Seaman: Arsenal 'more equipped to win the Europa League'

David Seaman

, the former

player, thinks that not making the Champions League could be a good thing.

Even though

Mikel Arteta

's team got off to a bad start last season, they were on a good run that put them in fourth place with three games to go, four points ahead of Tottenham, who were in fifth place at the time.

But because they lost two of their last three games, including a 3-0 loss at Spurs, their north London rivals beat them to fourth place. Seaman has talked about how sad their season was over, telling Stats Perform: "Worst of all is that Tottenham took it away from us. Because it's

and because, at the end of August 2021, we were last in the league and they were first. Then there was an international break, so they were first for two weeks, and we were last. This made things worse (laughing)."

"Then there's the fact that they got a spot in the

Champions League

. But you can't just keep thinking about the bad things; you have to be positive. You've got to keep learning; you've got to get better. And we're doing exactly that."

Before the new season, the Gunners were busy in the transfer market. From the Premier League champions Manchester City, they got striker Gabriel Jesus and the versatile

.

Fabio Vieira, an attacking midfielder from Porto, came to Arsenal in a deal worth an initial £30 million (€35 million) and an extra £4.2 million (€5 million) in add-ons. Forward Eddie Nketiah signed a new contract after scoring five goals in Arsenal's last seven league games. Seaman said that he thought the Europa League might be easier to win anyway, even though it was disappointing not to get into the Champions League.

"It was better than before. We came in eighth place twice, "he said. "A lot of people jump right to the bad and say that we threw away the Champions League. But even in the top four, we thought, "Whoa, we're doing too well." Even though we came in fifth, getting into the Europa League is still very good.

"I believe we have a better chance of winning the Europa League than the Champions League. We have a better chance of winning that one. So it's all about being positive and progressing. And that's what's happening. We're getting better and better. The young players are getting experience, and it leads to a good future for Arsenal."

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