So much for Arsenal being one of the elite soccer clubs in Europe. Three weeks after being among the instigators of the controversially closed-off and ultimately ill-fated Super League, the English team is facing the ignominy of being shut out of continental competition for the first time in 25 years.
A failure to overturn a 2-1 deficit against Villarreal in the Europa League semifinals on Thursday would end Arsenal’s quarter-century run of participating in either the Champions League or UEFA’s secondary club competitions.
Such a degrading of status would be ironic, considering the planned Super League — devised and then aborted within a chaotic 48-hour period last month — would have positioned Arsenal as one of 12 elite teams in the