Unai Emery admits Chelsea deserved to beat Arsenal in Europa League Final

Emery and Arsenal will be playing Europa League football again next season
REUTERS
Tom Doyle29 May 2019

Arsenal head coach Unai Emery congratulated Chelsea on winning the Europa League Final after admitting that the Blues deserved to beat his side in Baku.

The Gunners headed to Azerbaijan knowing that they would have to lift the trophy to qualify for next season's Champions League.

The first half of the match at the sparsely-populated Baku Olympic Stadium was a drab affair, though Arsenal looked likely in fits and starts as they put Chelsea under pressure.

The second half was an entirely different affair though as Eden Hazard bid a glorious farewell to Chelsea by netting a brace as Maurizio Sarri's side roared past the Gunners with a 4-1 win.

Olivier Giroud impressively opened the scoring against his former club - his 11th goal in this season's Europa League - but this was Hazard's night.

In Pictures | Chelsea vs Arsenal, Europa League Final | 29/05/2019

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The Belgian provided the assist for Pedro and soon got on the scoresheet himself, coolly scoring from the spot before putting the game to bed by sweeping home after a stunning Alex Iwobi strike briefly gave Arsenal hope.

Speaking after the game, Emery told BT Sport: "First is congratulations to Chelsea. In the first half we played with good opportunities to take a good result. We got to the box with good options and chances to score but the first goal changed the game.

"We tried to stay in the match but their second goal made it difficult for us. It was going better for them and when we wanted to do something, we couldn't find what we needed to score. They deserved to win."

Additional reporting by the Press Association.

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