Eight Chelsea players named in UEFA Europa League Squad of the Season

When UEFA mean a “squad” of the season, they really do mean a “squad”. An entire (matchday) squad. That’s 18 players, without naming a starting XI, which makes us wonder how more Chelsea players were not including.

Still, 8 out of 18 is not a bad ratio. Eintracht Frankfurt get 5, Arsenal 3, and Benfica 2.

The squad in full is as follows:

GOALKEEPERS: Trapp, Arrizabalaga
DEFENDERS: Grimaldo, Kolašinac, Koscielny, David Luiz, Azpilicueta, Da Costa
MIDFIELDERS: Hasebe, Kostić, Jorginho, Kanté
FORWARDS: Aubameyang, Giroud, Jović, João Félix, Pedro, Hazard

One does wonder how Ruben Loftus-Cheek or Andreas Christensen didn’t make it, especially when Eden Hazard, as great as he was in the final, gets in while playing essentially 3 of the 15 games in the competition.

But these sorts of awards and recognition are inherently silly, so let’s not worry too much about that. Congrats to all the “winners” and of course, and more importantly, all the actual winners.