Maurizio Sarri has steered Chelsea to third place in the Premier League standings and the Italian will now attempt to land the Europa League trophy on Wednesday 29 May, with the Blues facing London rivals Arsenal in Baku.
This clash in Azerbaijan will almost certainly be the last competitive Chelsea match that Eden Hazard plays, with the Belgian thought to be on the verge of signing for Real Madrid and that could have a major impact to a team who have been carried by the playmaker for several season.
Sarri has been a football manager since 1990 although the 60-year-old has never won anything notable in terms of silverware, with Napoli following Juventus home in the Scudetto last season, while Chelsea lost the EFL Cup final to Manchester City this term when losing on spot kicks.
Bet365 go 5/4 that Sarri finally breaks his silverware duck by engineering a Chelsea win in normal time, with the same bookmaker going 4/6 that the west London club are lifting the trophy whether that’s in normal time, extra-time or on penalties.
Some would say that the 6/5 with Ladbrokes about Arsenal winning the Europa League is a decent price at odds-against, with the Gunners needing to bank this piece of silverware to make sure of Champions League football next term.
Unai Emery’s side finished just outside the top four in the final Premier League standings which means another campaign in Europe’s secondary cup competition unless the Spaniard can engineer a victory against Chelsea.
The good news is that Emery has won this competition no less than three times, with Sevilla succeeding under him each time and he’s been able to steer Arsenal past opponents such as Valencia and Napoli en route to reaching the final.
Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang finished the domestic campaign as joint-top scorer along with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, with the Gabon forward having linked up exquisitely with Alexandre Lacazette throughout the season and the pairing could end up making the difference in this one.
The big concern for Arsenal is that their defence might be too readily breached and they were effectively able to outscore Valencia over two semi-final clashes rather than shut up shop at any stage of proceedings.
Chelsea have already experienced the heartache of losing in a cup final this season and might feel it’s now their destiny to land a trophy after a penalty shootout victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the previous round although the German side were the ones forcing the issue towards the death.
Ultimately, we’re talking about two evenly-matched teams. Chelsea are slightly stronger from a defensive point-of-view and have Eden Hazard causing any number of problems for a team who are sick to the back teeth of the Belgian.
On the flip side, Arsenal play the more flamboyant football and have a marksman in Aubameyang who has finished the season in excellent form, while Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka could shore up a midfield and clash swords with N’Golo Kante in the engine room.
William Hill offer 8/11 that both teams score in this game and we think it could be a high-scoring affair, with the clubs playing out a crazy 3-2 scoreline back in August which saw Chelsea take a 2-0 lead before being pegged back.
Hazard will be on spot kicks for Chelsea and Unibet make him the 24/5 favourite to score the opening goal of the game, with Aubameyang trading at 11/2 with BetVictor. You could effectively dutch these two players if you feel they represent the best chance of opening the scoring.