Arsenal and Chelsea look for salvation in the Europa League with Premier League top four hopes in the balance

Arsenal and Chelsea face different opponents in their Europa League semi-finals tomorrow evening.

Valencia and Eintracht Frankfurt are different propositions and will pose different questions, but in many ways the London rivals are in the same boat.

Like so many seasons before, their respective campaigns have boiled down to one major objective: qualification for the Champions League.

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The Europa League is a laudable trophy to win, but it remains very much in the shadow of its bigger, most prestigious and, crucially, more fruitful sibling. Yet the fact the winner is granted safe passage into the promised land means it remains uniquely desirable.

Considering the precarious positions Arsenal and Chelsea occupy in the Premier League – teetering on the precipice, straddling the fine line between the harsh black and white nature of success and failure – their European adventures carry great significance.

Chelsea, in fourth, may currently hold the upper-hand, two points ahead of fifth-placed Arsenal, but with just two league games remaining and poor to indifferent form affecting both, the Europa League could provide salvation.

Emery under-fire

The situation is certainly most precarious for Arsenal. Three successive league defeats in which they’ve conceded nine goals through varied methods of blooper reel-quality defending means their season is in the advanced stages of unravelling

Ramshackle defending has left manager Unai Emery under pressure, with the Spaniard admitting after the 3-0 defeat by Leicester on Sunday that finishing in the top four would be “very difficult”.

Luckily for them Emery is not only a former manager of their opposition at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow, Valencia, but a Europa League expert, having won the competition three times in successive seasons with former club Sevilla.

“We have a big ambition in this competition,” Emery said on Sunday. “Our confidence can go up, can go down, but the most important is to be clear in our minds and our way.”

Unai Emery needs his favourite competition now more than ever (Source: Getty)

That way won’t include the injured Aaron Ramsey, who has played his final game for the club ahead of a summer move to Juventus, but will have to include more robust defending. The hapless Shkodran Mustafi has born the brunt of criticism but he is far from the only player under-performing of late.

With two legs against Valencia – a side who they have lost all three of their previous meetings in Europe against – Brighton at home and a trip to Burnley to come fans might be concerned to hear defender Laurent Koscielny’s concession that “maybe everyone is a little tired”.

Arsenal have the firepower in the form of 24-goal Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and 16-goal Alexandre Lacazette, but in order for them to function they need those behind them tighten up.

Sanguine Sarri

Chelsea travel to play Eintracht Frankfurt in a less fraught situation, but with plenty of their own concerns. The Blues have also been operating at less than full capacity and remain worryingly reliant on Eden Hazard.

Just like Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester United, Maurizio Sarri’s side have stumbled in the league, albeit in less dramatic circumstances, drawing with United and Burnley after defeat by Liverpool.

With a two-point cushion, the other top four contenders struggling and games against Watford and Leicester to come, Sarri doesn’t sound too concerned.

“We are fighting for the top four and in semi-final of the Europa League. We have done a good season,” he said. “Now we need to take two very important targets.”

Maurizio Sarri has staked a lot on Gonzalo Higuain (Source: Getty)

Having already lost the League Cup final to Manchester City amid a Kepa Arrizabalaga-shaped storm, the Europa League holds greater to significance to Sarri personally.

Chelsea, and in particular owner Roman Abramovich, are not scared to move on if trophies are not forthcoming. Sarri’s predecessors won them and still got the sack; the Italian himself is yet to win a single trophy in his long managerial career.

A Europa League win would ensure Champions League football regardless of league position and could keep the wolves from the door.

Sarri is without Antonio Rudiger, who has been ruled out for the season following injury against United, so Andreas Christensen is expected to start alongside David Luiz.

While that straight swap shouldn’t prove much of a problem, Sarri has a personal investment in the performance of on-loan striker Gonzalo Higuain, who he wants to sign permanently at the end of the campaign.

Higuain has scored just four goals in 14 appearances, against Huddersfield, Fulham and Burnley, since joining from Juventus in January. If there was ever a time to step up the plate and back up Hazard tomorrow is it.