We can win title together: Arteta
LONDON — Mikel Arteta thinks winning the FA Cup could be just the start for Arsenal after describing it as one of the greatest moments of his career.
The Gunners beat Chelsea 2-1 in Saturday’s Heads Up FA Cup final at an empty Wembley thanks to two goals from captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Arteta, who won the trophy twice with Arsenal as a player, is in his first managerial role.
“I think it’s even better winning this than as a player,” he told BBC 5 Live.
“It’s such a special day. Hopefully, we made a lot of people happy. The players worked extremely hard. Thank you to all our staff and the people upstairs who made the decision to give me this incredible opportunity to manage a club that I have in my heart.”
Arteta, who replaced Unai Emery in December, is the first person to both captain and manage Arsenal to victory in an FA Cup final.
He is also the first manager to win a major trophy in their first season in charge of the club since George Graham in 1986-87.
“I am really proud of what we have achieved because I know the difficulties and everything we have been through,” Arteta said.
“For me personally, it has been so tough over the past six months with a lot of things that have happened in our lives, but I had just one mission when I came here and that was to make the players and staff believe we could do it.
“We had to change that energy and that mentality and just by seeing them in the dressing room all together, and the way they enjoy their profession and their time together, it makes me more proud and as a consequence of that after we can achieve things and win titles together.”
Meanwhile, Chelsea coach Frank Lampard accused his Chelsea flops of complacency.
Lampard’s side made the perfect start as Christian Pulisic fired them ahead.
But Aubameyang equalised from the penalty spot before half-time and made it 2-1 with a fine finish after the interval.
“We started well for 10 or 15 minutes, scored a goal and had other chances. From that point, we can only blame ourselves in football terms,” Chelsea boss Lampard told the BBC.
“We decided to take control as in being complacent, let’s try and play short passes like it is a bit of a stroll. A final can never be a stroll and we allowed them back into the game.”
Lampard had tried to get his players to refocus, but he conceded Chelsea have been hampered by a lack of cutting edge and defensive mistakes all season.
They weren’t helped by the extremely harsh second half dismissal of midfielder Mateo Kovacic and injuries to Pulisic and Cesar Azpilicueta.
Denied his first trophy as Chelsea boss, Lampard couldn’t hide his frustration.
“All I can do from the sidelines is shout. There are elements in our game that we have worked hard on all year, but that is in you as a group,” he said.
“We were slow, we played back on ourselves, invited pressure, then didn’t really know where to go from that. We didn’t play well enough to win a final. It doesn’t help to have two hamstrings (Azpilicueta and Pulisic) and a dislocated shoulder (Pedro), then Willian got injured yesterday and had to pull out.”
Despite their Cup final misery, Chelsea had already achieved their main aim by qualifying for next season's Champions League via a fourth place finish in the Premier League.