europe."
In order to get one of the additional slots, Arsenal will have to be among 'two clubs with the highest club coefficients that have not qualified automatically for the Champions League’s league stage, but have qualified either for the Champions League qualification phase or the Europa League/the Europa Conference League.'
Of course, with the Gunners not in Europe last season they didn't receive any coefficients points, and as things stand are 17th in the UEFA coefficients rankings - behind Premier League rivals Liverpool (2nd), Manchester City (3rd), Chelsea (5th), Manchester United (10th) and Tottenham Hotspur (14th).
What this means is if there is no change to the club coefficients table in the next two years then Arsenal would be at risk of failing to secure one of the additional slots if two from the aforementioned quartet along with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, AS Roma, Sevilla, RB Leipzig, Ajax and Porto all failed to secure qualification via their respective leagues.
Now Arsenal can avoid this particular scenario by simply finishing in the top-four next season - or winning the competition if they are in it - to qualify outright for the 2023/24 Champions League campaign, but it's a nice option to fall back on as long as they have built up their own coefficients to be in contention for one of the two available slots.
One way to achieve the latter is by ensuring they reach the latter stage in the Europa League this season - preferably the final - and repeat the trick if they are in the same competition or in the Champions League or the Europa Conference League in the 2023/24 campaign.
As per the UEFA Coefficients calculation method, reaching the Champions League final is worth a maximum total of 38 coefficient points, it's 34 for reaching the Europa League final and 30 points for going all the way in the Europa Conference League.
Therefore Arsenal's coefficient will jump from 80.000 to 114.00 just by reaching the Europa League final this term and a strong season in Europe in the 2023/24 campaign should put them in contention to benefit from UEFA's new format for the Champions League if they need help with regards to qualification.
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