Tottenham: Why Arsenal FA Cup win is bad news for Spurs

Arsenal’s FA Cup win is bad news for Tottenham.

Watching their North London rivals win a trophy is a sight no Spurs fan wants to see, but Arsenal’s FA Cup victory over Chelsea on Sunday is even worse for Tottenham than that.

Both Tottenham and Arsenal have qualified for next season’s Europa League. However, despite the fact Spurs finished ahead of the Gunners for the fourth year in a row, they will now enter Europe in the second qualifying round, with Arsenal entering via the group stage.

While Tottenham should have no trouble qualifying for the group stage, they will now have the inconvenience of playing additional games shortly after the start of their Premier League campaign.

While missing out on Champions League qualification isn’t ideal, Spurs should enter the Europa League with high hopes. Under Jose Mourinho, they have a real opportunity to win a major trophy, which would be the club’s first since winning the League Cup in 2008. Mourinho won the Europa League with Manchester United in 2017.

Also, winning the Europa League would give Spurs automatic qualification for the following season’s Champions League even if they fail to achieve a top-four finish. The incentive to go all-in in the Europa League is there.

However, the qualifying rounds will give Mourinho a chance to give some playing time to young players in the squad. While Tottenham will need to win these games to qualify, of course, that doesn’t mean Mourinho can’t rotate his squad and give some valuable minutes to young players like Ryan Sessegnon, Gedson Fernandes, and Juan Foyth.

One major negative of the Europa League is the congested schedule that comes with it. Playing on Thursdays and Sundays isn’t ideal with Premier League points so vital, but equally, it’s a long competition. To win, Tottenham will have to play as many as 18 games — the second and third qualifying rounds, the playoff round, six group games, and then knockout games from the Round of 32 to the final.