Unai Emery seems to be a frustrated man at Arsenal!
Indeed, the Arsenal boss admits some of his players were not particularly interested in playing in the Europa League in the early part of the season.
The Gunners will face Chelsea in Baku next Wednesday for the chance to end Emery’s first season in charge with a trophy and secure a return to the Champions League.
Arsenal, who finished fifth in the Premier League, have reserved most of their best performances for Europe this season, with particularly impressive wins over Napoli and Valencia in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
But Emery, a three-time winner of the trophy with Sevilla, says it took time to convince certain members of his squad to give the competition as much importance as the league.
“My titles in this competition are no guarantee [of success],” he said. “Each match, each year is different.
“The first idea was to transmit to the players this season to go for every competition. Now we are in the Europa League. We needed to feel this competition was an important competition.
“When we started playing in the first matches, some players preferred to play Premier League. Okay. I explained then to every player that we needed the focus on every competition.