Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored in his return from suspension as the LA Galaxy secured a 2-0 victory over Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday night in Kansas City, Kansas.

Ibrahimovic set up the Galaxy's opener for Favio Alvarez's goal with a headed pass and later tacked on his 10th of the season as the Galaxy (9-5-1, 28 points) won their second straight match after losing their previous four.

Sporting Kansas City (3-5-5, 14 points) had a season-high 12 corner kicks but put just five of 18 shots on target while dropping to 1-4-4 over their last nine matches.

Galaxy goalkeeper David Bingham made five saves while registering his second straight shutout and fifth of the campaign.

Midfielder Perry Kitchen began the sequence of the first Galaxy goal by sending a cross from the right side into the box. Ibrahimovic headed the ball toward Alvarez, who was alone in the middle and headed the ball past Sporting KC goalkeeper Tim Melia into the lower left corner of the goal.

Alvarez was playing in his third game for the Galaxy since being acquired from Argentine club Atletico Tucuman earlier this month.

Sporting KC nearly tied the contest in the 62nd minute. Forward Johnny Russell's corner kick went directly to midfielder Felipe Gutierrez, who sent a header over the hand of Bingham but the ball hit the crossbar and went over the net.

Daniel Salloi had a chance in the 81st minute, but the Sporting KC forward sent his right-footed blast over the net.

Five minutes later, Ibrahimovic put the game away. He used his chest to gain control of a pass from forward Uriel Antuna and sent a right-footed shot that deflected off Melia and into the net.

Melia made three saves as the Galaxy put five of nine shots on target.

Sporting KC star defender Matt Besler didn't start but entered the game at the start of the second half and played the remainder of the contest.

Forward Krisztian Nemeth, tied for the team lead with seven goals, missed his second straight match due to a suspension for a serious foul against the Vancouver Whitecaps on May 18.

Liverpool would not fall into the trap of thinking they "deserve" the Champions League title after a tremendous domestic campaign that ultimately came to nothing, according to full-back Andy Robertson.

The left-back played a key part in Liverpool's title bid which ended in second place despite just one defeat and 97 points, as Manchester City pipped them by a point.

The Scotland international said the idea they deserve a trophy is misguided and any success against Tottenham Hotspur would have to be earned over the 90 minutes in Madrid on Saturday.

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"I've heard a few people say that, but for me we don't deserve anything yet," he said. "The Premier League shows that. A lot of people would say 97 points deserves the Premier League, but it didn't because Manchester City got 98.

"They were that little bit better than us in the end. We deserve nothing, only what we put into the game and what we get out.

"If we have 100 percent effort, and have a good game, play to our best, then we'll deserve it. But we aren't going into the game thinking we deserve it because we've had a good season and got 97 points. Never. That'd be stupid of us."

Robertson, who will play in a key role against a Spurs team that like to overload the right flank at times, said the approach needs to be just right against Mauricio Pochettino's side.

"We've been ruthless this season, and we need to be ruthless again," he added.

"But I've watched Tottenham over the last three or four years under Pochettino and they're a ruthless team as well.

"The way they go about things and the way they win games, they destroy teams at times.

"They beat us last season and if they perform like that then we'll be in for a hell of a game against a fantastic team with fantastic players.

"At the top end of the Premier League, you have to be ruthless. Even just to get in the top four is hard,.

"If we can take that into our game, I believe we have enough to win it, but we have to prove it.

"We have to show the team that's played the last 10 months of the season."

Arsenal manager Unai Emery expressed disappointment in the team's 4-1 loss to Chelsea in the Europa League final but asked fans to continue to trust the process.

After a goalless first half, Arsenal saw their Champions League dream evaporate in the first 20 minutes of the second half, as goals from Olivier Giroud, Pedro and a send-off penalty from Eden Hazard saw Chelsea run out to a 3-0 lead.

Alex Iwobi pulled one back with a brilliant volley into the top-right corner but Hazard answered just three minutes later to make it 4-1 and squash any comeback hopes in Baku.

"The first half we were in the match with possibilities. We didn't concede too many chances to them, with one good save from Petr Cech," Emery said. "We wanted to carry on our game plan and take our chances when they came. But they scored the first goal. The first goal was very important in this match because, afterwards, we needed to play with calm but we made some mistakes.

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"They have very good players to make use of these mistakes, and efficiently score. After the second goal, it was even more difficult."

Arsenal have lost their last four major European finals, with their sole contintental win (excluding Super Cups) coming 25 years ago -- a 1994 European Cup Winners' Cup win over Parma.

"We knew it would be difficult, and we are in our process. I want to say to all the supporters, we are in this process," Emery said. "Really the first target has not been achieved this year, but I think we are closer: firstly in the Premier League, and secondly in this competition, playing this final. Next year is a big challenge to take one more step in our way, in our will with young players."

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For Emery, his first year in charge of Arsenal ends without any silverware and no hopes of Champions League football. The Spaniard won three straight Europa League titles while in charge of Sevilla.

"Next year is a big challenge to take one more step in our way, in our will with young players. We are disappointed today but, in general, I think we made a new step improving and being competitive. We'll need to make one more step next year."

Emery admitted the loss and absence of Champions League play could affect the team's transfer strategy, but wouldn't specify on any potential signings or exits.

"We need to analyse, speak with the club, speak with the players, and do one step more in our way. But our idea is to continue carrying on improving with the young players who arrived last year. Maybe some players need to leave, to take a new way. But it's not the moment to speak about that."

Among those players departing Arsenal this summer include Aaron Ramsey and Danny Welbeck. Mesut Ozil could also be on the move after an uneven year at the Emirates.

Cech, who has been linked to a return to Chelsea as sporting director, said: "Until the 30th of June I am still an Arsenal player and I won't decide on anything."

Eden Hazard said "I think this it is a goodbye" after scoring twice in Chelsea's 4-1 win over Arsenal in Wednesday night's Europa League final in Baku.

Hazard, 28, has been linked with a move from Chelsea to Real Madrid this summer -- admitting two weeks ago he'd told the club of his intentions -- and following the match he told BT Sport it was time for a "new challenge."

"We will decide in a few days and the only target in my mind was to win this final," Hazard said. "I have made my decision already and now I'm waiting on both clubs. I think it is a goodbye, but in football you never know.

"My dream was to play in the Premier League and I have done that for one of the biggest clubs so maybe now it is the time for a new challenge."

If Hazard does leave this summer, he'll do so with six titles to his credit during his seven seasons at Stamford Bridge, including two Premier League trophies, one FA Cup, one League Cup and two Europa League wins with the crown he helped Chelsea secure in Baku.

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Chelsea and Arsenal both looked sluggish in the first half -- with the kickoff not taking place until 11 p.m. local time -- but Hazard helped the Blues find their form in the second half with a goal from the penalty spot and a sweet finish soon after to go along with his assist on Pedro's goal.

Hazard said of his team's effort after the break: "It was good. I think both teams were playing with a bit of stress with it being a final, but when Olivier [Giroud] scored it was the beginning of a great night.

"We played well and controlled the game and I'm happy to leave this trophy with the boys. The manager said to carry on playing football at the break and today we showed this mentality."

Hazard, 28, joined Chelsea from Lille in 2012 for £32 million. Real Madrid have not tried to hide their desire to sign the Hazard, with president Florentino Perez admitting this week that he has been chasing his signature for years and expects to land the Belgian this summer.

Following the match, manager Maurizio Sarri was also asked about Hazard's future and his own, with reports suggesting he may be in line to take up the coaching job at Juventus left vacated by the departure of Max Allegri.

"As you know, Hazard is a wonderful player, but you have to spend two or three months to understand him as a man," Sarri said. "But when you are able to understand him as a man, he's a wonderful man. I knew. I knew that Eden wanted to leave, of course. But, as I said in every press conference, I wanted to respect his decision.

"You know very well that I love the Premier League, the level of the competition. I am lucky because I am in Chelsea, one of the best teams, one of the best clubs in the Premier League in the best championship in the world. So, at the moment, I am happy.

"But, of course, I want to know if the club are happy. If we can improve. That's normal, I think. But I do a discussion with the owner, the president, the director after every season in every club, so I think it's normal."

Chelsea didn't lose during their Europa League campaign, winning 12 and drawing three, to become the first team to go unbeaten en route to a major European title since Manchester United did it in the 2007-08 Champions League.

And Sarri said his team were deserved winners: "I am really very happy, but I think the shirt is important. The front of the shirt. The trophy is very important for the club. Then is less important the back of the shirt, the name of the players and the name of the coach. Of course the trophy is very important for us because our feeling was we deserved to win.

"The Premier League is not easy to react in because the level is really very high. In the end we got into the Champions League through the Premier League - not easy. In the Europa League we played 15 matches and won 12 games, and drew three. So I think we deserved to win the Europa League.

"It's very important for me, but very important for us. I'm really very happy with my players. Something changed at the beginning of February. We lost 6-0 in Manchester against City, but we started something different. And so my feeling is we deserved to win."

ESPN FC's Chelsea correspondent Liam Twomey contributed to this story.

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Under normal circumstances, the winning of a European final would bring uncomplicated joy. There are plenty of grey areas in football, all manner of things that you can't be sure of. But lifting a European trophy should in theory only bring positive emotions.

Chelsea will celebrate tonight, but what will they be thinking tomorrow?

This has a truly strange season at Stamford Bridge. The bare facts don't suggest anything other than success: They finished third in the Premier League, only behind the best team of this generation and the team that only lost to them by a point; they reached the Carabao Cup final and only lost on penalties; and now they have won the Europa League, thrashing Arsenal 4-1 in Baku with a terrific second-half display.

All of that should mean a wave of positivity washing over the whole club, a season of undeniable success and optimism for the future. But in reality, things at Chelsea have never been more uncertain.

This is a team that is about to lose its best player after Eden Hazard confirmed, minutes after the final whistle, that this game was almost certainly goodbye, as negotiations for his move to Real Madrid now start in earnest. It's a club that might be about to lose its manager, with Maurizio Sarri, not exactly the most popular coach of all time, potentially on his way back to Italy. It's a club on the cusp of a transfer embargo, with holes to fill but no way of filling them.

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Far from this being the start of even more success, it feels like Chelsea have climbed to the top of the ladder only to immediately land on a snake and slide back to the bottom again. This has been a season of triumph, but the weirdest triumph imaginable.

And this final was probably the most fitting way for a campaign this odd to end. Everything, from the massive gap between the pitch and the stands to the three-quarter-full stadium to the leisurely pace of the game before the break, made this feel more like a preseason friendly.

The first half was so boring that the "highlights" package at the break featured the managers shaking hands. About 10 minutes into the second half, a banner was unfurled in the stands with a message to UEFA written in big letters. Would this be the big protest against the staging of the final in a remote and geopolitically charged location? No, the banner read: "We are part of football. Thanks to UEFA for the final." Curiouser and curiouser.

At the end, UEFA bragged that the official attendance of 51,370 was the "third highest ever" for a Europa League final. A slightly less impressive way of putting it would be to point out that some 12,000 more people watched the last time Arsenal played in this stadium, against Qarabag in the group stages.

Arsenal won 3-0 that night, but on this occasion, they might as well have taken the lead from many of their supporters and not turned up. They were poor in the first half and desperate in the second, putting up only the most token defence to Chelsea's attacks and spurning the few chances they created.

This was a game crucial to the Gunners' immediate future, a club in serious need of a rebuild who now don't have Champions League football with which to tempt any potential signings. Afterward, Unai Emery claimed this season has been a step in the right direction, but if so, it was an incredibly small one.

As for Sarri, he would have been forgiven for greeting the victory with two middle fingers, raised high in the air. After a season in which he has been hugely criticised, fairly and unfairly, he was probably entitled to take a few swings back. And in a manner of speaking, he did.

In his postmatch news conference, he was invited a number of times to promise his future to Chelsea but chose not to.

"The season finished one hour ago," he said. "Tomorrow, I will begin to speak to my club. We need to speak, of course. We need to know what the club can do for me, what I can do better for the club. I think that also the club needs to speak with me."

And when asked if he thought he deserved to stay, he said: "I think so, but it's only my opinion. My opinion is not enough."

In a way, this was classic Chelsea, and indeed a perfect summary of this season that Sarri was still dabbing his forehead with a towel -- mopping up sweat, or celebratory champagne, perhaps -- as he sent not particularly subtle messages to his employers.

It is slightly difficult to figure out what will happen from here. The club could decide Sarri is simply too unpopular, that they need someone else to guide them through a tricky transitional season. They could decide that changing managers is adding another layer of turmoil that they don't need.

As for Sarri, he undoubtedly is in a better negotiating position if he wishes to make any big demands and stay. Equally, he could decide that the job is more trouble than it is worth and walk away.

This is a club who have now won 16 trophies, three of them in Europe, in the 16 years since Roman Abramovich -- who was present in Baku, after a season in which he has scarcely been seen at Stamford Bridge -- bought the club. And in most of that time, they have been in some form of flux -- stability regarded as unnecessary, chaos more their thing. If uncertainty is what they desire, they're about to get a whole load of it.

On this night, Chelsea are a success, European trophy winners after a truly odd season. Tomorrow? Who knows? But you suspect they wouldn't want it any other way.

Toronto Raptors star point guard Kyle Lowry tried to avoid discussing his left thumb injury on Wednesday during NBA Finals media day -- but he did admit it's affecting his play.

"It's about passing. I'm a big passer," Lowry said during an appearance on ESPN's The Jump.

"You know, the flicking of the passing, the kind of -- the ball movement, handling the ball. During the game, honestly, I can't feel my thumb," he said, alluding to the treatment he is receiving to numb the pain in his non-shooting hand.

Lowry suffered the injury during the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Philadelphia 76ers.

"I'll have to take care of it after the season but I don't want to talk about it as much," he said on The Jump as his Raptors prepare to face the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday in Toronto.

"I haven't complained about it, I won't complain about it, I don't care about it; I'm going to continue to do the things I need to do to make sure I can play at a high level. And that's it."

Raptors coach Nick Nurse admitted during the conference finals against the Milwaukee Bucks that Lowry was playing through pain.

"Kyle's hand is not great," Nurse said last week. "You know, he's -- it's hurt and it's sore and it causes him a lot of pain. But he seems to be able to manage it through the game and do what he can do.

"He's obviously scoring and playing great on top of the other things he always does, and we're really [seeing] a heck of a lot of toughness and again, the spirit that he just wants to be out there and help his team any way he can."

ESPN's Tim Bontemps contributed to this report.

The NBA spoke to the Toronto Raptors during the Eastern Conference finals about Drake's activity and presence on the sideline, a league spokesman told ESPN.

Last year, the NBA warned the rapper, who also is a global ambassador for the Raptors, after a confrontation with then-Cleveland Cavaliers center Kendrick Perkins during a playoff series between the Raptors and the Cavs.

Drake drew attention this year for leaving his courtside seat in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Milwaukee Bucks to give Toronto coach Nick Nurse a shoulder massage.

The next day, Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said there was no place for fans to be on the court.

"I don't know how much he's on the court. It sounds like you guys are saying it's more than I realize," Budenholzer said. "There's certainly no place for fans and, you know, whatever it is exactly that Drake is for the Toronto Raptors. You know, to be on the court, there's boundaries and lines for a reason, and like I said, the league is usually pretty good at being on top of stuff like that."

NBA commissioner Adam Silver issued a memo earlier this year reminding the league's franchises to state and enforce their fan-conduct policies.

The Golden State Warriors have downplayed Drake's presence ahead of their NBA Finals series against Toronto.

"I kind of think it's fun and the NBA kind of embraces the pop culture dynamic of the league and the stars and the celebrities who are out there," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Monday. "And we got E-40 ready for them too, so we're in good shape."

Warriors guard Stephen Curry offered his take on Drake.

"It's been entertaining," he said Monday. "I know it's a tricky situation with him being right there on the court, but at the end of the day, he's having fun, having -- you can't hate on nobody having fun. Well, I guess in this life everybody hates on people having fun. So it's par for the course on that one."

On Wednesday, Raptors wing Norman Powell also embraced his team's ambassador.

"I like having Drake on the sideline," he said. "He's a great supporter, and it's funny how his passion for the team's really affecting the opponents, having opposing coaches come out ... you can see it's bothering them."

New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis and David Griffin discussed the new executive vice president's vision for the franchise over breakfast in Los Angeles on Wednesday, league sources told ESPN.

Davis, who requested a trade in January, and Griffin, who was hired in April, are expected to continue a dialogue in the near future, sources said.

Additional conversations about Davis' future may be largely focused between Griffin and Davis' agent, Rich Paul, who also attended Wednesday's meeting, sources said.

Davis, 26, can become a free agent next summer, but Griffin has been determined on selling him on the Pelicans through a new prism. New Orleans plans to draft Duke's Zion Williamson with the No. 1 overall pick, and Griffin has made strides with hires in his front office, medical and training staff and practice facility improvements.

Davis is eligible to sign a five-year, $235.5 million supermax contract extension on July 1.

New Orleans could have eager trade suitors -- the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, Boston Celtics and New York Knicks -- should Griffin engage in trade talks, but so far that hasn't happened, sources said. Griffin has been determined to make a case for Davis to stay.

Davis made his trade request after the Pelicans fell out of the playoff chase. He was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft. He's a six-time All-Star and a three-time first-team All-NBA selection.