As preparations continue ahead of Wednesday night’s epic showdown between Arsenal and Chelsea in Europe’s finest showpiece final, there is a tiny glimmer of some decent team news for a change.
A win for Arsenal would see us somehow qualify for next season’s Champions League (whatever that is?), and with Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City already qualified, this could be seen a major achievement after what has been a very poor season in truth.
The good news is that Danny Welbeck could play a part in the final after his awful ankle break against Sporting Lisbon in November caused him to miss the rest of the season.
Welbeck is back in full training and rumours have it that he scored a hat-trick against our Austrian opponents behind closed doors this week where we ran out 6-0 winners. Well, we ran out at 0-0, but the game finished 6-0, you get the idea with that on— anyway…
Along with Petr Cech, and Aaron Ramsey (should he miraculously recover from his hamstring injury), this game will be his last, with Welbeck’s contract having run down, meaning he’ll be off in the summer, with Newcastle, Everton and Galatasaray as potential suitors.
Football.London claim that Ozil, Sokratis and Torreira should all return to the squad for the final after missing our final win of the Premier League against Burnley.
Following the final in Baku, football will be over for another few weeks, Unai Emery will be looking to rebuild his squad, and with key players such as Koscielny, Ramsey, Cech and Welbeck leaving, he has a major job on his hands. A job which would be made a LOT easier if he could lure some new blood in with the promise of Champions League football.
