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Unai Emery not worried about long-distance Europa League trips

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Arsenal will have to travel to Azerbaijan, Portugal and Ukraine

Unai Emery is confident Arsenal can make a big impact in the Europa League, despite the long distances they must travel for away games.

Arsenal were drawn in Group E against Qarabag of Azerbaijan, Sporting Lisbon and Vorskla of Ukraine on Friday.

Emery has previously been successful in the competition, winning it three consecutive times with Sevilla.

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Arsenal 3-1 West Ham

He said: "The three teams, we have respect for them. We want to work and go a big way in this competition; each match is different and (requires) different travel.

"When you play two matches in four weeks you have more time to prepare for the match, to prepare with the players physically. When you play three matches in four weeks it's harder, there's less time to prepare.

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A phone call interrupted Emery's press conference on Friday

"But we want that, we want to play a lot of matches, three in four weeks. After the international break we're going to play a lot of matches, in this moment I ensure we're going to use a lot of players in this squad."

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Image: Mesut Ozil has returned to training after an illness

The Arsenal boss also confirmed Mesut Ozil has returned to training. He was left out of Arsenal's match against West Ham after suffering an illness.

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Emery said: "He's training normally with the group in every session this week. We started on Tuesday and he's been with the group, he's okay, he's looking well."

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