Arsenal Team News: Gunners have announced that their forward Henrikh Mkhitaryan will not be part of the Europa League squad.
Arsenal will play Chelsea in the finals of Europa League at Baku on May 29th. It did not come as good news for the Armenian Henrikh Mkhitaryan, whose country has political discrepancies with Azerbaijan.
The Gunners attacker, who was not part of the squad for the early trip against Qarabag in the group stages will be forced to miss the Europa League finals. It will come as a huge blow for the London outfit, who are featuring for the first time in thirteen years in a European final.
In an official statement, Arsenal have said that they were in discussions with Mkhitaryan and his family, and their best option was to leave him out because of security reasons.
It read the following:
“We have thoroughly explored all the options for Micki to be part of the squad but after discussing this with Micki and his family we have collectively agreed he will not be in our travelling party.
We have written to Uefa expressing our deep concerns about this situation. Micki has been a key player in our run to the final so this is a big loss for us from a team perspective.
We’re also very sad that a player will miss out on a major European final in circumstances such as this, as it is something that comes along very rarely in a footballer’s career.
Micki will continue to be part of our preparations until we depart for Baku at the weekend.”
Henrikh Mkhitaryan posted a hard-hitting statement on social media after being forced to miss out Arsenal’s important game of the season.
“Having considered all the current options, we had to take the tough decision for me not to travel with the squad to the #UEL Final against #Chelsea It‘s the kind of game that doesn’t come along very often for us players and I must admit, it hurts me a lot to miss it.I will be cheering my teammates on! Let’s bring it home @Arsenal #uel #final #arsenal #chelsea #AFC #COYG”
Even though Mkhitaryan has not played much football as he would liked this season, he has turned the games at times as an impact substitute. He has featured 11 games in the Europa League this term.
Here’s how Twitter reacted..
What’s next?
Arsenal will take on Chelsea in the finals of the Europa League at Baku on May 29th.
