London Is Red

Arsenal produced an upset of sorts to stun Chelsea after going behind in the FA Cup Final at Wembley. It was a pretty good game; an open game where both sides were not afraid to attack; which is not always the case for a game as momentous as a FA Cup Final.

Chelsea actually started the game well; with their attacking midfielders Mason Mount & Christian Pulisic finding space between the lines to cause Arsenal problems. On one such occasion early in the game; they took the lead after some good set-up play from Mount & Olivier Giroud found Pulisic with the chance to score past Emiliano Martinez in the Arsenal goal.

Chelsea looked ready to go on and dominate; but Arsenal had other ideas; and started utilising the long ball down the left to threaten through the pace of their star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. On one such fateful occasion, the normally-reliable Cesar Azpilicueta was caught too close to Aubameyang; and had trouble keeping up with him; in the end fouling him inside the box to concede a penalty for Arsenal. Aubameyang made no mistake to equalise 1-1.

Azpilicueta; guilty of one too many lung-bursting runs back towards his own box; finally succumbed to the efforts and had to go off injured for substitute Andreas Christensen. Worse was to come for Chelsea when the influential Pulisic had to go off after damaging his hamstring; to be replaced by Pedro.

Chelsea actually started the second half better; and looked like they may go ahead again. Alas; they were caught undone by another lung-bursting run from Hector Bellerin; who evaded a rather rash challenge from Antonio Rudiger before Christensen came in with a tackle. It was a good one; but unfortunately ended up with Nicolas Pepe; who found Aubameyang in space down the compromised Chelsea right.

Another poor piece of defending from Kurt Zouma allowed the Gabon legend to fake in to the left; and lift the ball over Willy Caballero for Arsenal's winner. The final nail in Chelsea's hopes came with the second yellow card for Mateo Kovacic; who I must say was very unlucky to have been sent off by referee Anthony Taylor.

There were wild celebrations at the final whistle; as Arteta's oft-maligned side finally answered the critics with a legendary FA Cup victory. In the ensuing celebrations; captain Aubameyang accidentally dropped the cup onto the floor. It was the only thing he did wrong all night.