The curtain comes down on the English football season as two familiar London rivals, Arsenal and Chelsea, go head-to-head at Wembley in the FA Cup Final this afternoon.
The Gunners knocked out holders Man City in the semis, whereas the Blues had to get past Liverpool, Leicester and Man United on route to the final.
Good day one and all.
This hasn’t been an easy season for Arsenal at all; winning just four of our first 15 Premier League games had us at a real disadvantage. But since Mikel Arteta’s arrival mid-season, we have seen a steady upturn in performances. However, the lockdown put a real dent in our momentum with results since the restart not completely satisfactory. This saw us finishing just outside the European qualifying spots in 8th-place.
So it all comes down to this; one game that could transform a disappointing campaign into a moderate successful one, with entry to next season’s Europa League. One game that could be the difference between Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang extending his Arsenal stay other not, one game that could be the difference between getting a shiny new toy, or promoting from within.
The Gunners do have pedigree when it comes to reaching the finals in the FA Cup and will hope to continue that trend today. However, the Blues are as prolific when it comes to playing in finals, but hopefully Baku is the furthest from our lads’ minds.
Frank Lampard was appointed at the start of the season with the club under a transfer embargo and having just sold their talisman Eden Hazard. Considering he guided his young side to top-four and reaching the FA Cup Final, he has done remarkably well in his maiden season.
However, that will not be enough, because with this their only chance at silverware, winning the Cup will be as important to them as it is for the Gunners.
Chelsea are unbeaten in their two league meetings with Arsenal this season (W1, D1). Interestingly, both matches were played with Arteta and Lampard in their respective dugouts. The Blues’ 2-1 win at the Emirates was Arteta’s first home game in charge. At Stamford Bridge it was very different with the Gunners showing real grit to come from behind twice after going down to 10 men in their 26th minute, to draw 2-2.
So this is the start of a new chapter in the battle between two rookie managers looking to win their maiden trophy in the Cup they lifted as captains.
Team news
Arteta used a 3-4-3 formation in the 2-0 win over Man City and is likely to go with that again, as well as a similar looking lineup. Though with Mustafi injured, Rob Holding once against get the chance of starting in the final of this competition.
Hector Bellerín missed the Watford game with a calf issue but was back in full training. So too first-choice goalkeeper Bernd Leno; however, Arteta has already confirmed that Emi Martinez will start between the sticks.
Prediction
No two teams have had more success in this famous old trophy than these two since the turn of the century.
This, of course, will be the third time in the last four seasons these sides meet in a finals, with varying success. With Chelsea finishing the league season 10 points better off than the Gunners, one would assume them having the edge, but it is Arsenal that have the love affair with the FA Cup in recent times … so this could be a very closely contested, low-scoring, yet very entertaining match. COYG!
— @LaboGoon
Positively Arsenal 
Turned out ok👍🏻.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ed… what’s the situation re Europa. Will we go through a qualifying stage through the darkest corners of eastern Europe or is a automatic in the pot for the nail group draw?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow and wow
We WON COYG
A rebirth in the making
Thanks MA!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Emi Martinez was close to tears after lifting the Emirates FA Cup – but said his family back in Argentina would not be able to hold back the emotions.
The goalkeeper has been with us for 10 years and, after another assured performance at Wembley, said winning the trophy was reward for all the patience he has shown waiting for his chance.
“It was an amazing performance,” Martinez told Arsenal Digital. “We played our best football this season by far and even losing 1-0 – normally this season when we’re losing 1-0 we put our heads down – and you can see the process [now] and how we fight for the manager, ourselves and our families.
“I think we made the Arsenal fans really proud today and obviously they’ve deserved a lot more from us, especially in the Premier League and in Europe. We’ve had a bad season in the Prem, but we’ve won a trophy so we want them to be happy.
“I felt really confident even before the game and in the semi final and all the way through in the FA Cup. That’s what I do best, I work hard and everyone says when you work hard you get your rewards and I think I did that today.
“I’ve worked really hard at the club for 10 years for opportunities like this. I couldn’t be prouder.
“I spoke to [my family] the whole week and my dad didn’t want to speak a lot about it because he was too nervous, but I bet in Argentina
Copyright 2020 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
LikeLiked by 1 person
labo I think we go straight into the group stage of the EL, its the last team EL place in the league that goes through the qualifiers, so that would be spurs in the second qualifying round of the EL
LikeLiked by 1 person
Chelsea got 7 yellows and a red today, the red was for two yellows. So six players carded.
Arsenal had one
Arsenal committed 3 fouls, Chelsea 14
LikeLiked by 1 person
If only things were Refereed that way in the Premier league Eduardo 9.27pm
LikeLiked by 2 people
Arsenal and Leicester will enter the Europa League at the group stages, scheduled to begin on October 22.
Spurs will enter in the second qualifying round on September 17 and must play 3 one-off games to reach the group stages.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ozil gets his 4th FA Cup Winners Medal
LikeLiked by 1 person
Arteta on what makes you so confident Aubameyang will stay and can we expect to hear some news on him in the next week?
I hope so. Everything is based on my conversations with him, how he sees his future, what I expect from him, the team I want to build around him and the conversations I have with the people that are very influential around him.
We all respect him, we admire him. We know the players we have and we have to value him. If we reach all of those points I think we’ll get an agreement
LikeLiked by 1 person
Team Spirit – you’re absolutely right about the signings of Mikel and Per immediately after ManU’s mauling of Arsenal’s schoolboy squad. Signing of Mikel came as a surprise and was not confirmed until the early hours of the morning after the Transfer deadline. I remember the sense of relief and the feeling that maybe things would be OK after all. Another top four finish followed
LikeLiked by 1 person