Just two points and one place in the table separated Chelsea and Arsenal in the Premier League table this past season. These two London rivals are very evenly matched to say the least, and they’ll get one more shot at each other, this time with a trophy on the line.
They’ll meet Wednesday night in the UEFA Europa League Final, staged at Baku Olympic Stadium. Due to high political tensions between the host country of Azerbaijan and Armenia, the birth country of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the Gunners will be without the services of the winger they acquired from Manchester United in January of 2018.
UEFA simply failed to provide legitimate assurance of his safety in the host nation, and that’s really in excusable on their part. So he’s not going to be in the starting lineup, but one guy who likely will is Petr Cech, who will be playing his final match.
As for his post-retirement plans, he disputed reports that he’s set to join the Chelsea front office, and said he’ll make his mind up after this game.
Arsenal FC Starting XI Prediction vs Chelsea FC (UEFA Europa League)
Attack: Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette
Midfield: Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira, Sead Kolasinac
Back line: Nacho Monreal, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Laurent Koscielny, Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Goalkeeper: Petr Cech
Chelsea vs Arsenal UEFA Europa League Final FYIs
Kickoff: Wednesday, May 29, 8pm, Baku Olympic Stadium
Referee: Gianluca Rocchi
Injury Report for Both Sides: go to this link
Starting XI Predictions: Chelsea Arsenal FC
Manager Press Conference Videos and Quotes: coming next week
Odds via Bet Fair: Chelsea win 4/6, Arsenal win 6/5
Prediction: Chelsea 3, Arsenal 2
Picking the Blues as we believe it will be Eden Hazard’s final match with the club, and a world-class player like that will be motivated to go out with a trophy.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, also contributes to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.