Preview: The Europa League Final

With the football season across Europe all but wrapped up, we are looking forward to two major European finals this week. The UEFA Europa League Final in Baku, Azerbaijan and the UEFA Champions League Final in Madrid, Spain. The Europa League Final comes up first and is taking place on Wednesday May 29th between Arsenal and Chelsea at the Olympic Stadium in Baku. There has been controversy surrounding the final from the difficulty of fans getting to Baku, ticket allocation and safety concerns of Arsenal midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who has decided not to travel with his teammates for the final.

Nevertheless, the final is highly anticipated as both sides will want to end their season on a high. Both sides have experienced a transition under new managers with Chelsea finishing 3rd in the Premier League while Arsenal finished 5th, meaning they have to win the final to play in the Champions League next season. Both sides have had a different route in reaching the final showpiece, so let's see how they made it to Baku.

Chelsea

Chelsea qualified for the knockout stages with comfortable ease, topping their group ahead of PAOK, MOL Vidi and BATE Borisov with 16 points from a possible 18. They have made heavy rotation in the competition with the likes of Eden Hazard and N'golo Kante rested while fringe players in Olivier Giroud and Ruben Loftus-Cheek being heavily involved with Giroud joint top-scorer with 10 strikes. In the knockout stages, they beat Swedish side Malmö FF 5-0 on aggregate in the Round of 32, Dynamo Kyiv 8-0 in the Round of 16, Slavia Prague 5-3 in the quarterfinals and a penalty shootout win against Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt with Eden Hazard scoring the decisive penalty.

Arsenal

The Gunners also qualified top of their group with 16 points, ahead of Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon, Vorskla Poltaka and Qarabag. In the knockout stages, Arsenal relied on their attacking duo of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang who have a combined 13 goals between them in the competition, particularly in the knockout stages. They overcame BATE Borisov 3-1 in the Round of 32, coming from behind to beat Rennes 4-3 in the Round of 16, beat Napoli 3-1 in the quarterfinals and beat Valencia 7-3 in the semifinals with Aubameyang scoring a hat-trick in the second leg.

This looks to be a 50-50 game with both sides getting a win from each other in the Premier League. Chelsea will be looking to star player Eden Hazard for inspiration which could be his last game for the West London side as he can be very decisive and for Maurizio Sarri, as he has never won a major trophy in his career. A big concern for Chelsea will be the players that are unavailable. Antonio Rüdiger, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi are out with injury while N'golo Kante is a doubt, leaving Sarri with little options and lacking any dynamism in midfield.

That could play in Arsenal's favour as they can hit Chelsea on the counter attack and win the midfield battle. However, Emery will be hoping that his defence will not screw over as Arsenal's back line is suspect and prone to errors, giving their opponents a chance out of nothing. With Aaron Ramsey out with injury and Henrikh Mkhitaryan unavailable, it leaves only Mesut Özil to create chances, which he is well capable of that, but will be tasked to do a lot of work off the ball, something that is not part of his game. Plus, Unai Emery has massive experience in this competition, winning it three times in a row between 2014 to 2016 with Sevilla.

This is a very interesting final between two sides who have quality in them to win them the final. I'm likely to go with Chelsea mostly because of Eden Hazard and his ability to win the game and Arsenal's defence not reliable enough. However, it's a one-off game, anything can happen.