Europa League Futures

The Europa League is starting and it is time to discuss possible futures on a team to win the tournament outright. This is a much harder tournament to predict than the Champions League considering that the champion of this league may not even be in the tournament yet and could end up being a club that has fallen out of Champions League later on in the competition. There are still plenty of talented teams right now though, so let’s take a look at which teams can really go the distance and last against those other teams that could drop into the tournament later on.

Arsenal +550: Arsenal stands out as the biggest favorite on the board here right now, and they very well could end up in the finals with the team they have put together for this year. They have already started their Premier League season very hot with a 5-0-1 record and they spent a lot of money in the transfer window to add some big pieces and improve this team. Gabriel Jesus was just one of the big pieces they acquired to boost their attack and they also made countless other moves to boost their midfield and defense as well. They have a very good chance of going deep into the tournament and even winning it as they are one of the best teams in the Premier League this season and even have a very good chance of finishing top 4 getting back into Champions League. This is going to be a dominant team this year that will surely be a future Champions League team and they have the talent to make a deep run here.

Manchester United +800: Man Utd comes up as the next biggest favorite on the list here. They are a club that has been struggling for years with disappointing season after disappointing season. They have had countless managers over the last few years even though this team has plenty of talent to be a contender. They have started to play much better in the Premier League recently after their first two embarrassing matches, but they are still a few pieces away from being an elite team in Europe. Most of their problems stem from the front office and bad decision making on their part. They finally have a manager that is turning things around slowly but this team still needs one more key piece in the midfield and on defense to really strengthen this lineup from top to bottom. They definitely have players that can score goals but their defense needs improvement and until they make a move to improve that, they will not be able to go all the way and compete with some of the stronger teams they may see drop down. The odds are tempting but until they change owners and make a few more big moves in the transfer window, this will not be a contending team. 

Roma +1400: Roma comes up as the next on the list here and they are a team that made a ton of moves in the transfer window to improve their team. They picked up Dybala to really improve their attack and they have a lot of depth and quality players at both the midfield and defense positions. They have had a good start to their season in Serie A but they have really struggled to score goals against some of the bigger clubs in the league. Any matches they have won so far have been either very close in score by around 1 goal or they blew out a very bad opponent. They are the kind of team that plays very well against the bad teams but struggles to score on good defenses. They have a very good defense themselves as they have not allowed many goals in their matches, even against the better teams, and this is a defense that can take them very far in this tournament. They have the talent to be a top 4 team in Italy and their defense is good enough to keep them in any match with a chance to win, but their attack needs to start clicking and scoring lots of goals before they become a real contender. Roma did go very far in last year’s Europa Conference League as they ended up winning the title, and they have only made their team even better since then. The attack is still questionable on this team though, they have the potential to go very far in Europa League with that great defense and are a true contender to win here, but until they fix their attack and start to score goals more efficiently they are not my favorite team to win this tournament.

Real Betis +2500: Real Betis is the final team we will be discussing here. They are tied with 2 other teams at +2500 to win the tournament, Lazio and Real Sociedad, but of those 3 clubs Real Betis really has the best team of the group and the best chance of going deep into this competition. Real Betis is coming off of a great season where they finished 5th place in La Liga just 5 points out of a Champions League spot. They have a much stronger team this season though, and with the recent collapse of Sevilla they have a very good chance of being a Champions League team next year as they are just that good. Their strength comes in their home matches but they still play very well away from home and they have a great defense that can take them far in this tournament. They do not allow many goals in their matches, especially when they are at home, and it will be hard to rip points away from them at home in this competition as they are very good. They also have a very good attack that can score a lot of goals and this attack will be able to bail them out in a lot of away matches where their defense is allowing goals. This is a team that can keep up with the elite teams in Europe, they just played a match against Real Madrid in their league but even though they lost that match 2-1, they still went into Madrid and played very well giving them a good fight the entire match. Real Betis is a true contender to go all the way and win this tournament as a very nice darkhorse.

This was just a closer look at the top 4 favorites to win the tournament but once again, the winner of this tournament may not even be in the competition yet as it could end up being a drop down team from Champions League. These are the best teams in the competition so far though, and some of them have a real chance while others do not. My picks for the winner of this tournament as it stands would be Arsenal at +550 as they have the best team in the competition right now and are easily a Champions League level team this year with the moves they made, and my darkhorse is Real Betis at +2500 as they also have a very good team that plays against strong competition in Spain and they are a team that can score a lot of goals but defend well when they need to and they always come with a very smart strategy to get the best possible outcomes in their matches.