ARSENAL have the chance to earn London bragging rights by winning the FA Cup final against Chelsea… and getting one over on Tottenham at the same time.
The Gunners face the Blues at Wembley today with the famous trophy and a place in the Europa League at stake.
With three English sides qualifying for the competition, either Arsenal or seventh-placed Wolves will join Spurs and Leicester in next season’s draw.
The cup winners or sixth-placed Tottenham are nominated to qualify directly to the group stage with the Foxes.
That means one unlucky side is destined to enter at the second qualifying round and play an extra three games before the tournament proper commences.
An Arsenal victory at Wembley will knock Wolves out and relegate Spurs to the qualifier route, which begins on September 17 – five days after the 2020/21 Premier League opener.
Seedings will be in place for the qualifiers, meaning Jose Mourinho’s men will dodge the likes of AC Milan and Wolfsburg also in the hat.
Teams potentially coming up on their path include Irish side Shamrock Rovers, Lichtenstein cup winners Vaduz and Motherwell, who are all entering at the first round.
On August 9, the draw for the preliminary round will take place with the first round decided a day later.
The first English side in the hat finds out their fate on August 31 with the second qualifying round draw.
Should Chelsea beat Arsenal in the FA Cup final, Wolves will qualify for the Europa League and enter at this stage.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side endured a lengthy qualifying process at the very start of the 2019/20 campaign.
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Over 12 months ago, they kicked off with a 2-0 win over Crusaders at Molineux before ties with Pyunik of Armenia and Torino.
However the new campaign’s run-in will be significantly kinder thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
Clubs must play only single-legged ties with the host decided at the time of the draw, and no fans allowed inside stadiums.
