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Chelsea win Europa League after Eden Hazard inspires thrashing of Arsenal Chelsea win Europa League after Eden Hazard inspires thrashing of Arsenal
(about 2 hours later)
It was hard to begrudge Maurizio Sarri his moment. Chelsea’s head coach has endured such a difficult first season in English football, his achievement in steering the team to a third-place finish almost forgotten in the traumas, dissent and occasional tantrums delivered from the sidelines. This could yet prove to be his last match in charge, with Juventus apparently eager to lure him back to Italy. If so, at least he went out on a high. At the end, even Maurizio Sarri’s superstitions went out of the window. The Italian normally refuses to step on to the playing surface, though he could not contain himself at the final whistle. Sprinting forward on to the turf, arms raised in triumph, Chelsea’s head coach celebrated the first major trophy of a career that has spanned two decades. It was hard to begrudge him his moment.
The Europa League was claimed in spectacular fashion here in front of an often absent owner, a drab first half forgotten as Chelsea roused themselves to run riot, slicing through a desperate Arsenal defence at will. Sarri had never hoisted a major trophy before in a coaching career that has spanned two decades, but he joined a club who tend to claim silverware even when apparently unsettled. This all felt familiar. ‘I think it’s goodbye’: Hazard ready to leave Chelsea after Europa League heroics
It has been a difficult first season in England, marked by discontent in the stands and periods where the football has been rather too humdrum and uninspiring, for all that it has now yielded reward. His stint in the Premier League could yet prove shortlived should Juventus succeed in luring him back to Italy, with their interest persistent at present. Yet, as Arsenal were ripped to shreds through a blistering 23-minute spell here in distant Baku to wreck their own hopes of qualifying for next year’s Champions League, Chelsea revelled in the attacking menace of a Sarri side.
It felt almost revelatory, watching Jorginho spin and release teammates into space as those in blue flooded forward, cutting through at will with Eden Hazard a man possessed and even N’Golo Kanté scuttling about with the knee brace on his right leg forgotten.
Up in the Gods of this stadium, with its banks of empty seats and locals enthusiastically waving their flags, Roman Abramovich must have revelled in a glimpse of the vision he had earmarked when turning to Sarri last summer. This was how it was supposed to be: a thrill of ruthless, attacking football; a humiliating dismantling of flustered opponents; the kind of stylish display that might make an owner reconsider whether losing the head coach this summer is such a good idea after all.
That said, if Sarri’s stay is extended, Chelsea will not often confront opponents who defend as chaotically as Arsenal. There was little to no resistance in that frantic passage after the break, when the centre-halves lost their bearings, composure drained away and panic gripped. Unai Emery knew how important it was to return to Europe’s elite club competition. His summer transfer budget, that convenient means of revamping an obliging backline, had depended upon it. Now, for all his insistence that the size of the club means big players could still come, those aspirations are in tatters.
Chelsea beat Arsenal 4-1 to win Europa League – live reaction!Chelsea beat Arsenal 4-1 to win Europa League – live reaction!
It was appropriate that Eden Hazard, another likely to exit with Real Madrid circling, would put Arsenal to the sword. The Belgian had already scored from the spot when, with the contest in its last quarter, he exchanged passes with Olivier Giroud before scuttling round the back of a flustered rearguard to reach the return and steer home his team’s fourth goal in 23 minutes. Hazard had always promised his parting gift would be a glittering trophy. “If we lose against Arsenal, it’d be a disaster for the club,” he had said. Their opponents’ dismal defence made that an unlikely scenario, even if few would have predicted that riotous second period. Hazard, most of all, seized upon their generosity. The Belgian had always promised his parting gift after seven years in blue would be a trophy. This was him making good his pledge as Real Madrid circle before an anticipated summer transfer. He had already slid a penalty, earned after Ainsley Maitland-Niles’s barge on Olivier Giroud, beyond Petr Cech, though his party piece was still to come.
There had been something rather strange about this occasion from the outset, which was perhaps to be expected given a London derby had been transplanted around 2,500 miles east to the shores of the Caspian with normal time to be played out either side of midnight. The final had drifted into its last quarter when Hazard exchanged passes with Giroud before darting free of broken opponents on to the striker’s lofted return. His finish was tucked in beyond Cech, who is likely to be Chelsea’s incoming director of football. There was no answer to such brilliance. English football will miss his effervescence, even if defenders up and down the elite will breathe a sigh of relief.
Indeed, the soporific nature of much of the football through a scrappy first half had felt depressingly appropriate. There were plenty of supporters present clad in red and blue, waving plastic flags and pantomime booing every mention of an opponent that boomed out over the PA system, though, even with the influx of fans based outside England who had flocked to Baku, the stadium was far from full. The banks of empty seats felt damning. Old failings rear up in Baku to leave Arsenal’s ambitions shipwrecked | Amy Lawrence
The rather eerie atmosphere was akin to that of a pre-season friendly, the kind geared to extending brand awareness and invariably hosted in a steamy oriental summer, but in a stadium marginally too big for the occasion. Not that Arsenal should have capitulated quite this spectacularly. Theirs had been the more urgent start, back when the atmosphere inside the arena had felt so eerie and the wisdom in playing this London derby 2,500 miles away on the shores of the Caspian had been most exposed as folly. Granit Xhaka would clip the crossbar from distance and Alexandre Lacazette appeal fruitlessly for a penalty after tucking the ball round Kepa Arrizabalaga and feeling for contact to prompt a tumble. Neither the referee nor the VAR was impressed.
Roman Abramovich was in attendance, shuddering through the plod of the first competitive game he has witnessed his team play in person this season. He would have been cheered to see Hazard spark belatedly into life late in the opening period, feeding Giroud who forced a sharp save from Petr Cech – Chelsea’s incoming director of football – six minutes from the interval. Yet tThere had been precious little else to excite the oligarch. When those early forays forward did not yield reward, Arsenal rather recoiled. Perhaps they might have prospered had they opened the scoring. Maybe the confidence of a lead would have bolstered that porous backline. Instead, at the first hint of adversity, they shrank. Giroud, guiding in Emerson’s cross with his header skipping inside Cech’s near-post, forced Chelsea ahead and the lack of character in Arsenal ranks was exposed in the dreadful period that ensued. A team bereft of leaders wilted, with Alex Iwobi’s crunched volley a brief moment of relief amid the pain. More telling was the sight of Mesut Özil being hauled off and replaced with Joe Willock. The German’s scowl spoke volumes.
Sarri’s side Chelsea had been too cautious, their ambitions perhaps restricted by N’Golo Kanté’s lack of fizz in midfield. That the Frenchman was able to feature at all felt vaguely miraculous given he had appeared reluctant to twist on his right leg during a brief appearance at training on the eve of the final. He wore his knee in a brace. Sarri had not even been sure he would make it through the warm-up. Pedro would add the second on the hour-mark, Jorginho having liberated Hazard down the left with the Belgian opening up his body to square for the Spaniard just inside the area. He has now scored in Champions League and Europa League finals.
Arsenal v Chelsea: the 4,970-mile round trip to see a London derby “We controlled the game in the second half and moved the ball between the lines … the best thing was the team work,” said Pedro. “We deserve it because we were the best team in the tournament.”
What impetus there had been had been generated by Arsenal, whether it was Granit Xhaka pummelling a shot from distance that flicked the top of the crossbar or Alexandre Lacazette wriggling away from César Azpilicueta to bear down on goal. The France forward had taken a touch to guide the ball around the on-rushing Kepa Arrizabalaga – a bag of nerves through the opening exchanges – before crumpling to the turf calling for a penalty. The referee, Gianluca Rocchi, waved away the appeals, and the VAR did not flag up a clear and obvious error. What contact between goalkeeper and striker had been suspiciously slight. No other side has gone through a successful Europa League campaign this century without losing a game and Chelsea did that despite all the doubts surrounding the management and associated controversies on and off the pitch. To illustrate as much, there was Gary Cahill, the club captain who has been so marginalised, to hoist the trophy alongside César Azpilicueta as the 16th major honour in 16 years under Abramovich. They are the soap opera that always delivers.
The onus had always been on Arsenal to secure the Champions League qualification that would enable them to fund a more extensive revamp this summer. How they must have craved an advantage upon which to cling. Even that desperation does not justify their capitulation after the interval. That 20-minute period at the start of the second half will haunt Unai Emery, his players suddenly rendered forlorn, their defence utterly bypassed.
It was Giroud, a friend turned foe, who prised them apart first, diving in ahead of Laurent Koscielny to meet Emerson Palmieri’s whipped centre with his header skipping up off the turf to nestle inside Cech’s near post. It was the Frenchman’s 11th goal in the Europa League this season, establishing him as the competition’s top scorer, with Chelsea instantly transformed into a ruthless collective.
The contest had edged to the hour-mark by the time Jorginho slipped Hazard free down the left, the Belgian skipping inside the penalty area before opening up his body to square for Pedro. The Spaniard’s side-foot finish was eased beyond the exposed Cech.
Panic had long since set in, which might explain Ainsley Maitland-Niles’s barging of Giroud off the ball to prompt the penalty stroked in by Hazard.
That Alex Iwobi, recently introduced, would crunch a fine volley from distance back across a diving Kepa and into the net merely reinforced the point that Thursday’s offering had been distinctly more appealing than Wednesday’s, but Chelsea would not be denied.
Hazard’s glorious fourth snuffed out any chance of an unlikely comeback and Sarri could pace his technical area through the final exchanges knowing he had broken his duck with a major trophy claimed. A few yards down the touchline, Emery licked his wounds.
His removal of Mesut Özil from the fray, replaced by the youngster Joe Willock, rather summed it all up. This season has unravelled.
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