Arsenal: Europa League final biggest game in years

Arsenal play Chelsea in the Europa League final at the end of May. It is the biggest game the club has played in years, for a variety of reasons.

The competitiveness of the upper echelon of the Premier League is as great as ever. There are now six very good teams, all of which expect to be in the Champions League, two of which put together one of the most remarkable league campaigns this season. That makes being consistently competitive yourself very difficult.

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Arsenal are very quickly discovering that. After two successive seasons of failing to qualify for the Champions League, they realised that change had to come. Arsene Wenger was asked to resign and Unai Emery was hired as his successor. The baseline reason is simple: the club was afraid of falling behind.

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And the statements of intent for his first season at the helm clearly illustrated the need to make up the already lost ground. Emery was tasked with bringing two things to the club, progress and qualification for the Champions League.

Progress, I would argue, has been at the very least achieved in part. There has obviously been some warts and shortcomings, but both individually and collectively, Arsenal are a better team now than they were this time last year, even with the recent poor run of results in the Premier League.

There are only two things missing: a trophy and qualification for the Champions League, both of which can be satisfied in two-and-a-half weeks.

Arsenal travel to Baku to face Chelsea in the Europa League final. Although Chelsea have already secured Champions League football, for the Gunners, not only is a European trophy on offer, but they can too join their London rivals in Europe’s elite competition next season. That is a sensational opportunity.

Because of the dual reward of winning this match, — the trophy and the Champions League — I think it would be fair to argue that this is one of the biggest games in the recent history of the club, one that could have major ramifications for the whole Emery era. I would suggest that it is the most significant match played since the first FA Cup final victory in the latest run against Hull City all the way back in 2014.

Win and Emery has achieved something that Wenger never did in his first season and releases all of the benefits that come from Champions League football. Lose, and not only do you spurn the chance to win a trophy, but you relinquish serious financial gain and could lose out on players in the summer, both in terms of departures and potential acquisitions to a lack of Champions League football.

This is a sliding doors moment. The potential trajectories of the club winning and losing this one match are huge. And that makes me very nervous indeed.