Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has reiterated that winning the Europa League should not result in Champions League qualification as it did for Manchester United last season.
The Gunners missed out on Champions League football after finishing fifth last season, but Jose Mourinho's United side - who finished sixth - qualified for the elite competition after lifting the 2016-17 Europa League trophy.
A return to Champions League football is expected to be a minimum requirement for Wenger after signing a new two-year contract at Arsenal, but the 67-year-old does not believe winning the Europa League should restore the Gunners to Europe's top table.
"I was always against it," he said ahead of Arsenal's Community Shield meeting with Chelsea on Sunday.
"Because apart from Man United, who did win the Europa League, all the years before it was always a team who was kicked out of the Champions League by having been kicked out of it before.
"You cannot go into the season and think that (you will get into the Champions League by winning the Europa League).
"I always was not in favour of that, because I think at some stage it can influence on the championship, because if a team is in April in a position where they have more chance to win the Europa League they can let some games go in the championship, and not completely focus on that, on the regularity of the competition.
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"I will always play a team that has a good chance to win the next game. In the Europa League if we can afford sometimes to rest some players we will do it.
"But we have to adapt to the level of the competition and see first what kind of group we play in."
Additional reporting by the Press Association.
