Once the dust settles on Arsenal's exit from this season's Europa League, then many may begin to see a possible silver lining with regard to the Premier League title race.
The Gunners crashed out of the aforementioned competition at the round of 16 stage on Thursday night, losing to Sporting CP on penalties after a 1-1 draw (3-3 on aggregate) at the Emirates Stadium with Gabriel Martinelli's spot-kick miss ultimately proving to be the decisive moment.
As a result, Arsenal's long wait to lift European silverware goes on and manager Mikel Arteta was understandably downbeat after the penalty shoot-out. "Yeah, a huge blow. We really wanted to go through in the competition and fight and go for it. Today we tried for 120 minutes and penalties and it wasn’t enough," he said in the post-match press conference.
