Luiz bossed Giroud today. Didn’t let him get in to he game at all.

First half Arteta’s tactics were spot on. Balls over the top again. It is a tactic a lot of Arsenal fans have been crying out for for a few years with our quick strikers or simply a way to avoid a high press.

This is the start of the rebuild. I have the faith in Arteta and his ideas, detail, innovation, enthusiasm and his ‘non negotiables’. Start the squad churn now, Arteta will have learnt so much about his players in t TG he last half a season. Let’s see what he can do with players he wants rather than ones he had to take.

Hi socrates. You’re right, but risking the pedantry of John for using everyday language I would give Ceballos 11 out of 10 today. For creativity he may not be a match for Brady, Bergkamp, Hudson or Pires. But for work rate he’s magnificent and we need that as well as his decent level of creativity. I hope we keep him.

Danny Murphy does get some things right. Even after Aubameyang was declared the official man of the match, he said Ceballos was the best player on the pitch today.

How awful for them!!!
Bloody chavs
Last year europa final they pummeled us so this is extra sweet.
Pulisic proper enjoyed that goal and I felt sick and listless but boy did we come back.
It was beautiful to watch.
We really needed this trophy

Well done to Mikel and the lads. That is one of the most satisfying FA Cup wins of my life. Alright they had injuries and a red but no mistake we deserved to win today. Apart from the first ten minutes we were much the better team. Incidentally I wish Pépé’s strike would’ve counted...beautiful finish.We should keep Holding and just play him in Cup Finals!!
Fourteenth FA Cup, we get in Europe and bump Spurs to the qualifiers....a highly agreeable Saturday here in Philadelphia.
Sorry for the fans who couldn’t witness this tremendous victory live.
Well done Arsenal. Love you to bits.
By the way Bernard is this the first AFC final you’ve missed? Sorry if it is but still a great day for all Gooners
Bit early here but I think its beer o clock!!

Brilliant news Rich.

Lets hope they get Sporting Mongolia

Just read their first game is in 19 days...that right? If so Jose will be pleased!

Eddie Howe has left Bournemouth by mutual consent.

In other news, Gunners win FAC 14 times. Wonderful win for ex Arsenal player and now Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta right out of the gate. Congrats and may there be more trophies. So stuff it Stan.

Agreed, he's also our best goal celebrator, every time we score he looks like he's just won the World Cup. That, and the effort he puts into every game under Arteta, shows he really loves playing for Arsenal. We need those kind of players going forward.

@charles_watts on Twitter:

“Mikel Arteta has been in charge of Arsenal for eight months and has won the same amount of major trophies Spurs have in 21 years.”

Where to start

Great performance well done lads. Woke up this morning and felt we were going to win. Don’t know why but just did

Tierneys assist for the Aubameyang penalty. That long ball down the left channel over the top is such a valuable weapon. My thoughts go out to Gaz can somebody please set up a go fund me page or something

Martinez interview after the game, touched me . He’d been through it all and the moment recognition arriving was too much. Bless him he’s been terrific.

Ian Wright is a bonafide legend. The players interviews saying he was screaming at them stuff like “man on” and “tackle tackle” . He’s so funny I love anything he appears on.

Likewise if you watched the BBC coverage did you see how gutted Ashley Cole was when we scored ? What a *%^@. No mixed allegiances there.

The hope we had after the Burnley game, a lifetime ago, was sky high. Then he seemed lost really and not the best attitude. Arteta is starting to hone that talent in a really useful way for the team and, Aubameyang’s world class shoulder drop and dink for number 2 notwithstanding, he was man of the match.

If Real, who are fundraising, want less than 25M, you’re biting their hand off. I can’t think they‘d want him back, there’s interest from other Spanish clubs though - Sociedad I think.

Special mention to Pépé as well, this is what we paid for. Unlucky to not get a goal today, but he was a nightmare for Chelsea all game. Top performance.

Lots of excellent performances today from the players, but for me the biggest credit has to go to the boss. What Arteta has managed to achieve in half a season, split by the Covid break, is nothing short of astonishing.
We now have a team that has tactical awareness, patience, resilience and togetherness. To repeat what Arteta and the team achieved against City in the semi is testament to the manager, who is looking like the real deal. The board have to back him - if they don't it will be a disgrace of epic proportions.

Yes Arteta deserves credit

We just don't need the ball anymore. It took us years to learn that

Might be strange to say but I think Aubameyang is actually under rated. His goals in the semi and the final will make people realise how important and special he is.
There are only 5 players who have scored 20 or more goals in the last 5 seasons. Messi, Ronaldo, Lewandowski and Aubameyang.

Obviously he isn’t going to be mentioned in the same breath as messi and Ronaldo - no one can be, but in terms of goal scoring he’s ahead of all the rest and I don’t think that is where people see him in football but he should be.

We have to do everything to keep him

What does the board backing him look like I wonder? Does it boil down to money ‘made’ available?

We can certainly do better than 8th but Chelsea have added Werner Ziyech and shortly Kai Haverts. We can improve but the other clubs we’re competing with will improve more arguably squad wise. Top four is still a big ask, and is the Pépé purchase the exception or the rule? Would be interesting to read Swiss Ramble or someone on finances ok what we have to spend because even though FFP seems dead in the water I don’t think Arsenal will exceed it.

Anyway, apologies because *%^@ it we just won the Cup!!!

To be fair to Cole he is a current Chelsea employee, I think he coaches the youth teams.

So Spurs now have 3 extra games to play just to get into an EL group stage. A second qualifier on Sept 17, if that works out, a third round on Sept 24, then a play-off Oct 1. All first leg played behind closed doors.

The qualifiers will all be single leg games. Obviously less fixture congestion but much more likely to have upsets in single leg games. Oh and Spurs need to play 3 of these qualifiers to even make it to the group stages! Ha ha

Hi Ash
For me the club need to do everything possible to secure Aubameyang, offload as many players Arteta deems surplus as they possibly can, and sign a minimum of 3 players of the quality we need. I know that barring a miracle we'll be saddled with Özil for another year, and that money isn't limitless, but this is a manager worth pulling out all the stops for.

Still buzzing from that victory

We were lucky with Pulisic going off (by far their best player and looked odds on for a brace), red card and such but I'll take it. I like seeing our FA cup wins increase. Now for the titles.

Arteta has transformed so many players into better ones. He has plucked them from mediocrity and possibly disinterest, into much better purposeful players. AMN, Xhaka, Mustafi, Pépé are the 4 main ones. That's the mark of a good manager.

So happy for Martinez, well deserving of his spot in the team. Very assured handling of the crosses.

And Ceballos, fantastic game from him. I'm not his biggest fan, but credit where credit is due. Hope he keeps this energy going.

Rich, I accept your point that Cole is a Chelsea employee. But I agree with Top Gun on this one. I found the level of his disappointment that Arsenal won really distasteful.

I have to say I haven’t seen Cole’s exact reaction. My post was more that I could understand why he was cheering on Chelsea for the day. Even if he wasn’t a chelsea coach I could understand him swaying towards Chelsea. Most arsenal fans dislike Cole, not sure many Chelsea fans do. I could understand if he felt more for Chelsea now even if he did grow up in the Arsenal youth teams.
If it’s felt that his disappointment was as much that it was Arsenal had won as it was Chelsea had lost (if you see what I mean) then I can also understand arsenal fans being annoyed with it

Saw this online as the list of teams Spurs can possibly play in their qualifiers. I think the funniest part is I’m not sure if it is real, a made up joke list or someone just fell asleep on their keyboard

I can see the narrative for this final already being written by Lampard and Chelsea fans. The Kovacic red card ‘turned the game’ according to Lampard. The score was 2-1 to Arsenal at the time and Chelsea hadn’t had a shot on target for an hour before the red card when they had 11 v 11.

I’m also seeing reference to the last cup final when Taylor sent off Moses. Quite correctly of course for a blatant foul on welbeck as he broke away and then a clear clear desperate dive in the box.

Given that we should have been playing 10 men of Chelsea since as early as the 25th minute I don’t think Chelsea have much to moan about. For me that was a clear red. If azpilicueta doesn’t pull Aubameyang’s shoulder Aubameyang is at least 3-4 yards further forward when he finally goes down, no chance is Rudiger getting across to stop Aubameyang having a clear goal scoring opportunity. Ask yourself that if it was Luiz instead of Azpilicueta and Luiz had been sent off would there have been an ounce of sympathy? Azpilicueta got of lightly with his injury because our left side was totally embarrassing him.

Also I still remember Jorginho not being sent off for a clear second yellow with Arsenal 1-0 up at The Emirates this season. Given Jorginho scored the equaliser and Chelsea won 2-1 I’d say that is much more a decision that ‘turned the game’.

Also can anyone imagine the absolute field day the press would have if Luiz got turned as easy as Zouma did for Aubameyang’s winner? It was a nice goal but it was a simple I’m going to trick you thinking I’m shooting this way then go the other, the sort of thing prem defenders should be pretty familiar with.
The media have an agenda with certain players, if they do well it isn’t mentioned but they sit waiting for any mistake. A lot of fans are the same

Days since a trophy
Arsenal - 1
Liverpool - 38
Manchester City - 154
Chelsea - 431
Manchester Utd - 1166
Leicester City - 1553
Wigan Athletic - 2640
Swansea City - 2716
Birmingham City - 3444
Portsmouth - 4460
.
.
.
Spurs - 4544

Winning the FA Cup in the new shirt has made it looks appealing.

What was Arteta's reason for picking AMN over Saka? Not that I'm complaining.

Hi Bernard,

Yes, Ceballos covered every blade of grass and produced moments of real quality.

He's made huge strides forward since the lockdown.

I felt he looked a little lightweight in his early outings for us but since coming back from his injury he seems to have improved all aspects of his game, mentally and physically.

I hope we can keep him, either outright or a loan with an option to buy.

Hi Haz,

Yep, there is nothing like winning a trophy after such a dismal season. Not to mention it gets us out of jail Europa-wise.

Wolves have had perhaps their best ever season and have lit up the PL at times but now mind themselves ousted from the Europa Cup by us.

I hope Wolves win the Europa Cup.

Tierney caught my eye. He has a bright future with us if we can keep him. Hope we don't muck it up.

Arteta out.

I recall reading rumors Liverpool would back out of the Charity Shield. So we play City?

Factoid: The person in the song is the daughter of JFK, Caroline Kennedy

Here’s are first 4 choice goalkeepers, look at the height of them. For contest Leno is listed as 6ft 3”.
Karl Hein, Matt Macey, Bernt Leno, Emi Martinez