While the Europa League may not exactly be the most ‘well respected’ competition in the history of the beautiful game, it’s certainly a great avenue into European football for a lot of teams – and, of course, it serves as a ‘last chance saloon’ for those who weren’t quite able to make it work in the Champions League. It creates a fascinating dynamic that isn’t spoken about enough, and we imagine the reason it isn’t spoken about enough is that people would much rather talk about the UCL. That makes sense, to an extent, but we want to take this opportunity to have a little chat about Europe’s second biggest club competition.

The Gunners and Qarabag are heading in two very different directions this season, and it’s not exactly hard to see that. Domestically Qarabag are in with a much better chance of reigning supreme in their top division, whereas on the European stage, Arsenal are considered to be one of the favourites to win the entire thing. It makes for an interesting back and forth because obviously everyone wants to be able to bring their great form through to every competition they’re involved in, but sometimes, that’s just not how it works.

It’d be foolish of us to write this off as a game that isn’t worth talking about because we’ve been in this kind of position before. Arsenal often do a wonderful job of building the fans’ hopes up before tearing them down again, so there are reasons to be apprehensive about their chances of coming away with three points. Qarabag, on the other hand, may not possess the kind of quality necessary to go all the way, but they’ve definitely got the kind of heart and spirit in their squad to make you believe an upset is possible.

Of course, one of the biggest stories in regards to Arsenal comes in the form of their new boss Unai Emery, as the Spaniard continues to impress during his first few months in charge. While he certainly got off to a rocky start he’s been able to gradually turn things around, to the point where the club’s future is actually a lot brighter than people initially would’ve anticipated. Alas, he can’t afford to get too cocky or complacent, because there are a series of clubs just waiting to knock them off of their perch – and, unsurprisingly, Qarabag is one of them.

You can’t deny the numbers, though, and Arsenal have been on an absolute tear in the last few weeks with seven straight victories in all competitions. They’ve been able to see off the challenge of West Ham, Cardiff, Newcastle, Vorskla, Everton, Brentford and Watford. Sure, that may not be the most impressive list in the world on the face of it, but the old saying goes that you can only beat what’s put in front of you and it’s more important for Emery’s Arsenal to win ugly than to play well and come up short week in and week out.

Qarabag, on the other hand, have had a mixed bag of results ever since dropping down from the Champions League and into the Europa League this summer. In their last six games, they’ve been able to defeat Sheriff, Sumqayit, Gabala FC, Zira and Sabah, with just one of those wins coming in Europe. They were also defeated 2-0 by Sporting in their first group stage encounter, which should tell you a lot about their resilience. Arsenal have struggled in the past with unfancied teams coming straight at them from the word go, and if Qarabag can do that, then we’re in for a very interesting evening.

In terms of the history between these two clubs, there isn’t really all too much to discuss, given that they’ve never come up against one another. That, in our opinion, represents a real change of the guard when it comes to teams from unlikely football nations progressing through to the later stages of these competitions, and that can only be a good thing. Obviously, given the reputation associated with Azerbaijan as a nation, the travelling fans from England will need to be wary of their surroundings, but the same could be said of any European away day. The real question is this: will Qarabag’s element of surprise factor into the result?

The most notable absence from a media perspective is Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who not be travelling courtesy of the tensions between his home country of Armenia and Azerbaijan. That’ll be something worth keeping an eye on if the Gunners are able to progress to the final of the Europa League this season, as it’ll be held in the same stadium that they’re playing this game in. Bernd Leno will be expected to maintain his place in the starting XI, with Petr Cech, unfortunately, being ruled out for at least a month.

Qarabag, on the other hand, possesses a series of unknown entities in the realms of European football – which could play to their advantage. Medetov, Michel and Zoubir will likely be running the show in an attacking midfielder sense, with Qarayev and Diniyev providing support just behind them. Emeghara will be viewed as their main threat in front of goal, and with the home fans behind him, you’d have to imagine that he’ll be doing everything in his power to get the club’s group stage campaign really up and running.

Qarabag vs Arsenal Betting Prediction

All eyes are going to be on the visitors in order to see how many goals they can stick past Qarabag, but that isn’t necessarily the right way to view this game. The Azerbaijani side are going to do everything in their power to pull off an unlikely result, and we’re all on board for that. They need to set the tempo from the minute they kick off in order to prevent Arsenal from getting into their rhythm, as there will likely be a few fringe players starting for the Gunners who want to prove a point to the boss.

We can see a tense opening 45 minutes with Arsenal just edging their way into the lead before half time, before doubling their advantage late in the game. However, we can indeed picture Qarabag getting on the scoreboard, even if it only winds up being a consolation. Arsenal will move to eight straight wins, Qarabag will pick up a goal in the group stage to give them some confidence, and they should then both head into their third group stage games with no fear.

So our final prediction, in this instance, will be a somewhat nervy 2-1 triumph for the English side.

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