Chelsea vs Arsenal FA Cup
Final
A thrilling all London FA Cup
final sees Arsenal lift the trophy
An exciting match, at Wembley
Stadium, that finished 2-1 to the Gunners was provided to them by their
captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, after scoring two well worked goals showing
just how deadly Arsenal can be on their day. Chelsea’s captain, César Azpilicueta however wasn’t quite as heroic as
his mistake cost them the equalising goal and ultimately the match. Leaving Chelsea to blame for the defeat.
A quick start from Chelsea saw them fire home first, making it 1-0 in the 5th minute from a quick counter attack in which all of the Chelsea attackers were involved. A misplaced, fizzed cross from Mason Mount deflected straight into the path of Olivier Giroud who flicked it onto Christian Pulisic who dinked it to the left of the keeper. A hard chance but a clever chip shot from the American made the finish look a lot easier than it was. Chelsea seemed to be on top in the early stages as a few minutes after their first goal, Christian Pulisic came close to scoring again after skipping through the Arsenal backline, but the shot was not as precise as his first.
Arsenal seemed to grow into the game, when the 25th minute led to Arsenal’s first goal of the game, or so we thought, until Antony Tailor called it offside. Ainsley Maitland-Niles was sitting in an offside position when a drilled pass came his way, which he flicked on to Aubameyang, who in turn passed to Nicolas Pépé who struck it first time into the top corner from just outside the 18 yard box.
But luck was in their hands as
a minute later a long ball was played in behind from deep which both teams
captains chased down, a race won by Arsenal as Azpilicueta tugged Aubameyang down
in the penalty box as he was scrambling for a ball which he was never going to
get. Aubameyang rifled the ball into the back of the net drawing the game at
1-1. The rest of the half only saw a few half chances being produced by both
teams but Arsenal looked on top.
Everything seemed to be going
against Chelsea as their captain and their first goal scorer both went of
injured within 10 minutes of each other. Chelsea again starting quick and creating
early chances, but failing to score.
A surging run forward from
Héctor Bellerín, taking the ball with him, and finding Pepe, led to Aubameyang dropping
his shoulder, taking it past Chelsea defenders and then expertly chipping the
keeper, sealing the win for the Gunners, making it 2-1 in the 67th
minute.
A touch of class was shown from
the Gunners captain, which they needed to break down the Chelsea back line who
had been holding them out comfortably throughout the match. Kovačić receiving
his second yellow was the final nail in the coffin as Chelsea didn’t knock on Arsenal’s
door until the 96th minute when Pedro squeezed his way in behind the
Arsenal defence but was easily stopped by their keeper.
A convincing win for Arsenal. Chelsea however will have to learn from the
game and move on when the season returns in September..
Very informative. Great!
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