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...
If Gunners refused to contest Europa League showpiece they would generate headlines that might force Uefa into climbdownLeave no man behind. A code embraced by the US military, it refers to army policy of doing everything and anything possible to avoid abandoning troops behind enemy lines. A commendable dictum, despite the accompanying risks, it is one the Arsenal hierarchy may ponder ruefully as their players and backroom staff set off for next week’s Europa League final, leaving one of their own potentially key troops behind before even arriving at the Baku battlefield.In the meantime a “letter voicing their concerns” has been dispatched to Uefa and, at a recent media briefing, Unai Emery made all the right noises about the importance...
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...
Manager once again turned to his blundering centre-back and the attackers had to atone for his team’s defensive failingsBefore this match Valencia had always had Arsenal’s number. They had won all three previous ties between the pair and then, in 2016, took £35m off the Gunners for Shkodran Mustafi. That is what folks in north London might refer to as being properly mugged off and if it did not exactly make this a grudge match, it at least reinforced the need for Arsenal to win for their own sense of worth, before anything else. That was true for Mustafi more than anyone.Although the first meeting between these clubs ended in a penalty shootout defeat for Arsenal after a 0-0 draw...