Arsenal enjoyed a comfortable FA Cup final win in the end, beating Aston Villa 4-0 in one of the most one-sided games at this level in modern history, so here’s a look at nine things we learned from the result…
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1) Arsenal CAN win playing good football
Arsene Wenger can be forgiven for feeling a little smug when he wakes up this morning and basks in this latest triumph – it turns out he’s right and Arsenal CAN win silverware playing good football! The Gunners were brilliant from start to finish against Villa, putting together all their typically slick passing moves and creating one chance after another. Of course, it was crucial that they scored the opener when they did, or it could have been one of those days when they once again dominated without getting the all-important finishing touch. Still, on this basis, with so many quality attacking players all ticking together so fluently, that never looked like happening in this game and may be less of a problem in general from now on.
2) Money held Arsenal back for too long
One thing Wenger must concede however, is that the money he has been able to spend (on Alexis Sanchez in particular) has made a big difference for the fortunes of his club. In the two seasons that the Frenchman has uncharacteristically splashed out on big names, Arsenal have won their two FA Cups, and on the evidence of yesterday that is no coincidence. Last season’s win over Hull City may have been a triumph of character and spirit, coming from behind with a trusted youngster Aaron Ramsey scoring the extra-time winner, but this year it was all about that added quality that players like Sanchez, Ozil and Santi Cazorla can give you. Just five years ago, Arsenal were lining up with players like Emmanuel Eboue, Nicklas Bendtner and Samir Nasri – players who just couldn’t dream of doing what Sanchez did yesterday for the second goal which killed the game.
3) Arsenal have lost their big-game fear
Following away wins at Manchester United and Manchester City this season, plus a recent 4-1 thrashing of Liverpool, it’s looking increasingly like Arsenal are losing that fear of the big games, and it showed again on Saturday. Not once in this comprehensive cup final victory did the Gunners look at all uncertain of themselves or at all nervous; none of the silly mistakes you associate with Wenger’s sides were there, and even the chances they missed in the first half were not the kind of glaring misses from lack of composure that we’ve seen in the past. Arsenal showed up like they meant business in this game and didn’t give Villa a sniff, a long way off what we saw when they choked in their League Cup final defeat to Birmingham City back in 2011.
4) Gunners might NOT need a new midfielder
As we’ve said so many times this season, Santi Cazorla was absolutely majestic for Arsenal in this game, and he played an interesting new role for the team. It is well known that the Spaniard has been moved deeper this season after filling in for injured duo Mikel Arteta and Jack Wilshere, but he looked even deeper again in this match, often playing further back than Francis Coquelin to dictate the play, lining up alongside the two centre-backs on more than one occasion. As he gets older, it may be that the former Malaga man will find some joy in a kind of Andrea Pirlo/Xabi Alonso role, putting his awesome range of passing to good effect from a deeper position on the pitch.
With that in mind, do Arsenal really need a signing like Arturo Vidal or Morgan Schneiderlin this summer? Cazorla isn’t exactly lacking in work-rate either, often doing great pressing to close opposition players down, and with all his varying qualities it’s no surprise he’s formed such a fine partnership with Coquelin. Is there really any reason to break that up?
5) …and maybe not a new striker either
As mentioned already, Wenger has benefitted from spending money and should keep striving to sign the world’s biggest names, but is a striker really a priority this summer? Theo Walcott being trusted up front was a bold move by the manager for this game, as he used the England international in a slightly unfamiliar role after weeks of only using him from the bench. Walcott paid back his boss’ faith in him with a lively display and a superb opening goal. It’s worth noting that some of the former Southampton man’s best form for the north Londoners has come when used as a central striker, as was often the case in the 2012/13 season, when he hit 21 goals in all competitions, his best ever tally in a season. With Olivier Giroud still having a part to play, Arsenal already have two different enough striker options (and that’s not even including Danny Welbeck) to use depending on the opposition or on their own individual form.
It is worth adding as well that Walcott’s goal actually came when he moved out to the left, with Alexis Sanchez briefly playing as the centre forward and setting up the opener with a well-won header in the middle of the penalty area. The Chilean is also an option in that role and all of these players are good enough to move around, swap positions, and give the team a new dimension. It’s easy to be knee-jerk, but looking at yesterday there’s little reason to go all out for a new striker if Walcott can get over his injury problems.
6) Ozil could be on a new level next season
It is well established that Mesut Ozil has shown remarkable improvement in the second half of this season, and this wonderful performance in the cup final may have been the best of the lot. The German playmaker was superb on the ball, fooling Villa players with his touch and finding team-mates with his incredible vision. He almost never wasted a touch and looked the kind of decisive contributor we’ve seen for Real Madrid and Germany in the past. After two consecutive seasons of not being able to take part in pre-season training with Arsenal, Ozil should now get a proper rest this summer and then link up with the squad again before the 2015/16 campaign starts, meaning he will get more of a chance to fine-tune his understanding with his team-mates and with what his manager wants him to do. In his third season of English football, a more settled and confident Ozil could become one of the best players in the country.
7) Wenger still has an eye for youngsters
For all the talk of the big names like Sanchez and Ozil that have cost Arsenal a lot of money, Wenger still deserves credit for his ability to spot youngsters, with Francis Coquelin and Hector Bellerin both being huge success stories this season. In midfield, the Frenchman has looked like the signing Arsenal needed for a long time, combining aggression, strength and technical quality to keep the team ticking. At right-back, the Spaniard has done his job defensively and also added a new dimension going forward, showing great pace and quality on the ball to prove something of a handful to deal with in attack, as he showed in particular with his fine solo goal in the win over Liverpool.
Maybe these guys wouldn’t have played if not for injuries, but it is still Wenger who found them and brought them to the Emirates Stadium, and this shows he hasn’t lost his touch in discovering the best talent from around the world.
8) Benteke won’t have impressed his many suitors
This may be harsh on Christian Benteke, who was playing in a side that were totally overrun from the first minute and hardly got enough of the ball to create any chances, but the big Belgian international did not look like a £32.5m player yesterday (his rumoured release clause). Speculation suggests Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea are all after him, and while he’d clearly get more opportunities to show what he can do if playing for a bigger club, there is cause for concern that he just didn’t look at the races in this crucial game for his club. Part of being a big player is accepting that it is down to you to provide some inspiration, and he didn’t look at all confident in doing that whenever he did get a touch of the ball, wasting an opportunity to turn on the edge of the box when he could have fashioned a chance. In addition, his attempt at marking Per Mertesacker for the third goal was pathetic, and displayed his lack of belief that the game could be turned around. Villa might do well to cash in on him this summer, but it will be interesting to see if clubs are still so keen on him.
9) Sherwood needs more strings to his bow
For all the hype about Tim Sherwood, for all the sound-bites and quotable lines, it’s clear the former Tottenham Hotspur boss needs more strings to his bow. Once upon a time, it was enough for managers to just be motivators and inspire a group of lesser players to something miraculous in a big game like this, but one feels now that it will take much more than that to beat a team of Arsenal’s quality. We know it can be done, as sides have shown down the years, but Villa did not look like having a coherent game plan at all at Wembley, rushing their passing and looking very one-dimensional in attack, often just lumping it into the box with the hope that Benteke would do the rest. Defensively, there may not have been a great deal more they could do against a rampant Arsenal, but one could still argue they didn’t show enough aggression to try and disrupt the flow of their opponents’ game, something many teams have used to good effect against the Gunners down the years.
Sherwood has done well to help Villa survive this season, but at the moment he doesn’t look a significant upgrade on Paul Lambert and it’s not certain he’ll last long next season.