I didn’t bother going out for my usual ride yesterday. The west of England was suffocated under a bleak grey cloud. An unseasonably cold wind drove the rain remorselessly down deserted streets and across the sodden green fields. The mountain bike remained in the shed and I remained in front of my computer intending to add a chapter to my book but actually watching reruns of season three of Game Of Thrones. You remember that series, it was back when stuff actually happened.
I wasn’t concerned by the elements. In fact I sat, quite complacent, as Machiavellian schemes unfolded and throats were sliced open, because, you see, I knew the weather would be fine today. I knew this because today, for the benefit of those of you just awaking from a coma or arriving from a previously undiscovered planet, is the day of the FA Cup final.
We may not know which coloured ribbons will go unused until this evening but we do know one thing – the sun must shine. It’s a tradition. Before you go scampering for your almanac in order to find the proof with which to refute this bold assertion, let me just stop you. The FA Cup is theatre. It transcends ordinary football, goes beyond the mundane because it is a part of a wonderful tradition. This is why people of a certain age get so bent out of shape about semi finals being held at Wembley and kick off being anything other than three pm. You shouldn’t mess with the very fabric of that which makes a thing special.
You should have replays and not penalties, goalies should wear caps, hymns should be sung, marching bands should march, royalty should attend in all their splendour and sullen boredom and the game should be broadcast simultaneously on all available TV channels. High streets should resemble ghost towns, agitated uncles should curse ill timed wedding invitations and small boys should run onto the streets at five pm clutching case balls and proceed to re-enact the highlights as soon the cup has been presented. Oh and while I’m at it the trophy should be handed to the winning captain in the moments immediately following the final whistle, not twenty minutes later. The winners should go up first with the runners up dragging disconsolately behind them.
And the sun must shine.
So don’t bother checking the weather for previous cup finals because in the only place which matters, in our folk memory, in the place where tradition is king, the sun always, always shines on Cup Final Saturday.
The FA Cup was the first trophy I watched Arsenal win. I read about winning the league in the newspaper but the final was actually broadcast live on television and what’s more it was in colour. We won in the glorious sunshine after going behind to a Steve Heighway goal, Charlie George instantly cemented his place as one of my favourite people ever and I argued with Steve Collins at school on Monday as to whether Eddie Kelly or George Graham had scored the equaliser.
Arsenal would appear in no less than five finals in my first ten years as an Arsenal fan somehow contriving only to win two of them. I remember each and every one of those games with quite startling clarity, startling when you consider how I struggle to remember where I put my glasses each and every morning these days. The fallow seasons which followed saw us go thirteen years without a sniff of the Wembley turf. This barren spell was at last relieved by a monotonous draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1993, a game we eventually won in the last ever FA Cup final replay thanks to an Andy Linighan header in the dying moments of extra time. Five years later Arsène began his run of six finals, soon to be seven of course, all of which he won apart from one notorious robbery back 2001 upon which I shall not dwell. Suffice it to say Henchoz should have been off after sixteen minutes and had we scored the resultant penalty justice would surely have been done. But I’m not bitter.
Finals involving Arsenal aren’t my only favourites. I really enjoyed Coventry against Spurs in 1987 when Ogrizovic and Clemence competed for worst ever keeper in a cup final and Houchen scored with a diving header. Honestly, isn’t a diving header just the best way to score a goal? We don’t see anywhere near enough diving headers in the modern game. Sunderland and Southampton winning against Leeds and Man United take some beating and I’d have to put Wimbledon’s triumph over Liverpool in a similar bracket. More recently I enjoyed seeing Everton’s victory over Man United even if it was tainted by the sight of Anders Limpar in anything other than an Arsenal shirt.
So much for past finals, what might today hold for us? How will this afternoon’s match sit in this long and wonderful tradition? According to all the blogs I’ve read lots of people know lots about an event that hasn’t actually happened yet. I shall try to avoid pretending to be able to see into the future, neither will I be so bold as to tell Arsène Wenger what side he ought to pick nor which tactics to employ. Others of course are less shy of setting themselves up as oracles and seers, football mystics, tactical gnostics and world leading experts on formations and players. I’ve read that Arsène must start with Theo up front. Not should, not might or could but must. I’ve learned that despite formations having failed and players being out of form the manager will be too stubborn to change them for the final. I’ve heard that because we have two great keepers and because nobody knows which one will start we therefore have no choice but to buy Petr Čech from Chelsea. Pomposity, arrogance, idiocy and ignorance jostling for supremacy alongside an apparent ability to foresee the outcome of unpredictable events days before they come to pass.
Arsène couldn’t have been clearer in his comments about the line up. Those who start seldom have the biggest influence on the outcome. The modern game is a squad game. Football changed entirely when three substitutes were allowed to be chosen from a group of seven and as such the bleating and howling which accompanies the release of the team sheets before every match is staggeringly moronic. Which blogger or tweeter accurately predicted that swapping Podolski for Sanogo would be the game changer in last year’s final? Maybe somebody did but if so I’ve yet to made aware of their existence. If Theo doesn’t start it is because that doesn’t fit Arsène’s game plan, but it doesn’t mean Theo isn’t still an important part of that plan. If Ospina starts it means Arsène is confident he’s the best choice. This stuff isn’t complicated and just like our transfer policy is best left to those who know more than we do. I’m content to wait and see what the great man decides and then see how his plan unfolds. Why others are incapable of doing the same escapes me.
So what of our opponents today? The only thing we know for sure is they start every season below us in second place. If they end their FA Cup campaign in a similar position I shall be a happy man. Trophies tend not to be decided by alphabetical order, however. A shame really, as we would be in a pretty strong position every year, although we’d struggle to overcome Araz-Naxçıvan PFK in European competition, not to mention the unassailable Aalborg BK.
Villa have had a poor season. There’s no way of dressing that up. They ended up one defeat away from relegation despite a fantastic start to their campaign. Their early results proved to be a false dawn and it was Arsenal’s 3 – 0 victory which started the rot. They went on to lose their next six games in succession and although they briefly steadied the ship they did not end the season well. Today, of course, is an FA Cup final. Today that league form might prove a complete irrelevance.
They have a match winner in Christian Benteke, a hugely experienced keeper, and Delph and Grealish are both promising players. Would you swap any of their guys or indeed their manager for any of ours though? That’s the key question and my answer is an unsurprising and resounding no. Quite simply we have enough to win this. I’m not saying we will, I’m not predicting a walk over – I may not be a superstitious man but even I have my limits. Ipswich and West Ham taught me the dangers of hubris way back in the nineteen seventies and it’s a lesson I’ve heeded ever since.
Wherever you are watching and however the events unfold, I hope the game lives up to your expectations and unless you are a Villa fan I sincerely hope the result goes the way of your dreams. One day this match too will be bathed in the May sunshine of cup final nostalgia. In forty years time some grouchy old blogger will probably reminiscence about today and tell how an Arsenal legend entered his memories and his life in a way never to be forgotten. I doubt I’ll be around to read his thoughts but I shall be here today to bear witness as the stories and the traditions of both this venerable competition and of our great club are entwined once again. Who knows, we may even make history today. I certainly hope so.
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks Steww. Larkinesque without the misery. I enjoyed that very much indeed. I have a dilemma that I need help with. I am taking my two youngsters to the live screening at the Ems today. I was going to wear my retro shirt (in my mind I am Charlie George), Katy her home shirt (Alexis) and Daniel his Szczesny top. But I read everywhere this morning that yellow is the thing and that Wojo won’t start. What to do? Will it be very obvious that we aren’t proper fans?
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foreverheady – I’m surprised you’ll be tearing yourself away from the test match to go to the Ems…
Whatever you wear have a great day.
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Cup final day is special, a different rhythm to other Saturdays and even more so that Arsenal are competing. Some of my earliest Cup final watching is as vivid as though it was yesterday. The notion of any club retaining the Cup was unheard off – simply too difficult. Times change.
Of all those contests some of the most memorable are the upsets. Sunlun beating Revie’s Leeds, Bobby Stokes goal against Docherty’s Mancs, Wimbledon, and lil old Wigan showed that even in the world of PL financial muscle it is the size of the fight in the dog that matters.
Villa arrive today with nothing to lose. Let them depart towards the West Midlands this evening with nothing but a bright memory of the day.
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I felt shivers up my spine and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end reading this, once again thanks for a great start to F.A. Cup morning Steww.
you left out cup final mastermind and its a knockout but small details eh.
I think Arsene believes the early part of this game will be tight (lets hope its not like hull last year) and Theo and Jack far from being out of his thoughts will be the impact players needed to bring the trophy home, Arsene is a chess grandmaster after all and will be thinking three moves ahead. The pitch apparently is slow at wembley and so we will have to find a slightly different way to win.
I have awoke this morning to the sun shining through my curtains and immediatly thought of an ARSENAL day and obviously the first words spoken by myself and my sons was the greeting “happy cup final day ”
villa will start third next season as I believe history will be made next season and for the first time it will be AFC bournemouth at the top of the summit until the first game is played.
foreverheady, I too am not sure wheather to where my lucky red 1998 double shirt or my yellow 2002 shirt or my retro 71 shirt difficult choice, however my lucky pants are sorted COYG
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AorB – I hadn’t thought of Bournemouth. Will the AFC be used though?
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Nothing against the privileged few who get to commentate in the media on today’s match – they don’t need my sympathy – but all I’m hoping for today is a game which the commentators really hate from start to finish .
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Steww, I think officially they will have to use the AFC althouugh in alot of media it will juust be bournemouth
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It’s the Boscombe fans I feel sorry for.
For those of you whose intellectual appetite has not been sated by Stew’s excellent preview and have ten spare minutes could I direct you toward a good Bellerin interview produced by George’s amour Amy in today’s Guardian. For those of you who enjoy your history try an Oliver Kay piece in the Times that interviews 88 year old Jackie Sewell, Villa’s inside right in their most recent 1957 FA Cup win when they denied the Busby Babes the Double that season.
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I thought George only went weak at the knees for Adrian Clarke?
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Lovely writing Steww.
May the best team win. And may that team be Arsenal!
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George likes them bristley is all I know.
Good point Amy makes is this time last year Hector’s entire first team experience at AFC consisted of 25 mins as sub in the Capital One Cup.
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Yeah she can certainly read the stuff her researcher emails her.
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Glorious Stew. Simply wonderful. Thanks for this and every piece you have gifted to us this season.
Andrew, I don’t like Amy. And she knows it btw ! Not that she will be the least bit troubled by my distaste for her.
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Thank you George and for your ceaseless promotion and maintenance of the site. I don’t like her either. Snide when it suits gushing when it doesn’t.
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http://bit.ly/1BvQbdN Another lovely article ,well worth a read.
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The hack dwarf certainly had more sympathy for Rodgers Liverpool injuries (that would be sturridge) and transfer horrors. We understand that she has mouths to feed, but.
The contrast in her words
says more then I ever could!
I’m looking forward to not buying her book on how the Arsenal retained the FA Cup at the dawn of a new era, touch wood *healthy application of anti-jinx*
Props to those who performed the Good Old Arsenal song.
Come on you Gunners!
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Nice link George.
Classy man our captain.
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Journalist Rodrigo Herrera: “It is a very special story, I would say that it is unique.
“A son of the desert that grew up with many difficulties, that suffers during his childhood and that regardless is able to overcome all these barriers to give a leap and become a professional footballer.
“All of us Chileans are very proud of Alexis because he is a kid who beat life, he beat many adversities to get to where he is today and it shows us the best of us.”
One more season at Colney and they’ll have taught him to pass too!
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Stew on PA is my first port of call every match day,the young Snauzer just sits next to my bed staring at me nodding & chuckling at my phone thinking ‘hurry up you pratt,I need walking’..that’s your fault Stew. Thanks to George for keeping this place up & running for another season and keeping out the silly sods,I’m genuinely gutted he’s left me for Adrian Clarke though…Don’t know why but I’m very uneasy about today’s game,hope I’m bang wrong,enjoy it you lot,wherever you watch it😃
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I hope that you all enjoy the cup final wherever you may be,
At Wembley
In Highbury
Or on the settee
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I was fealing the fear but
watching Reyes retain the UEFA cup was strangely reassuring.
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I am not fearful of the result because I have been told for just over a year now that the FA cup doesn’t really count as a proper trophy – although funnily enough the same people who told me that are also now telling me that the season (and whether it has been a success or not) depends on the result today.
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Brilliant
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Ah, the magic of the Stew Black matchday write up.
And the cup, of course.
Have a feeling this will either go very well or very badly for Villa; a win for them or a sound thrashing awaits, it’s hard to see any middle ground given our own league results against them this season and their recent games against Southampton and Burnley. All, bar Burnley, were thrashings of one size or another.
Whether Theo starts or not is way beyond my ability to predict but I’m certain that Wembley, as a pitch, is tailor-made for him, especially once the game becomes a bit stretched, or if Villa start to chase the game.
Would like to see Giroud play a part – maybe the start – and set up a foundation for Theo to complete the job on. Our midfield largely speaks for itself though fatigue must still be a factor for Sanchez and Cazorla at least. By no means a done deal but can see a man of the match performance coming up from Jack with Theo breathing down his neck for a place in the headlines.
Fortunate to be going to my fifth Wembley outing in fractionally over 12 months, I can confirm it’s breezy, bright and chilly here in North London as I write, approaching mid-day. Not only will we hopefully be looking back with sunny nostalgia, but it will actually have been sunshine all the way!
Enjoy the game everyone; no doubt I’ll be tweeting the same pictures 60,000 other Gooners will be posting but you’ve got to share the excitement – and hopefully the joy!
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Great read Steww, I’ve always loved FA cup final day and all the build up, but this year I just can’t get into it. I don’t know why, but I’m more nervous and tense than I remember being for last season. I’ll try to take a leaf out of your book and just enjoy the game and hope that the professionals of AFC are up for it and get the job done COYG!
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this is my nervous time and i too are a little feeling this might not go well. defending trophies tends to be alot more difficult than winnng it in the first place. take city out of the equation and we haven’t played well at wembley in the last few years. im hoping after the bad start we had last year we start well and grow and grow to a glorious conclusion making sure I can totally enjoy the day and am not crapping myself at any time.
This is probabaly the best 18 we have ever taken to wembley so maybe we will see the best ever performance as well. to be honest today if were really lucky and take home the prize ill be happy COYG
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https://www.facebook.com/Arsenal/videos/10153126559957713/ interesting red embroidary on the shirts today fro the real Vic
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Sorry Mel – I would never knowingly frustrate a Schnauzer.
Pass – I’ve been entirely flat all week. It’s been really odd but woke this morning with butterflies and have been getting steadily more nervous and excited as the day has gone on. I just wish I’d been able to go to the match or a screening as having a good shout with plenty of like minded folk around me would have helped me a lot. As it is I’ll be screaming on my own.
Guy next door works fro Southampton FC so I’m guessing he’ll be cheering us on too so not entirely alone.
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Good morning, all. I, like Mel, go straight for Stew’s blog on matchday, although I do get coffee first. Thanks, Stew, for a season full of memorable writings. And thanks to George, and to everyone else who writes and contributes here. You’re all stars.
I’m spending this weekend in Atlanta, so I’ll be venturing out to watch the match today with the Atlanta supporters club. Much, much bigger than our little cadre of folks who gather back in Birmingham. I’m a little nervous about feeling overwhelmed, but I’m told the energy is good there.
I want to see smiling players and a smiling Arsene at the full time whistle. Please, football gods, give me that today. Come on boys!
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I’m envious of you Kelly. I’d love it if we had a supporters club I could share the day with. I’ll be with you in spirit!
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I have some mates coming round to watch. None of them are Arsenal fans , but I want the company. When we went 2 0 down last year they were too scared to speak. Not sure they enjoyed it much. But I don’t care, its all about me.
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Me and Number 1 son – he knows when to let me be
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Finding a sports bar showing football at 2.30am in Sydney is a mission. Much nicer at home. Me and the missus (slowly converting to the cause) and my younger brother. Possibly my father but he’s Man U so not sure I like him being around.
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i see some of the AAA, who now deem the FA Cup a worthless cup now(since we won it last year), have decided that winning it today will only be acceptable if we have a clear cut dominate win, no comeback win, no 1-0 to the Arsenal, we have to steamroll Villa, anything else and Wenger has to go, and on that topic some are even saying he has to go even if we win today at a canter.
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Do I really want to know what AAA think – Today ?
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Another good read Stew. Thanks. Just one point re the sun shining…2005 it pissed down with rain. Knowing how I felt after the Liverpool game 4 years earlier, I almost felt sorry for the ManU fans but then I washed my brain out with soap and water. That felt good, so, from what I can remember of it, so did the rest of the night.
Keep the faith.
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That was a lovely read Steww, I’m glad to have you share your stoic calmness with us.
It put me in another place and tine for an all too brief 10 minutes.
I’m feeling as jittery as a sack full of cats if I’m honest.
The extra two and a half hours before the kick off is just a nasty joke by the FA
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See the team exactly as everyone predicted.
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Well Positivistas
I’m at the Tolly with Passenal. Waiting to meet Calamity Jane
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Have a great day Georgaki
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Say hi again to Jane for me, GP.
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Pure class, steww. Sending positive vibes from Long Beach California! COYG!
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Team in full: Szczesny, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis, Walcott.
Subs: Ospina, Gibbs, Gabriel, Flamini, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Giroud.
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150530/team-news-walcott-starts-fa-cup-final#hR6wbUzPqebkfg9B.99
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benteke should have been booked for that deliberate foul on Cazorla
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cleverley booked for a deliberate foul on monreal
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Given with a world class save from Kosceilney
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having seen it again, it was not world class, it was closer to the keeper than it first looked
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ramsey into the side netting after good play by Bellerin
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Ramsey puts a good chance over the bar
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walcott with a shot blocked in the six yard box
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