Maurizio Sarri speaks out on Hazard, Arsenal, Pulisic, Mkhitaryan and Loftus-Cheek

Chelsea will take on Arsenal in the Europa League final in Baku on Wednesday 29 May in what will be the first of two all-English European finals before Liverpool’s clash with Tottenham the following Saturday. Maurizio Sarri confirmed, Antonio Rudiger, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson Odoi will miss the match. “Of course we are trying to recover Kante. He had part of the training yesterday with the group, so we are optimistic he will be ready. No Rudiger, Loftus or Hudson,” said Sarri. There are a lot of speculation linking Sarri with Juventus. On his future, the Italian said: “My future is Wednesday, I only have to think with that. I have two years left. I will speak to the club as I want to see if they are happy with me. As you know I like very much the Premier League, it is the most important Championship, I think. I am excited to be here. As I said before I am very happy to stay in the Premier League. Chelsea are one of the most important in the Premier League. It is normal to speak to the club at the end of the season, it is normal.” Chelsea have announced that Ruben Loftus-Cheek has undergone successful surgery on his ruptured Achilles, but have set no timescale on his recovery. Loftus-Cheek pick up an injury in Chelsea’s friendly win over New England Revolution. “In Boston the pitch wasn’t very good. With an injury like that it is not just one reason, there are many different reasons. The injury is very similar to the Callum injury. Not the same but similar. The time to recover is the same,” said Sarri. Eden Hazard has long been linked with Real Madrid and Sarri says he will be good for every team: “I want to respect his decision. I hope he will stay with us. We need to be ready if he wants something different. If I have spoken with him then I won’t tell you.” Fans and Arsenal are not happy about the place where will be held the Europa League final, Sarri says he’s also unhappy. “The same. The location is a big problem, for the fans. I would like it to be in another location. I think there is no difference, the situation will be the same for both teams. For everybody it is better to play for 30,000 fans or Chelsea and 30,000 for Arsenal. You do this job for these matches. So it would be better to have the fans there,” the Italian said. Arsenal confirmed that Armenia International Henrikh Mkhitaryan will not travel to Baku, due to political reasons: “I am very sorry for the situation, I would like to see him on the pitch. You have to respect the decision of the man.” Reports claimed, that Cech has agreed to take up a role at the Blues once he hangs up his gloves this summer. “He is a professional player, he has to play for Arsenal until the end of June so I want to respect him and Arsenal. I don’t want to talk about a player for another team,” said Sarri. On Arsenal, the Chelsea boss added: “I think we can improve. For the fans we have to play better and win more. There isn’t another way. The final is usually an open match. Of course Loftus was very important for us in an open match, it will be difficult. They have dangerous strikers. They are dangerous as a team in the offensive phase, aggressive, so it is not easy to play them. It is a difficult match. We were in trouble in January, so now our feeling is that we deserve to win. We want a trophy for our group and our team. It is a risk of course. We risk to have less motivation, but they might have more pressure than us at the moment. There is positive and negative. We didn’t want to play this game for the Champions League, we wanted that in the Premier League. We want to win the trophy.” Christian Pulisic signed a deal for Chelsea and joined the club: ”Welcome. I spoke with him two months ago, he knows our team. I didn’t know the club had signed him, but I gave my opinion about him to the club and it was very good. I am really very happy and he has the capacity to improve even more.”

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