Chelsea's triumph over Arsenal in last season's Europa League final saw the Blues rewarded with Champions League qualification to go along with the coveted trophy.
The Gunners return to the Thursday night competition where they will be joined this season by 2016/17 winners Manchester United. Can either side go all the way to Gdansk?
In anticipation of the big kick-off, we asked the stats whizzes at Google Cloud, Opta and Squawka to crunch all the numbers to produce a full script of the upcoming football season.
Read this exclusive excerpt to find out how they believe the Europa League knockout stages will play out - and when you're done, check out more from The Script.
MORE FROM THE SCRIPT:
- How were The Script's conclusions calculated?
- Premier League: The Golden Boot race
- Premier League: The relegation battle
- Premier League: The 'Big Six' mini-league
- Premier League: Playmaker award
- Champions League: The knockout stages
- The Script in full
BT Sport will show 52 exclusively live Premier League games this season - more than ever before - as well as every game in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League proper, plus selected Emirates FA Cup, Ladbrokes Premiership, Vanarama National League, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and FA Women's Super League games.
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