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Match report
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No word from Maurizio Sarri. But let’s give the man some space, he’s earned this post-match ciggie. A trophy at long last for the 60-year-old Chelsea boss; many congratulations to him and his deserving team. Commiserations to Arsenal, who will have another shot at this competition next season. All that’s left is to remind you that Dominic Fifield’s report is live, and thank you for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
Unai Emery speaks! “Firstly, congratulations to Chelsea. In the first half, we worked hard and made some chances to score. The match was going well. The first goal changed all, and the second goal made it difficult for us. We could not find the capacity to score.”
Dominic Fifield was our man in Baku. His report has just landed ... and here it is. Click now to enjoy!
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Cesar Azpilicueta and the outgoing Gary Cahill lift the Europa League trophy! As Queen blasts from the PA, the Europa League champions hand the silverware to their manager. Yesterday he was kicking his cap around in frustration; today he’s hoisting the cup in celebration. What a difference a day makes! Quite literally in this final, given there wasn’t much between the two teams in the first half, but an absolute chasm after the clock ticked past midnight. It’s lovely to see Sarri’s joy after the difficult season he’s had. A European trophy, third place in the Premier League and a domestic cup final ... it wasn’t too bad in the end, was it?
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Unai Emery, the colour drained from his face, ushers his team up to collect their runners-up medals. Chelsea form a guard of honour as they glumly trudge up to the podium. Nobody seems happy to have the medal draped around their neck, as you’d imagine. Emery walks off ahead of his team, then stands well apart from them. He’s either lost in contemplation, or simply fuming. Or both. My money’s on both. Expect some changes in the summer ... though it’s a harder job now, with no Champions League next season, and the Thursday-Sunday grind to look forward to.
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Olivier Giroud speaks! “I think it was a good final. We were better and more efficient in the second half. I am very proud because this team deserved to win something. We lost the League Cup against City, but this one is special, the second-best European championship. Obviously I left so many friends in Arsenal, the club changed my life, gave me the opportunity to live my dream of playing in the Premier League. I owe them a lot, so I will never forget and that’s why I didn’t want to celebrate. But on another side, I am so proud to win this trophy with Chelsea, I’m now a true blue. I feel blessed.”
On the touchline, Unai Emery strokes his chin pensively and stares at the floor. He’s won this competition three times with Sevilla, but now feels the sting of defeat. Chelsea are bouncing around in celebration, though their joy will be somewhat tempered by the interview Eden Hazard has just given to BT Sport on his future. “I don’t know yet, we will decide in a few days. I’ve made my decision already. It’s depending on both clubs. We will know in a couple of days. I think it is a goodbye, but in football you never know. Maybe it is time for a new challenge.”
FULL TIME: Chelsea 4-1 Arsenal
CHELSEA WIN THE 2019 EUROPA LEAGUE! The whistle goes, and Maurizio Sarri holds his arms out in triumph! The first trophy of his managerial career! To a man, Chelsea erupt in joy; Arsenal crumble en masse to the grass.
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90 min +1: Iwobi sends the ball towards Aubameyang, to the right of the Chelsea goal. Aubameyang’s shot is flying wide left. Lacazette hooks it back into play, only for it to pinball back off Willock and out for a goal kick. It’s been that kind of evening for Arsenal.
90 min: There will be three added minutes of bonus pain for Arsenal.
89 min: But there’s to be no hat-trick. Hazard is replaced by Zappacosta, and departs to the warmest ovation from the Chelsea faithful. If he is going to Real Madrid, he’s leaving with their blessing after seven years of top-drawer service. If he’s really going ... what a way to sign off!
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88 min: Hazard is over, having been clipped by Willock. He looks in a bit of pain, but he also looks like he wants to continue.
86 min: A free kick for Arsenal, 30 yards out. Lacazette fancies it. He curls hard towards the top left, but it’s always high and wide. “Apart from being listed on the team sheet, your first mention of Ozil was his substitution,” notes Robert Shrimplin, the post-mortem already underway. “Same with the BBC online commentary. Sky Sports was more generous with a total of three mentions. So much for being Arsenal’s playmaker.”
84 min: It’s not breaking news, but this is not Arsenal’s night. Lacazette slips Willock into the area down the left. Willock opens his body and sends a lovely fierce curler around Kepa ... and inches wide of the top right. Two great chances in a couple of minutes, both spurned.
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82 min: Corner for Arsenal on the right. It’s worked back to Iwobi, who thinks about shooting but chips carefully down the right channel for Lacazette, in space in the box. His shot is saved by Kepa, and the rebound falls to Aubameyang, who can’t sort his feet out in time. Christensen blocks the eventual shot and Chelsea clear.
81 min: From the corner, Hazard tickles a lovely pass down the inside right to spring Azpilicueta into space. The Chelsea captain lashes a shot across Cech and inches wide of the left-hand post. A little curl on that and it would have been five.
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80 min: Chelsea are looking to put some serious hurt on Arsenal. Barkley flicks a lovely pass down the inside-right channel to release Willian into space. Willian smashes a first-time shot from just inside that box; it’s deflected out for a corner.
79 min: Willian dribbles hard down the inside-right channel and enters the area. For a second, it opens up for him. He fires low towards the bottom left. Cech does extremely well to get a fingertip to the shot, turning it round for a corner, from which nothing comes.
77 min: Willock comes on for Ozil, who has achieved very little today. Ozil has the good grace to look embarrassed as he trudges off.
76 min: Barkley comes on for Kovacic.
75 min: Aubameyang has a frustrated lash from the right wing. It flies harmlessly high and wide.
74 min: Arsenal have the look of a team who just want to go home. Hazard and Giroud combine well down the left. Hazard, on a hat-trick now, curls hard towards the bottom right. Cech saves well.
GOAL! Chelsea 4-1 Arsenal (Hazard 72)
So much for that dramatic comeback. Hazard wins the ball off Aubameyang near the centre circle. He bustles goalwards, then slips a pass to the left. Giroud draws his man, then chips it back into the centre for Hazard, who sweeps the ball into the bottom right. That was wonderful from Chelsea’s perspective; not so impressive from Arsenal’s.
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71 min: Kante nearly releases Giroud with a fine curled pass from the right. Koscielny stretches to divert the ball away, last ditch. Corner. Before it can be taken, Willian comes on for Pedro. And then the set piece comes in to little effect. But once again, no matter, because ...
GOAL! Chelsea 3-1 Arsenal (Iwobi 69)
Some head tennis in the box. The ball breaks to Iwobi, to the right of the D. The sub meets the dropping ball with the side of his foot, and creams a stunner into the top left, Kepa with no chance! What a goal that was! This can’t be on, can it? They couldn’t, could they?
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68 min: Iwobi’s first act is to tear down the left and draw a foul for Christensen, who is booked for his cynicism. And from the resulting free kick ...
67 min: Arsenal played very well yesterday.
66 min: Arsenal respond by making a double change. Monreal is repalced by Guendouzi, while Torreira - in floods of tears - makes way for Iwobi.
GOAL! Chelsea 3-0 Arsenal (Hazard 65 pen)
Hazard sends Cech one way, then rolls the penalty into the left-hand side of the goal. Could that be a final parting gift? Arsenal have fallen to bits.
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Penalty for Chelsea!
64 min: Kovacic is allowed to dribble miles, left to right. It nearly opens up for him, but Pedro takes up possession instead, heading back to the left across the front of the box. He slips a ball down the channel for Giroud, who is clumsily bundled over by Maitland-Niles. A no-brainer for the referee.
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62 min: On the touchline, Emery jigs around in high irritation. He’s not happy with the way his team have twice allowed Chelsea to suddenly press on the accelerator and score in a flash. His counterpart Sarri hides in his dugout, nervously scribbling on his notepad. He can almost touch the first trophy of his career.
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GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal (Pedro 60)
Another simple but fine goal, and Chelsea are in control in Baku! Kovacic works well down the left, and shuttles the ball forward for Hazard, who slips a pass back inside for Pedro. A first-time swipe, and Pedro whips the ball into the bottom right, Cech with no chance.
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59 min: They ask a question here, though. Maitland-Niles works his way down the right. The ball is cut back to Torreira, who batters goalwards from the edge of the box. Kante blocks, but the ball loops towards Aubameyang, preparing to execute a bicycle kick. Christensen sticks his head in bravely to clear, and wins the free kick to boot.
57 min: Arsenal have enjoyed plenty of possession since going behind, without creating too much. Chelsea seem happy enough to sit back and wait for the opportunity of a counter-attack. The pattern, one senses, is already set.
55 min: Lacazette twists and turns just inside the Chelsea box, but can’t quite make enough space for a shot. Chelsea clear their lines. Pedro then falls over, and he’s furious about some garden-variety challenge. It’s a disproportionate response to not very much, and he’s booked for dissent.
53 min: Hazard tests himself in a footrace with Sokratis, knocking it past the defender down the left. The Arsenal man does just enough to stay on Hazard’s shoulder.
51 min: Arsenal try to respond immediately, winning a free kick down the left, Xhaka swinging it into a crowded box. That results in a clumsy brouhaha and a free kick for Chelsea, the pressure immediately lifted.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal (Giroud 49)
Chelsea come back at Arsenal, who fail to clear their lines. And when the opening goal comes, it’s so simple! Emerson curls in from the left. Giroud stoops and flashes a header into the bottom left, under pressure from Koscielny. Brave, too, because Koscielny was trying to hoof clear. What a header that was! A goal out of nothing, and Giroud keeps the celebrations to a minimum against his old club.
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48 min: Hazard dribbles down the centre and slips the ball left for Giroud, whose shot is deflected out for a corner on the right. The set piece doesn’t clear the first man. Hazard wanted a free kick at the end of his dribble, incidentally, having been blocked cynically by Monreal. He had a point. It’d have been a free kick right on the edge of the box. But it doesn’t matter! Because ...
47 min: Kante works his way down the right and nearly nips past Xhaka, but the Arsenal man stands his ground and shepherds the ball out for a goal kick. A nice open start to the half.
46 min: Aubameyang immediately tears down the right and looks for his partner Lacazette in the centre. His low cross is deflected and nearly creeps into the bottom right but Kepa adjusts well to smother. That would have been quite the dramatic start to the second half.
Right, it’s just gone midnight in Baku. Time for the second half, then! Chelsea get the party restarted. No changes!
Half-time entertainment. Another big tournament coming up this summer! Once this match and the Champions League final are out of the way, attention shifts to the Women’s World Cup. If you’re not yet up to speed, the Guardian’s network of experts will see you right. Click and enjoy!
HALF TIME: Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal
It’s not a classic. Yet. But neither is it one for the purists. It’s been entertaining enough, with both keepers forced into action. Set up just so for an entertaining second half.
45 min: There will be ... six added seconds of play. There goes the whistle for half-time!
43 min: Hazard romps upfield and slips the ball wide left for Emerson, who wins a corner off Maitland-Niles. Ah hold on, the flag’s gone up for offside. Emerson went too early, needlessly so. Chelsea are finishing the half strongly, though.
41 min: Chelsea come again at Arsenal. A couple of corners that don’t really cause too much fuss. This game is deliciously poised, though, both teams taking turns to apply a bit of pressure before being forced to soak some up themselves.
39 min: Chelsea open Arsenal up down the middle with some lovely one-touch play. Hazard to Jorginho, who pings it to Giroud, to the left of the D. Giroud shoots low and hard towards the bottom right. Cech saves brilliantly at full stretch and Monreal is on hand to batter the loose ball clear.
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38 min: Emerson has a wee nip at Lacazette while the Arsenal man is on the floor. He’s probably lucky to get away without a booking, after making some wanton contact.
36 min: Arsenal ping it around awhile, seemingly going nowhere. Then suddenly Xhaka spreads play down the left for Kolasinac, who curls dangerously into the box. Kepa once again punches awkwardly, and once again gets away with it. The keeper’s nerves have betrayed him once or twice tonight.
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34 min: Jorginho flicks a pass down the inside-left channel to release Emerson into the box. Emerson has another dig. Cech spreads himself and parries. Hazard picks up the rebound and drives at Arsenal down the left. He’s well shepherded away from danger by Maitland-Niles.
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32 min: Kolasinac is once again found in plenty of space down the left. He shoots. The ball balloons off Azpilicueta and nearly loops over a stranded Kepa into the top right. But it flies wide, just. The keeper was rooted to the spot there, he was never getting to that. It’d have been an outrageous fluke, though. The resulting corner ... well, you can file them with the rest. Not very good. No danger.
31 min: Here, that Xhaka shot was even closer than I thought. It shaved the top of the crossbar. It really was a wonderful effort, it’d have been a goal fit to grace any final.
30 min: The corner isn’t anything to write 2,500 miles home about.
29 min: Now Chelsea come back again. Pedro is in an awful lot of space down the right, with Hazard free in the middle. Koscielny does very well to block the pass inside, or that’d have been the opening goal surely. Hazard does get second-phase possession, though, and slips a pass down the left for Emerson, who looks for the bottom right with a diagonal fizzer. Sokratis slides in to divert the on-target shot out for a corner.
27 min: This is a very entertaining final now. Aubameyang dribbles down the right but can’t find anyone in the middle with his cute cross. Azpilicueta does extremely well to eyebrow clear. Torreira nearly bursts through the centre. Not quite. Then Xhaka nearly scores a screamer, sending a rising shot towards the top left from 25 yards. It’s beaten Kepa but flies millimetres over the bar. That would have been a sensational opener.
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25 min: Xhaka whips the free kick into the mixer. Sokratis can’t quite get any purchase on his effort on goal, the ball looping into the sky, easy pickings for Kepa. Then Chelsea launch their first attack for a while, Kante sent into a lot of space down the right. He curls in low for Giroud at the near post. Giroud tries to ... well, what? Trap? Flick? Backheel? Whatever his intention, the ball bagatelles between his knees and clanks harmlessly out for a goal kick. On the touchline, Sarri holds his head in theatrical despair. That was a good chance.
24 min: Arsenal continue to pile forward. Monreal bursts down the left and is barged to the floor by Pedro. A free kick out on the wing, and a chance to load the box.
22 min: Torreira launches long down the middle. Lacazette nearly latches onto it, but Azpilicueta battles hard and manages to stay in between opponent and ball. Kepa comes out to gather, and is clattered by his own man for his trouble. But he’ll be fine to continue. Good play all round.
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20 min: Maitland-Niles gets the better of Emerson down the right. He looks dangerous, and he’s worrying Chelsea. He forces a corner, which Luiz heads clear easily enough. Arsenal are beginning to get the upper hand here.
18 min: Lacazette gets in ahead of Azpilicueta down the left. He looks as though he’s going to get the ball. Kepa comes out, spreading himself. The ball goes past the keeper. Lacazette rounds Kepa, then goes over. He wants a penalty, as do the Arsenal faithful, the volume turned up at last. But there doesn’t seem to be much contact. Neither the referee or the chap behind the VAR machine consider it a spot kick, and we play on.
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16 min: Arsenal go up the other end, Kolasinac sent scampering into acres down the left by an excellent Xhaka ball from deep. He’s got both of his strikers in the middle, but can’t find them with his low cross, Azpilicueta sliding in to deflect out for a corner. The set piece is a non-event. That was a fine chance.
15 min: Koscielny stands on Giroud’s foot as the Chelsea striker makes his way down the left wing. The resulting free kick is floated in, and the whistle goes immediately, a result of Luiz blatantly shoving Torreira in the chest. Arsenal can clear their lines.
13 min: Chelsea knock it around the back some more. A slight testimonial feel to this at the moment, a consequence of the lack of partial support in Baku. It’s pretty quiet for a final.
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11 min: Hazard looks in the mood for this. No wonder, if reports suggesting this could be his last game for Chelsea ahead of a transfer to Real Madrid are correct. He one-twos with Giroud down the inside-right channel and nearly bursts clear into the box, but opts to go over in the environs of Torreira and Koscielny, hunting for a free kick. He’s not getting it.
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9 min: Suddenly Maitland-Niles turns on the jets down the right. He reaches the byline and fires low into the centre. Kepa panics and punches a ball he really should gather. It falls to Aubameyang, just to the right of the D. The striker’s first-time slapshot curls well wide left. Kepa off the hook after a dreadful bit of keeping.
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8 min: A lot of aimless midfield faffing.
6 min: Hazard goes a-dribbling down the left, and can only be stopped by Torreira clattering into his back. Chelsea go backwards from the free kick. Then Lacazette turns Luiz and is hauled back. Another foul, another free kick. All a bit scrappy at the minute, as both teams slowly work their way into this final.
4 min: Arsenal finally enjoy a little possession, and take the opportunity to give a few of their men a touch. “All English final?” splutters Patrick Kelly. “I make it one English starter out if 22 on the field.” Ah now, let’s not start pulling too hard at threads.
2 min: Chelsea are hogging the ball in these early exchanges. Luiz sends another pass forward, this time down the left, and Sokratis takes a fresh-air swipe while attempting to clear. He nearly lets Hazard in as a result, but the ball, fortunately for Arsenal, flies out of play. A slightly nervous start by Arsenal.
And we’re off! Arsenal get the ball rolling. They give up possession quickly, allowing Kante to have a couple of early ginger touches. Then then ball’s worked back to Luiz, who creams a long pass down the inside-right channel and very nearly releases Pedro into an absurd amount of space. Cech reads it well and comes to the edge of his box to claim.
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The teams are out! It’s an aesthetic delight, because both teams are playing in their first-choice colours. Chelsea in their famous blue shirts, Arsenal in their storied red with white sleeves. Emery and Sarri embrace warmly on the touchline, the genuine respect between the pair obvious as they have a friendly chat before the hostilities commence. We’ll be off in a minute!
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There’s a preposterous pre-match DJ set and contemporary dance performance taking place right now. Uefa should leave this sort of thing to the NFL, who are much better at it. So while we wait for the teams to take to the pitch, let’s have a quick dip into the postbag. “Arsenal should have spelled Baku Olympic Stadium in Armenian,” suggests geopolitical satirist Matthew Stephens.
“What happens to the pennants after the match?” wonders Sarah Rothwell. “I mean, if you think about how many a club collects over the years, potentially, is there a sort of rolling shelf archive somewhere? A walk-in wardrobe of sort of tie racks? Or do they just bin them?”
And here’s Philip Malcolm, converting an open goal from two yards: “If there were 200 JPS in those goody bags, Sarri’s had them away by now.” He’s in the process of sucking them all down, too, if the clouds of smoke obscuring this DJ set are anything to go by.
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Unai Emery speaks. “The trophy, this title is the first in our target. We want to enjoy it, and play for that. We want to do something in the current history of Arsenal. And after this title, we’ll consider the possibility to play in the Champions League next year, which is our second target. Petr Cech has played all the matches in this competition, with good performances. He has played with a big commitment and given us his quality. He deserves to play today. I am not thinking about his last match.”
“Did you notice that Arsenal went with Azerbaijani spelling of the stadium name on their pennant, whereas Chelsea opted for the English translation?” Gabriel Piller there, talking my kind of language, addressing the really pressing pre-match issues. While we’re stuck in the dressing room, let the record state that each player has been given a goody bag by Uefa. Not sure what gratis treats are packed into it. The match programme probably. A newly launched cologne perhaps. A sleeve of golf balls? A bottle of single malt? 200 JPS?
Maurizio Sarri speaks ... and it sounds like he’s rolling the dice with Kante. “We don’t know exactly how fit N’Golo Kante is, but he is better. We are not sure, but we will try during the warm-up. We have prepared against their three defenders.” As for yesterday’s cap-flinging show, he explains: “I think you were not able to understand yesterday. If my players are aggressive in training I am happy, not disappointed. I was only disappointed because I wanted to try our solutions on set pieces, but after 15 minutes of training the cameras were there. So we were disappointed for the situation, not for the players.”
Pennant watch. Here’s what Cesar Azpilicueta will be handing over during the pre-match pleasantries ...
... and this is what he’ll be getting from Laurent Koscielny in return.
The big news for Chelsea: N’Golo Kante passes a late fitness test on his knee. That’s a huge boost for the Blues, especially as the French midfielder has been struggling with a hamstring injury as well. Olivier Giroud is selected up front ahead of Gonzalo Higuain. That’s Giroud’s reward for his performances in this competition: he’s currently the joint top scorer this season with ten goals, alongside Luka Jović of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Arsenal’s leading man in the Europa League is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He’s got eight, a total boosted by his hat-trick against Valencia in the semis. He’ll lead the line with Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut Ozil tucked in just behind. Petr Cech is named in goal for the final game of a glittering career, before he takes up an administrative role at ... Chelsea.
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The teams
Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Luiz, Palmieri, Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic, Pedro, Giroud, Hazard.
Subs: Caballero, Alonso, Barkley, Higuain, Zappacosta, Willian, Cahill, Ampadu, Gallagher, McEachran, Cumming.
Arsenal: Cech, Papastathopoulos, Koscielny, Monreal, Maitland-Niles, Torreira, Xhaka, Kolasinac, Ozil, Lacazette, Aubameyang.
Subs: Leno, Elneny, Lichtsteiner, Iwobi, Mustafi, Welbeck, Jenkinson, Guendouzi, Nketiah, Willock, Saka, Iliev.
Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (Italy).
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Pre-match post-modern architecture, anybody? Tribal rivalries were set aside this afternoon as fans of both clubs congregated outside the Heydar Aliyev Center, a building once called “as pure and sexy as Marilyn’s blown skirt” by an expert from the London Design Museum. Anyone desirous of drooling over more examples of the legendary Zaha Hadid’s amazing work could do a lot worse than clicking on this gallery.
“Which in turn is not a patch on either the Bridge Pavilion in Zaragoza or the Guangzhou opera house.”
“I respectfully disagree.”
“Do you want some?” Photograph: Steven Paston/PA
Baku’s been a bit of a trek for fans of both clubs. A labour of love, shall we say. Here’s how a few folk have pinballed their way around the continent to get to Azerbaijan. Odysseus got nothin’ on this. Homeric.
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Video entertainment. The pre-match mood from both camps, in all-action, moving picture form.
And finally the current Fairs Cup / Uefa Cup / Europa League roll of honour. For the completists among us. I can’t be the only one.
5: Sevilla
3: Barcelona, Juventus, Internazionale, Valencia, Liverpool, Atlético Madrid
2: Leeds United, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid, IFK Göteborg, Parma, Feyenoord, Porto
1: Roma, Real Zaragoza, Ferencvárosi, Dinamo Zagreb, Newcastle United, Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven, Eintracht Frankfurt, Ipswich Town, Anderlecht, Bayer Leverkusen, Napoli, Ajax, Bayern Munich, Schalke, Galatasaray, CSKA Moskva, Zenit St Petersburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Chelsea, Manchester United.
That 1972 Uefa Cup final, then. The last, and to date only, time England faced England in the final of Europe’s secondary tournament. Wolverhampton Wanderers versus Tottenham Hotspur. It was effectively decided by Tottenham’s Martin Chivers in the first leg. I appreciate Spurs may not find it easy to win hearts and minds with the vast majority of this particular MBM’s readership, but fair’s fair, will you take a look at that shot!
As previously mentioned, both of these clubs have won Uefa’s secondary competition before. Here’s what Chelsea did to Benfica in the 2013 Europa League final ...
... while this tells the story of Arsenal overturning a first-leg deficit against Anderlecht in the 1970 Fairs Cup final. Some atmosphere that night at Highbury, huh?
On the subject of Unai Emery ... should the former Sevilla coach win his fourth (!) Europa League title this evening, he’ll be elevated alongside Jose Mourinho, Jupp Heynckes, Vicente del Bosque, Helenio Herrera, Johan Cruyff, Raymond Goethals and Rafa Benitez in the European pot-gathering managers’ pantheon. Not bad company to be keeping. By comparison, Maurizio Sarri would be more than happy to lift the very first trophy of his entire career.
7: Carlo Ancelotti, Sir Alex Ferguson, Giovanni Trapattoni
6: Arrigo Sacchi
5: Bob Paisley, Zinedine ZIdane, Pep Guardiola, Nereo Rocco, Louis van Gaal
There’s plenty at stake tonight. Chelsea, who became the first English team to have won all three major Uefa competitions with their Europa League triumph of 2013, have five European titles to their name: the Cup Winners Cup in 1971 and 1998, the aforementioned Europa League win, the 1998 Super Cup, and of course their Champions League win in 2012. So if they prevail tonight and win their sixth European bauble, they’ll draw level with Manchester United as England’s second most successful club on the continental scene.
Arsenal’s European haul consists of the 1970 Fairs Cup and the 1994 Cup Winners Cup. Should they win tonight, they’ll move into a tie with Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa, all of whom have three of Uefa’s various titles to their name. More pertinent to the future: a magic ticket into next year’s Champions League! So this is a fork in the road for Arsenal, one that determines how much leverage Unai Emery has in the transfer market this summer.
11: Liverpool
6: Manchester United
5: Chelsea
3: Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa
2: West Ham United, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Arsenal
[This list includes stuff like the Super Cup and Intertoto Cup, as well as the big ones. No point complaining, it’s just the way it is. It’ll also be thoroughly out-of-date come Saturday evening, whatever happens in the two finals.]
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Preamble
Arsenal don’t much like meeting English opposition on the continental stage. They’ve done it three times before, and lost the lot. In 2008, they were cashiered from the Champions League quarter-finals on a wild night at Anfield, Emmanuel Adebayor, Ryan Babel, all that. Then a year later Manchester United did for them at the semi-final stage, Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a particularly memorable free kick from a position near the Waitrose halfway down Holloway Road. And of course, most painful of all, there was the Champions League quarter-final of 2004, Wayne Bridge popping up with a late goal against the Premier League’s Invincibles, Chelsea’s first big statement of intent ahead of their mid-noughties imperial phase.
Not that Chelsea have always had it their own way when facing teams from their own country in Europe. Sure, they beat Manchester City en route to lifting the 1971 Cup Winners Cup, and they’ve put Liverpool out of the Champions League a couple of times. But those wins over future beloved coach Rafa Benitez’s redmen were only paybacks for two harrowing semi-final defeats in 2005 and 2007, when all the smart money had gone on the blues advancing to the final. And they let the big one slip against Manchester United in 2008. Oh Captain, oh leader, oh legend! How could you!
Both sets of fans will have their concerns ahead of the first Europa League final between two English teams, then. [Note to pedants: more on the 1972 Uefa Cup final in a bit.] And of course the nerves won’t be helped by the fact there’s no love lost between these two London giants. Bragging rights are up for grabs, and the lease pertaining to this particular set lasts for a very, very, very long time. (Even if, as Csaba Abrahall wrote in this highly entertaining When Saturday Comes piece a few years back, “bragging rights are little more than a licence to behave like an arse”.)
Yes, it’s a big one alright. It doesn’t really need the big sell, so let’s just say: it’s the 1970 Fairs Cup winners Arsenal! Versus the 2013 Europa League champions Chelsea! In the final of the 2019 Europa League! It’s on!
Kick off: 11pm at the Baku Olympic Stadium, 8pm back in old London town.
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