Arsenal - the richest club to win Europa League this season???

Arsenal are the richest club in the Europa League this season.

The Gunners are the seventh-richest club in the world behind the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United. However, in terms of the Europa League, Arsenal are the richest.

The only other team in the top 20 richest clubs published in January that features in this season’s Europa League campaign is AC Milan. The Serie A club, who finished sixth last term, make a total revenue of £151.5m annually.

Interestingly, despite beating their San Siro rivals to the coveted Europa League spot by just one point, Milan are considerably richer, with Inter ‘only’ bringing in £125.4m.

Arsenal, on the other hand, are one of the most valuable football teams in the world, earning a whopping £435.5m a year due to their lucrative commercial deals, which include a five-year £170m kit deal with PUMA.

Premier League clubs have also been handed a massive amount of TV money with the title-winners Chelsea taking an eye-watering £153.2m.

With this in mind, should Arsene Wenger go all-out for the Europa League this season?

This is the first season in 17 years that Arsenal have featured in the competition and while many initially wrote it off as a tournament for the ‘kids’, the boss fielded a pretty strong side against FC Koln.

Wenger’s starting XI in the Gunners’ Europa League match, which his side won 3-1 after going 1-0 behind in the first half, included first team players like Sead Kolasinac, Alexis Sanchez and Hector Bellerin, all of whom scored.

What’s more, Arsenal enjoyed 72% possession, had 16 shots to the Bundesliga side’s 10 (seven of which were on target to Koln’s four) and took five corners to Koln’s three.

Does this indicate that Arsenal will actually go after the trophy, as they definitely have a strong chance of winning it? Perhaps.

We won’t know if we don’t try.

Arsenal’s next Europa League clash against BATE Borisov takes place on 28 September.

The Gunners face the infamous Red Star Belgrade on 19 October before hosting the Serbian team In November.

Wenger and his men are very capable of finishing top of their group and considering the rest of the competition, they have every chance of winning it if they apply themselves.

It may not be the Champions League but it’s a European trophy nonetheless.