Bill Edgar: Three stats and bets for the Europa League final

Chelsea’s Europa League semi-final victory over Eintracht Frankfurt came via their 12th penalty shoot-out in the past ten seasons, which is five more than any of their big-six rivals have contested over that period. Five of those shoot-outs have taken place over the past two seasons (they also beat Tottenham in this season’s Carabao Cup semi-finals and Norwich in the FA Cup third round last season, and lost to Manchester City in this season’s Carabao Cup final and to Arsenal in last season’s Community Shield), and that experience may come in handy should the Europa League final against Arsenal this week finish level after extra time. Arsenal, by contrast, have been involved in only one shoot-out in the past five years. The fact that these two London teams have drawn four of their past seven meetings – and they finished only two points apart in the Premier League this season – suggests that the Betfair Sportsbook odds of 9-1 about Chelsea winning in a penalty shoot-out in Azerbaijan are worth considering.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored an impressive 27 goals in 36 European games for Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal over the past four seasons, four of which came against Valencia in the Europa League semi-finals. While Arsenal’s form has been far better at home than away this season, Aubameyang has shown his ability to strike on the road by hitting three against Valencia in Spain and two at Burnley in his past two appearances. He has hit nine of Arsenal’s past 16 goals in all competitions, which makes the Betfair Sportsbook’s 12-5 about him to be his team’s first goalscorer in the final a tempting proposition.

Arsenal have been far more free-scoring in Europe this season, hitting three or more goals in half of their Europa League matches but doing so in only around one quarter of their domestic games. Unai Emery’s team have also shown a propensity to strike after the interval, producing three second-half goals in each of their past two games, away to Valencia and Burnley. Arsenal are 9-2 with the Betfair Sportsbook to score over 1.5 goals in the second half against Chelsea.