There are now just six days to go before Arsenal and Chelsea face off in the Europa League final and a stream of reports are coming in thick and fast covering everything from team selection, fan issues, UEFA incompetence and so forth and we will now be doing a daily update of what is being reported.
Arsenal has sold just 3500 tickets out of their measly 6000 allocation with the rest being returned to UEFA. The ridiculous cost of getting to Baku has resulted in many fans being excluded from a major European trophy thanks to the utter incompetence of European footballs governing body.
Azerbaijan are playing the victim following Henrikh Mkhitaryan correct decision to not risk his safety. Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the UK has accused Mkhitaryan of “trying to make a political statement” by declining to visit a country that is effectively at war with his own nation.
Arsenal defender Shkodran Mustafi has made it clear the whole team wants to win the Europa League for Mkhitaryan following his decision to miss the final due to security concerns.
“It’s a shame for him not to be there, especially as he has often played on the way to the final, but our team has that in mind: We also want to win for Micki,” Mustafi told Kicker.
Arsenal fans have launched an online petition to have the Europa League final moved from Baku to Wembley Stadium. The reasoning behind the petition is the exclusion of Mkhitaryan making Baku an unfit location to hold a major European final
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has also come out in support of Mkhitaryan saying “We know it is a big shame but we respect his decision. It is not easy for him to go there because of political problems. It is a big shame but now we have one more motivation to win”
Former Arsenal legend David Seaman has urged Unai Emery not to pick Petr Cech over Bernd Leno for the final because he feels that the German is simply the better player.