Maurizio Sarri admitted tired Chelsea got “lucky” as they moved to the brink of Champions League qualification with a 3-0 win over Watford, yesterday.
Sarri’s side was booed off after a sloppy first half, but two goals in three minutes from Ruben Loftus-Cheek and David Luiz lifted the mood at Stamford Bridge.
Gonzalo Higuain sealed the victory and third-placed Chelsea are now one point clear of fourth-placed Tottenham after their first win in four games in all competitions.
If the Blues win their last league game of the season at Leicester next Sunday they will be certain to qualify for next season’s Champions League via a top-four finish.
Sarri conceded he was relieved to survive such a poor opening.
“In the first half we were in trouble because we were tired physically and mentally. But Watford lowered their level after that. We were lucky of course,” Sarri said.
“After the first goal probably we improved mentally and were able to play very well for 35 minutes. It’s not easy to play again after a Europa League away match.
“We were not able to think in a simple way. When you are tired you have to move the ball quickly, the ball is not tired, the man is!”
Before heading to Leicester, Chelsea host Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League semifinals on Thursday, with the tie poised at 1-1 after the first leg.
Meanwhile, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has hinted some his squads have made their last appearance for Manchester United while insisting the Europa League is the “right place” for his team after a 1-1 draw at Huddersfield ended any hope of a top-four finish.
The result at the John Smith’s Stadium means United will not play in the Champions League next season and could even have a Europa League second qualifying round first leg on July 25 if they finish sixth and Watford beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final.
“There is the chance you have seen the last of players but I wouldn’t say that about any individual,” Solskjaer, who is set to embark on an overhaul of his squad in the summer.
“We gave ourselves a chance to be in the Champions League, something we didn’t think was possible.
“We had so many opportunities to grab third or fourth. We didn’t and it is probably the right place for us to be next year, the Europa League.”
United are scheduled to play a pre-season friendly against Tottenham in Shanghai on July 25 but there remains a possibility their Europa League campaign could now start on the same date.
It would complicate Solskjaer’s summer plans and the Norwegian admitted he will cheering on City at Wembley if they finish sixth.
“It is not what we want,” said Solskjaer. “Let’s see what happens next week and with Arsenal and in the final with City. That is the reality. The kids will get chances to play games.”
The FIFA World Cup testifies to the fact that, among all sports, football is the biggest tourism driver a country could possibly have. Not so long ago, Rwanda hopped on this train by signing a sponsorship deal with Arsenal FC.
We’ll have a sleeve sponsor on our shirts from 2018/19 – we’re pleased to welcome our Official Tourism Partner, @visitrwanda_now
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) May 23, 2018
According to the Arsenal website, the deal is Rwanda’s way of rapidly increasing tourism in the country. The Rwanda Development Board came up with a ‘Visit Rwanda’ slogan, which has been featured on the left sleeve of all Arsenal teams for next season – making Rwanda the club’s first official sleeve partner.
In addition, the three-year deal will see Rwanda’s logo appear at the side of the pitch at the Emirates stadium and on the backdrops for post-match interviews. Arsenal will also host coaching camps for its teams in Rwanda, thereby helping develop football in the country.
#Rwanda - @Arsenal enter multi-million sleeve deal that will see the @premierleague team wear "VISIT RWANDA" on the shirt sleeves of 1st team players, Women team, and Youth team. VISIT RWANDA will also feature prominently on the LED screens/boards during match days. @RDBrwanda
— The New Times (Rwanda) (@NewTimesRwanda) May 23, 2018
The Arsenal shirt is seen 35 million times a day globally. This visibility is already telling on Rwanda’s tourism industry as there has been a surge in the number of British tourists visiting the country lately. The Rwandan government reportedly spent £30 million on the partnership and some experts believe it could help the country generate up to £300 million of revenue.
While there are several clubs making waves in the English Premier League, the Rwandan government probably went with Arsenal because President Paul Kagame is a very vocal fan of the club.
— Ed Jones (@Ed_Jonesafc) June 7, 2018
One of Arsenal's best Thierry Henry has revealed that he is quitting his job as a pundit for Sky Sports in order to focus on a career in management.
The Arsenal great has been one of Sky’s most high-profile pundits for several years but has also worked as an assistant coach for Belgium since 2016 and helped the team reach the semifinals of the World Cup.
He said on Twitter that his experiences in coaching
“have only made me more determined to fulfill my long-term ambition to become a football manager.”
“It is with sadness, therefore, that I have decided that I must leave @SkySports to enable me to spend more time on the pitch and concentrate on my journey to achieving that goal,” Henry wrote.
Henry did not say whether he currently has any job offers as a coach. He expressed his interest in the Arsenal job when Arsene Wenger stepped down but was not one of the final candidates.
The former striker also worked as a coach in Arsenal’s academy before leaving in 2016 after Wenger told him he couldn’t combine that role with his punditry job.
Arsenal has announced the signing of German goalkeeper Bernd Leno from Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen. Leno’s move was confirmed on Arsenal’s official website on Tuesday.
It is reported that the deal is worth £20m and is for five years.
He becomes Arsenal’s second signing following the arrival of Switzerland right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner on a free.
A statement on Arsenal’s website reads:
“German goalkeeper Bernd Leno has agreed to join us from Bayer Leverkusen.
“The highly-rated 26-year-old made more than 230 appearances for Leverkusen in more than seven seasons with the Bundesliga side.
“Spending most of his youth career at Stuttgart, Leno signed for Leverkusen in 2011 and that September became the youngest goalkeeper to feature in a Champions League match at the age of just 19 years and 193 days, during Leverkusen’s group-stage game against Chelsea.
“A Germany international, Bernd received his first senior international call-up in 2015 and has since won six caps for his country. Last year he was part of the Germany squad that won the 2017 Confederations Cup.
“Bernd’s shirt number will be announced in due course.
“The deal is subject to the completion of regulatory processes.”
Head coach Unai Emery said:
“We are very pleased that Bernd Leno will be joining us. Bernd is a goalkeeper of high quality and experience. He has been a top performer and regular number one goalkeeper with Leverkusen in the Bundesliga for the past seven years. We are all excited that Bernd has chosen Arsenal Football Club and look forward to start working with him in pre-season.”
=========================================
Premier League champions Manchester City will begin their title defence away to Arsenal on the weekend of August 11-12, the English Premier League announced Thursday as it unveiled the fixtures for the 2018/19 season.
The match will also be new Arsenal manager Unai Emery’s first in English football’s top flight.
The exact date of the game will be confirmed when television broadcasting schedules are drawn up.
City amassed 100 points and scored 106 goals while finishing 19 points clear of second-placed Manchester United in the 2017/18 season.
Following the Arsenal game, City do not face another top-six team until they are away to Liverpool — who beat Pep Guardiola’s men in the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season — in October.
In between those two eye-catching fixtures, City will play the newly-promoted trio of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Cardiff City and Fulham, as well as last year’s promoted teams Huddersfield, Newcastle and Brighton.
Manchester United begin their league campaign at home to Leicester City and face a potentially tricky encounter in their third game when Tottenham Hotspur come to Old Trafford.
Jose Mourinho’s side face Brighton and Hove Albion, Burnley, Watford and Wolves in other early-season games.
Liverpool, the losing Champions League finalists, appear to have he toughest start of any of the likely title-contenders.
They begin their Premier League season at home to West Ham before facing Crystal Palace, Brighton and Leicester.
Tottenham have until Friday to decide if they will still be playing home games at Wembley this season.
Spurs made the journey across north London to the national stadium last term while their successor ground to White Hart Lane was being built.
That work has still to be completed, with Premier League chiefs giving Spurs an away start at Newcastle.
Arsenal have a tough start under new Spanish boss Emery, who has the daunting task of succeeding the long-serving Arsene Wenger, with the Gunners away to Chelsea after facing Manchester City
Chelsea begins the league campaign away to Huddersfield and, after their all-London clash against Arsenal, face Newcastle, Bournemouth, Cardiff, West Ham, Liverpool, and Southampton.
None of the promoted sides have been given a horror run of games against leading clubs at the start of the season, although they will each face at least one of the big six in their opening four fixtures.
Championship-winners Wolves begin their return to the Premier League at home to Everton before matches away to Leicester and West Ham bookend the visit of Manchester City to Molineux.
Cardiff start at Bournemouth while Fulham, who secured their place in the top flight via a Wembley play-off final win over Aston Villa start the league season at home to Crystal Palace.
The final round of Premier League fixtures, scheduled for May 12, will see Manchester City away to Brighton, while Manchester United and Liverpool are at home to Cardiff and Wolves respectively.
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Arsenal have appointed Unai Emery as their new manager, the club confirmed on Wednesday. He signed a two-year deal at the club.
The 46-year-old former Paris Saint-Germain manager succeeds Arsene Wenger whose 22 year reign at the club ended last season.
A statement on the official website of Arsenal read:
“Unai Emery is to become our new head coach.
“He joins the club after completing a two-year spell at Paris Saint-Germain, where he recently landed the treble of Ligue 1, Coupe de France and the Coupe de la Ligue.”
Arsenal chief Ivan Gazidis said: “Unai has an outstanding track record of success throughout his career.
“He has developed some of the best young talent in Europe and plays an exciting, progressive style of football that fits Arsenal perfectly.
“His hard-working and passionate approach and his sense of values on and off the pitch make him the ideal person to take us forward.
“We conducted a confidential, wide-ranging and rigorous search involving extensive background references, data and video analysis, and personal meetings with all the candidates we shortlisted.
“All were interested in the position and we were unanimous in our choice of Unai to drive the next chapter of our history.”
Emery spent the last two seasons at PSG, winning five major trophies, but did not have his contract extended and was replaced by Thomas Tuchel.
Arsene Wenger used his farewell news conference as Arsenal manager on Thursday to urge his successor to “respect the values of the club”.
The Frenchman departs after a final game at Huddersfield Town on Sunday and was in reflective mood as he contemplated his 22 years in charge.
Speculation is intensifying over who his successor will be with British media reporting that Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri and former Arsenal captains Mikel Arteta and Patrick Vieira are among the leading contenders.
Asked for his advice to the new man, Wenger said: “Respect the values of the club. I would like him to bring his own ideas. It’s a chance for the players to see something different. But on the other hand I would say respect what has been built here.”
Despite his many achievements, Wenger will depart on a low with Arsenal losing a seventh consecutive away game on Wednesday, 3-1 at Leicester City, their worst run in more than half-a-century.
With another trip awaiting on Sunday, they are looking to end their embarrassing record of being the only side in the top four tiers of English football not to pick up an away point this year.
Wenger, however, still believes the club is in good shape for his successor.
“The players’ attitude was great last night,” said Wenger. “They were fantastic. There is a special bond in this team. There is something waiting to come out that is special. Hopefully that will come out next season.”
LONG PERIOD
Wenger said he is unsure about his immediate plans, but has been linked with a position as general manager at Paris St Germain.
“When you stay for such a long period, you question is it time to go now or not,” he said. “We live in a society where people want big change always, you know. I don’t know what I will do. Maybe go to Russia.
“I have some work to do in France (next week) on Monday, Tuesday. On Thursday, I will come back and clear my office. After that, I don’t know.”
Wenger also used the occasion to look back, saying that while he considered his 2004 ‘Invincibles’ team, who went through the season unbeaten, the best of his reign, he was at his most productive between 2006-15.
“From 2006-2015 was certainly a period where I needed to be the strongest and did the best job,” he said.
“To work with restricted recourse and keep the club in a position to pay our debts back. I think I did my best job during this period, not the most glamorous but the most difficult.”
Wenger also used the news conference to wish former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson well after his recent brain haemorrhage and wondered whether any other managers will prove so enduring.
“He made 26 years and I made 22 but there are some younger managers who are already five to six years in charge. Twenty two, I don’t know. You can never say ‘I’m the last one’, it can happen again.”
Arsene Wenger recently stated that he would love to see an ex-Gunner succeed him as the next manager of Arsenal football club.
Names such as Patrick Vieira and Mikel Arteta have been touted and if it were down to Wenger one of those would get the gig over a more experienced candidate like Luis Enrique.
However, while Wenger has cultivated some of the finest young minds in coaching, not all the men who played under him at the Emirates and Highbury before have turned into such promising managers.
Here's a look at six CVs from former players that the Arsenal hierarchy can probably put firmly in the 'thanks but no thanks' pile...
1. Tony Adams
Tony Adams hasn't really expressed an interest in succeeding Arsene Wenger, and that'll be music to most Gunners fans' ears. Not that he'd ever be considered after his disastrous managerial career so far.
He may have been one of the finest defenders the Premier League has ever seen but sometimes it just doesn't work out for world class players in managerial hot seats. Unfortunately Adams was hopeless during his stints at Portsmouth, Azerbaijani side Gabala and Granada.
Lest we forget those revolutionary training methods.
2. Sol Campbell
Sol Campbell - who has previously described himself as one of football's finest minds - revealed last month that he was turned down for the Grimsby job on the basis of a lack of experience, meaning he hasn't got a hope in hell of landing the manager's gig at Arsenal.
He's had an air of self-entitlement about him in the past but with this situation he has only ever talked about who he would like to see in charge of Arsenal and, thankfully, doesn't include himself in the running.
3. Martin Keown
Martin Keown is the third defensive leader-type former Gunner to make this list.
There's little to suggest Keown would make a good replacement for Arsene Wenger. He just seems really bitter, annoyed and angry about things when giving his analysis during his various punditry gigs.
His downbeat aura is most definitely not what a bunch of demotivated underperforming prima donnas need to take them forwards.
4. Ian Wright
Even if Ian Wright had some managerial experience under his belt, he'd likely not make a particularly great boss, especially not for Arsenal.
Wrighty is hugely popular for his warm personality and sense of humour. Essentially, he's the total opposite of Martin Keown.
One gets the feeling that he simply wouldn't be able to take things as seriously as the job would definitely demand, and he should therefore not stray away from working in TV.
5. Jens Lehmann
Jens Lehmann is currently a first team coach at Arsenal, but can you imagine if he was bumped up to being the actual manager?
The German was a great servant to the north London club as a player but the ex-goalkeeper garnered a reputation throughout his time there as being a bit of a nutter.
With him in charge he'd probably force Per Mertesacker to do another season as a lone striker, bring Kim Kallstrom out of retirement and appear bi-weekly on ArsenalFanTV to rant about where it's all gone wrong...
6. Thierry Henry
Thierry Henry is actually in the running for the job according to the bookmakers, but it simply wouldn't be the right appointment.
Clearly he's an intelligent guy and is also loved by Arsenal fans worldwide for his brilliant career there as a player, but realistically Henry lacks the appropriate experience to succeed Wenger.
He may be the assistant manager of Belgium but it's Roberto Martinez who is calling the shots and using his prior knowledge of club management.
Henry is an Arsenal legend, but should things start to go pear shaped under his guidance, that fan toxicity would be bound to return and the Frenchman's legacy put at risk.
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