Furious reaction after Chelsea handed a huge advantage over Arsenal

Arsenal football club have confirmed that Henrikh Mkhitaryan will miss the Europa League final, not because he is injured but because his safety cannot be guaranteed.

This shocking decision is purely the fault of UEFA and sets a dangerous precedent for future games at all levels under the auspices of Europe’s governing body.

This is the official statement from Arsenal

We are very disappointed to announce that Henrikh Mkhitaryan will not be travelling with the squad for our Uefa Europa League final against Chelsea.

We have thoroughly explored all the options for Micki to be part of the squad but after discussing this with Micki and his family we have collectively agreed he will not be in our travelling party.

We have written to Uefa expressing our deep concerns about this situation. Micki has been a key player in our run to the final so this is a big loss for us from a team perspective.

We’re also very sad that a player will miss out on a major European final in circumstances such as this, as it is something that comes along very rarely in a footballer’s career.

Micki will continue to be part of our preparations until we depart for Baku at the weekend.

To force a club to leave a player at home because his safety cannot be guaranteed is huge and begs the question, how can UEFA select a location where this is even a possibility?

To disadvantage one team over another for non-footballing reasons is outrageous and that is exactly what has occurred here and it is 100% because UEFA chose to host the final in Azerbaijan.

Now, we all know Mkhitaryan has not been in the best of form and admittedly if he was not selected as a starter we would not have been surprised, but make no mistake, this hands a huge advantage to Chelsea.

Mkhitaryan could easily turn it on, he has that ability and on his day can be unplayable and would have been a serious option for us as either a starter or from the subs bench.

Imagine if Chelsea were forced to leave Pedro, Kante or whoever at home simply because of the location of a final, what if it was Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe or Neymar, I mean, the consequences of this can be far reaching.

There are political hotspots all over Europe, Russia and Ukraine, Spain with internal issues with both Catalan and the Basque Region, this is the sort of precedent that can be used in the future, all that has to be done is not guarantee a players safety.

The second a team is disadvantaged because of the fault of the host then UEFA has a moral obligation to relocate that particular game if it wants to maintain any sense of fairness.

This is a very dark day for football and that feeling has been shared by fans on social media and they are not a happy bunch.

11 Comments

  1. It is a disadvantage because Mkhitaryan has been starting to show some improvements when he played as a CAM, but this should be a blessing in disguise

    I know Ozil has a lot of Azerbaijani fans and their support will boost his performance. We will have more supporters in Baku compared to Chelsea

  2. Cannot wait to see what compensation package we’re offered by UEFA (maybe a UCL spot regardless of the result?), or if they’ll even it out, and ban whoever has most assists for Chelsea then?

    If there are legal grounds, I personally would love Arsenal to boycott the game in protest.

    1. Following on from that. I wonder what UEFA would have done if an Armenian team had qualified for the final? Or if Emery or Sarri were Armenian? Absolute joke!

      One of three things has clearly happened:

      1) UEFA are incompetent
      2) UEFA officials took bungs to ensure the final was given to Azerbaijan
      3) Both

      1. The worse scenario would be for two Russian and two Ukrainian teams to reach the semi finals, because it would mean the SF draw is fixed, and the final having to be played behind closed doors because the fans would have a go at each other 😉

      2. UEFA remains a shameful organization. When they saw the money, they didn’t think about any of this this of course.

  3. Our 2 best performances, spurs and Liverpool at home he was in the line up we started all 4, so this is nowhere near fair, and if it isn’t fair what’s the point

  4. Not only that Mkhi won’t play, which is a major handicap, but because of him the entire stadium will be 100% behind CSKA London. Now, how in hell is that a neutral ground, UEFA? I hope Arsenal will sue this fraud of an organisation once the final is over, regardless of the result.
    I hope all this injustice will serve as a propeller for our players to win the bloody things against all odds and say a great big F U to UEFA. Like literally, I hope every player that gets interviewed says F U UEFA!

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