FA Cup Final: Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley stadium
- Published
Arsenal are celebrating after winning the FA Cup. The Gunners beat London rivals Chelsea 2-1 at an empty Wembley Stadium on Saturday. It means they've won it a record 14 times. No team has had a longer run of final triumphs in a row in the competition than them.
Chelsea's midfielder Christian Pulisic opened the scoring for Chelsea with an early goal past Arsenal's goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. His goal was the first FA Cup final goal scored by an American player.
Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fought hard to equalise, scoring a goal in the first half...
... and then again in the second. There was just one shot on target in the whole of the second half, which was this winning goal. He became just the fifth player to score two or more goals in a cup match at Wembley on more than one occasion, joining former Arsenal striker Ian Wright, Bryan Robson, Ian Rush and Eric Cantona.
Chelsea’s hopes of a comeback were dashed when Croatia's Mateo Kovacic was sent off after receiving a second yellow card. The team have lost three of their past 10 FA Cup final matches, with all three defeats coming against Arsenal. Kovacic became the sixth player to be sent off in an FA Cup final, with the last two also being Chelsea players (Victor Moses was dismissed, also against Arsenal, in 2017).
Aubameyang’s two goals helped Arsenal win their first trophy since 2017. He told the BBC "We enjoyed today... and we are all happy as you [can] see." With just one year left on the 31-year-old's contract, the team will now want to find a way to keep him.
Since his debut for Arsenal in February 2018, Aubameyang has scored 70 goals in all competitions, more than any other Premier League player in that time. Nicolas Pepe (left) and Alex Lacazette (right) posed for a photo with the man of the match.
The victory meant Arsenal Manager, Mikel Arteta, has become the first person to both captain and manage Arsenal to victory in an FA Cup final. "I think it's even better winning this than as a player," he told the BBC. "Hopefully we made a lot of people happy. The players worked extremely hard. Thank you to all our staff and the people upstairs who made the decision to give me this incredible opportunity to manage a club that I have in my heart," he added.
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