Unai Emery’s side capitulated against Chelsea and, with such an important summer ahead, the damage may be severeThere was something almost pitiful about Unai Emery gesturing enthusiastically from his technical area, urging his team forwards, in the 90th minute at 4-1 down. He suddenly looked like a footballing King Canute, trying to stem a tide that washed all over Arsenal and left their present and future ambitions shipwrecked.The scale of the capitulation left Arsenal in shock. At the end of it all, the shattering despair felled their players. They had been banking on this, hoping that the Europa League final would bring a happy ending to this season and positivity for the next with a return to the Champions League....
Unai Emery has proved a master of two-leg ties but also has the wherewithal to impose his gameplan in a one-off finalTransition is often a useful excuse for football clubs but in the case of Arsenal and Chelsea it happens to be true. The Europa League final will be a battle of two managers coming to the end of their first season at their respective clubs, both hamstrung by oddly imbalanced squads, and both charged with leading their sides into a bold new era.Maurizio Sarri’s problem, though, is that all Chelsea’s existence since José Mourinho was first removed in 2006 has been transition. Related: Arsenal’s ongoing Champions League absence has not been so costly | David Conn Related: Eden Hazard...
They may be foreign-owned corporations featuring few homegrown players but we should celebrate English club successes built on the blurring, not the building, of bordersNous sommes les meilleurs! Wir sind die Besten! We are the cosmopolitan, financially skewed, managerial-outsourcing champions!It turns out the English aren’t coming. Look out of the window. We’re already here, in Madrid and Baku, Porto and Amsterdam, complaining about the milk, circling the cafe chairs, standing arms-spread on the hotel bar, simultaneously drunk on English exceptionalism and also deeply mistrustful of the phrase “English exceptionalism” because it contains a lot of syllables. Related: How English football rules Europe (with a little help from foreigners) Related: Premier League: 10 things to look out for on the final...
Belgian scored the penalty that put Blues into the Europa League final but talk has intensified of a £140m move to Real Madrid this summerSo farewell Eden, if this is really the end. It has been almost seven years since the Belgium international famously announced on Twitter: “I’m signing for the champion’s league winner”, rejecting approaches from both Manchester clubs among others after a frenzied chase for his signature in the spring of 2012.The opportunity to see Eden Hazard in what might prove to be his last appearance at Stamford Bridge was always likely to be an emotional occasion for Chelsea’s supporters and so it proved on a night that perhaps encapsulated why he could be leaving. Related: Chelsea beat...
Leicester can test City but Liverpool face a challenge of their own, it’s all or nothing for Cardiff and Watford need to regroupFollowing the disappointment of their reasonably heroic Champions League defeat at Barcelona, Liverpool must rouse themselves for what could be an extremely tricky Saturday evening appointment at Newcastle in which they simply cannot afford to slip up. With only two matches of the Premier League campaign remaining, anything less than a win for Liverpool would leave the door open for Manchester City to all but wrap up the title on Monday. One suspects this is a far tougher assignment than Jürgen Klopp would like so soon after a gruelling and dispiriting game at the Camp Nou and the...