Arsenal and Chelsea to clock up the air miles during the Europa League group stages

REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

Arsenal and Chelsea’s fixture schedules became increasingly treacherous after the Europa League draw pipped them both against clubs from Eastern Europe.

Chelsea will play PAOK, BATE Borisov and Vidi in the Europa League group stage, while Arsenal will face Sporting CP, Qarabag and FC Vorskla in the Europa League group stage this season.

Chelsea are set to travel a total of 7,898 miles, while Arsenal's combined journey length will be a whopping 11,512 miles.

The Gunners are competing in Europe's second tier club competition for the second successive season after finishing sixth in the Premier League last term.

Their maiden Europa League campaign saw them advance to the semi-final stage where they were stopped by eventual champions Atletico Madrid, who denied Arsene Wenger one final piece of silverware in north London.

The draw

 

Group L
Chelsea
PAOK
BATE Borisov
Vidi

Group E
Arsenal
Sporting CP
Qarabag
FC Vorskla

This time however Arsenal have a Europa League specialist at the helm. Unai Emery is the competition's most successful manager alongside Italian great Giovanni Trapattoni, who also won the competition three times under its previous guise the Uefa Cup.

Meanwhile, Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri had his first taste of the Europa League last season when his Napoli side dropped down into the competition following their elimination from the Champions League.

Key dates

Matchday one September 20
Matchday two October 4
Matchday three October 25
Matchday four November 8
Matchday five November 29
Matchday six December 13
Round of 32 draw December 17

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT