Photo: Arsenal celebrate with the FA Cup (AP)
Arsenal has finally put an end to their trophy drought by lifting the FA Cup after a sensational comeback against a spirited Hull City team. The Gunners found themselves 2-0 down after just ten minutes after a very lethargic and stagnant start to the match which the Tigers dominated possession of the ball.
It seemed as if it was going to be another dark evening in the recent history of Arsenal Football Club as they were placed against the ropes early on by Hull. The Tigers took the lead on 4 minutes when James Chester placed a left-footed shot past Lukasz Fabianski’s outstretched right hand. They doubled the lead four minutes later when Curtis Davis reacted the quickest after the ball rebounded off the upright to side-foot his shot into an open net.
The Hull City fans and their manager Steve Bruce were in dreamland as they had outplayed the much fancied Gunners up until this point. They were stroking the ball around nicely with great confidence on the beautiful Wembley pitch and could have been 3-0 up if it wasn’t Kieran Gibbs’ clearance off the line from Alex Bruce’s header. The Gunners were reeling and looked as if they were still in the tunnel waiting to walk out on the pitch.
Arsenal created nothing but got back into the match from an excellent Santi Cazorla free-kick on 17 minutes. The Spaniard stroke the ball brilliantly from about 30 yards out and got the ball to dip under the crossbar at the right time even though Alan McGregor should have done better in goal for Hull City. Suddenly the Gunner found their feet and looked like the team that was very consistent from August until the end of February playing excellent football. They went in at half time trailing 2-1 despite dominating towards the end of the first half.
The Gunners flew out of the blocks in the second half but failed to produce any real penetration which prompted manager Arsene Wenger to put young striker Yaya Sanogo into the mix in place of Lukas Podolski. The naivety and youthful exuberance of the young French striker caused Hull all sorts of problems. Arsenal were level on 72 minutes after a corner resulted into the ball falling to Laurent Koscielny who hooked the ball past McGregor before being clattered by the custodian.
Wenger was relieved at this point but he had to wait until the second half of extra time to seal victory. It was perhaps the perfect ending to their season when their standout player Aaron Ramsey placed his shot expertly into the corner of the net from a Olivier Giroud back-heel on 109 minutes. Ramsey has been Arsenal’s best player this season despite being out for three long months, leaving Wenger and the fans to ponder what could have been if he had stayed healthy all season.
This is Wenger’s 5th FA Cup triumph and Arsenal’s 11th equaling the record for the most FA Cup trophies alongside Manchester United. Wenger has been repaid for his faith in youth and the addition of Mesut Ozil has helped tremendously. The Gunners will be hoping this is the start of a flurry of trophies into their trophy cabinet at the Emirates.
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