WENGER’S ARSENAL ARE TOO GOOD FOR CHELSEA
Chilean leads destruction of the champions as Wenger’s seventh FA Cup gives him a chance to go out on a high
HE SAVED the best for last, Arsene Wenger. Or, at least, his team saved their very best performance of the season for their last game.
And if this were to be Wenger’s finale after 21 years, if Tuesday’s board meeting were to result in something cataclysmic in football terms, he will always have this on which to reflect in his dotage.
A mesmerising Arsenal side outplayed the Premier League champions; they should have won by a far greater margin, hitting the woodwork three times; they played like a Wenger side, but one from 12 years ago. They had panache, obduracy, commitment and zeal.
Forget for the moment that Chelsea failed to show. You could almost forgive them that after their enormous achievement of winning the league. This was Arsenal’s day and Wenger’s moment. All year he has endured the abuse; in recent months he has been pilloried and disrespected; and it has hurt his pride. And performances at Bayern, West Brom and Crystal Palace have stretched the patience of even loyal lieutenants.
Yet here he is, with a third FA Cup in four years, surpassing Aston Villa’s George Ramsay, who won his first in 1887, as the most successful of all time in this competition.
And he has guided his team to become the most successful club of all time in this competition — with 13 triumphs. Not bad for a man on his way out. It’s a specialism in failure many would love to master.
Does it rescue the season? To some extent. The bigger question, for another day, was where was this team, spirit and strength when it was required in February and March? Yesterday they summoned the spirit of a former age and played like a Wenger team should.
Wave after wave they came, those Arsenal attacks. This was a side transformed, more akin to the real Barcelona than the lightweight version Arsenal usually resemble. The backline, a work in progress, suddenly afforded them space and angles hitherto unimagined.
Per Mertesacker, on the back of those 37 minutes played this season, was almost bullying Diego Costa in the opening exchanges; Rob Holding looked comfortable on the ball; Hector Bellerin was exposing Marcos Alonso at will.
Chiefly though, it was about Alexis Sanchez, ably assisted by Mesut Ozil. The Chilean was everywhere: at left-back to tidy up; at centre forward to press the goalkeeper; at inside left, where he was meant to be, giving Cesar Azpilicueta and Gary Cahill a hard time.
And yes, with his hands up punching the ball on to assist his goal. He was lucky it wasn’t spotted. But still, he is some player. And that opening goal was conceived and delivered by him alone, with a nod to Diego Maradona.
Aaron Ramsey had harried Chelsea to win back possession. But it was Sanchez who chipped it into the box. David Luiz headed away and up leapt Sanchez, pushing the ball with his hands into the box towards Ramsey, who had strayed into an offside position.
But he was moving away from goal and as Chelsea hesitated, Sanchez chased down his own deflected chip. Then he pushed the Welshman aside and struck deftly past Thibaut Courtois.
The flag was raised by assistant referee but Anthony Taylor insisted on speaking with his assistant, waving away a host of players, Luiz being the most persistent.
It was the offside, not the unseen handball, they were discussing and on that basis he awarded the goal. Having waited, Sanchez was not to be denied his moment. He gestured his team-mates back to celebrate properly near where he scored.
The only anxiety for Arsenal was the fact that they would only score the one goal in the first half, so plentiful were their chances.
On 16 minutes, a flowing move saw Ozil find Sanchez, who delivered just as exquisite a pass back to Ozil. Through on goal, he lifted the chip over Courtois and Luiz, but a deflection slowed the ball enough for Cahill to scramble it clear.
On 19 minutes, Ozil’s corner was wonderfully met by the head of Danny Welbeck. Courtois was beaten, the ball headed goalwards yet it bounced off the post. Even then it rebounded to Ramsey, who, shocked, couldn’t adapt his body shape and saw the ball bounce off his chest on to the post and out.
Chelsea looked what they were: a team who had achieved their season’s goal two weeks ago. When they did get forward, Mertesacker was leading the line, refusing to be bamboozled by Eden Hazard despite the Belgian being half his height and twice his speed.
And when Mertesacker’s defiance wasn’t enough, Holding and Nacho Monreal were throwing themselves into blocks. The one time in that opening period when Arsenal faltered was the delightful long ball played in to Costa on 29 minutes.
He characteristically bullied Holding off the ball, got his shot away but saw his strike smothered by the on-rushing David Ospina.
It couldn’t last. Antonio Conte would not allow his champions, to be so slack in the second half. N’Golo Kante gave early warning with his 48th-minute strike that took a slight deflection off Xhaka and required Ospina to save. On 52 minutes, Victor Moses raced clear and struck cleanly, though Ospina saved well and Mertesacker cleaned up.
On 65 minutes Wellbeck pulled the ball across goal and Bellerin lined up a shot which Courtois was forced to save.
And Chelsea became the authors of their own misfortune on 68 minutes. Moses, already booked, grew desperate. In the Arsenal box but with little on, he sensed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain closing in and fell to ground, anticipating some kind of challenge. But the Arsenal player had made none; in fact he had stubbed his toe into the ground rather than made any contact.
Unfortunately for Moses, referee Taylor was standing in direct sight. A yellow card was inevitable, as was the red that followed. Chelsea’s task had become tougher still.
A man down, a goal down and 22 minutes to play in a game in which they had barely shown.
Yet predictably it was Costa who dragged them back into the game. After a crisp passing sequence, Willian lofted a ball towards Costa. Pushing aside Holding, he took it down, struck it into the ground and saw it bounce via a slight deflection into the corner past Ospina. The respective mental strengths of these sides appeared to be revealing themselves at last.
And yet, having established a foothold, Chelsea reverted to their limp, slack defending again.
Almost from the kick-off, Arsenal worked the ball down the left to substitute Olivier Giroud, who pulled the ball back and an unmarked Ramsey headed home.
The Welshman won the final in 2014. Two minutes and nine seconds had elapsed since Costa had equalised. You sensed a fatal blow.