Arsenal win gives Wenger record 7th FA Cup
LONDON — Removing the record seventh FA Cup winner’s medal from his pocket, Arsene Wenger was gratified, yet apprehensive.
“For once, I have kept my medal,” said the Arsenal manager, who usually gives them away to staff members. “So that means it’s a special night for me.”
And maybe his last night managing an Arsenal team?
Even after beating Chelsea 2-1 in the final on Saturday, Wenger indicated he has to stew until Tuesday’s board meeting before discovering whether his 21-year reign will be extended by the record 13-time FA Cup winners.
Aaron Ramsey, who scored the winning goal to deny English Premier League champion Chelsea a double, certainly hopes there isn’t change in the dugout.
“I’m happy for the manager,” Ramsey said on the Wembley Stadium pitch. “Hopefully, he will be here next season.”
But the team won’t even be back among Europe’s elite in September after finishing fifth in the Premier League, the lowest finish since Wenger took charge in 1996.
And yet, just as the season reached its climax, Arsenal turned in the type of tenacious display lacking so often, and against a side so commanding in the Premier League in Antonio Conte’s first season in charge.
For once, this was a day when so much went right for Wenger, even with a patched-up injurydepleted defence featuring captain Per Mertesacker making his first start in more than a year.
“We had outstanding performances,” Wenger said. “We know this team has suffered.”
But the season has ended with a run of six victories in May after Wenger adopted the three-man defence that has served Conte so well, until now. There was better luck, too. When Alexis Sanchez put the ball in the net after four minutes, it appeared to be initially disallowed because Ramsey was adjudged to be interfering with play while offside. But the decision by Anthony Taylor’s assistant was overturned by the referee.
“Ramsey’s interfering,” Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said. “If he doesn’t run to the ball, I can go out and claim the ball, but now, because he runs, I stop and then Sanchez takes advantage.”
And scored his 30th goal of the season.
Arsenal even had the luxury of a man advantage from the 68th when Victor Moses received a second yellow card for diving. Somehow, though, Diego Costa managed to equalize in the 76th, bringing down Willian’s lofted ball on his chest and striking past David Ospina.
Rather than imploding, Arsenal was back in front within three minutes.
On an afternoon when so much bucked the story of the season, double player of the year N’Golo Kante failed to track Ramsey, who was left unmarked to meet Olivier Giroud’s dinked pass back.
But it is the losers who still head into the off-season the most buoyant. Revitalized after the 10th-place league finish in 2016, Chelsea lifted the biggest prize in English football last week after winning 30 of the 38 games.
“We shouldn’t forget the amazing season we’ve had being [Premier League] champions,” Courtois said.