Arsenal’s dream of winning a major European trophy lives to fight another day as they were humbled by Chelsea 4-1 in the Europa League final in Baku.
Eden Hazard scored a brace for Chelsea, while Olivier Giroud and Pedro added their names on the score-sheet. Alex Iwobi did pull one back at 3-0 for the Gunners, but it was nowhere near enough for them.
The opening half-hour of the game belonged to Unai Emery’s men, as they managed to get forward on the left-hand side, with Sead Kolasinac providing the width. However, they couldn’t find the back of the net.
Four minutes into the second half, Chelsea took the lead through Giroud, when he met an Emerson cross with a diving header into the bottom-right corner.
Maurizio Sarri’s men made it 2-0 at the hour mark when Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ poor pass was pounced upon by Chelsea and Hazard found Pedro to finish off the chance.
It was three before you knew it five minutes later when the Arsenal youngster made a wrong decision and fouled Giroud from behind in the box. Hazard stepped up to slot in the penalty without much fuss.
Around the 70th minute, Iwobi thumped in a volley from 25 yards out after Chelsea failed to clear a free-kick to give some hope to the Gunners.
That was diminished two minutes later when Giroud chipped in a clever ball for Hazard to finish the game once it for all.
Here’s how we rated Arsenal players tonight:
