Arsenal's first dropoff of the season may come back to bite them.
After drawing 1-1 with Southampton in the league on Sunday, the Gunners weren't able to raise their levels in the Europa League and suffered a second loss of the campaign with a disappointing 2-0 away loss to PSV Eindhoven.
Qualification to the next round of the competition had already been confirmed, but Mikel Arteta knows that not finishing top could become a serious block for further progress in the tournament due to a major rule change.
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Teams finishing first and second in Europa League groups will no longer be part of the same round of 32 ties. Group winners will go straight into the last 16 whilst runners-up face play-off matches against third-placed Champions League group stage opponents.
Already confirmed as dropping into the second-tier of European football are Barcelona, Ajax and record six-time Europa League winners Sevilla, whilst fierce north London rivals Tottenham, RB Salzburg, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, and AC Milan could yet join them.
The Gunners still have it in their own hands to finish top of their group, though and know that beating bottom-placed Zurich at the Emirates will secure a safe passage past potentially threatening Champions League drop-outs. This hasn't stopped Arteta from admitting the competition is at its strongest and that the drop-off this week has become an issue.
He said, "Obviously, we knew the results and what was coming, and the competition is going to be at a level probably that it's never been at before. This is the challenge for us."
Arsenal still have to play Chelsea, Brighton and Wolves before the winter World Cup break, and an effective dead-rubber against Zurich may have been a valuable chance to rotate his side. The manager doesn't think that his side will regret not putting the group to bed, though, he added, "We never planned to have a day off in that [Zurich] fixture because we know how difficult it is to win in Europe.
"You just have to see the other groups and where everybody is. We're in a really good position – we've won four games, and we have to finalise the job against Zurich at home in a week's time, and we will prepare for that."
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