Arsenal v Chelsea: FA Cup Final Preview

It’s been a very difficult season as an Arsenal fan with the disappointments seemingly far outweighing the few positives, but we have a chance to change all of that on Saturday. Arsenal already hold the record for winning the most FA Cup Finals and they can bring their tally to 14 if they can overcome Chelsea. It would be a great way to end the strangest of seasons and it would bring the added bonus of qualification for the Europa League for next season.

There are those who say Arsenal could do with a season out of European football’s lesser competition and I can understand that point of view, but I don’t agree with it. Not only will the Europa League bring in some much needed money, but it will surely help to attract potential transfer targets if we have some form of European football to offer. Until our untimely exit this season we had done very well in the Europa League in the previous two seasons even if they both ultimately ended in disappointment.

Having finished eighth (yes eighth) in the Premier League we are lucky to have the opportunity to qualify for Europe and it’s one we have to take. We were in a similar situation last season when we again faced Chelsea in the Europa League final with a spot in the Champions League on offer for us if we had lifted the trophy. That didn’t end well for us and it should have marked the end for Unai Emery at the club, but those at the top waited until we plummeted a lot further before making that decision.

When Mikel Arteta took charge half way through the season we were in a bad way and he has managed to turn things around to a degree, but we still have a long way to go. I think he is the right man to lead us forward, but he needs to bring in players who want to play for us and him and who can improve what has become a pretty average team. If it wasn’t for the goals of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang our season would have been so much worse and Arteta needs to find some players who can get us the goals that are lacking in every other part of our team.

Of course this could be Aubameyang’s last game for Arsenal if we can’t convince him to sign a contract extension and decide to cash in on whatever value he has at 31 with a year left on his contract in the current economic climate caused by Covid19. I am of the opinion we might be better to keep him until his contract ends if he won’t extend as it would cost even more to replace him and finding another striker of his ability who would be prepared to join us would be no easy task. One of the few joys I have left when watching Arsenal is Aubameyang’s smile when he scores.

It could be the last game for Dani Ceballos too as his loan spell from Real Madrid is up, but the rumours are he will be loaned to us again next season. I’ve been impressed by him since football returned, but he’s not exactly the most creative of players which probably makes him fit right in with the rest of our midfield at the moment. He has formed a fairly good partnership with Granit Xhaka though and I would be very surprised if they both don’t start against Chelsea.

The other bright moments in this season have come through the emergence of Bukayo Saka and the impression Kieran Tierney has made since he managed to put his injury problems behind him when football returned. Saka signing a new contract was a big bonus for us and I look forward to him developing as a player and finding the position that best suits him. Tierney looks to have all the assets we could ask for in the attacking side of his game and his defending should improve if we can put other good defenders in there with him.

The injury to Bernd Leno looked to have put us in a very awkward situation only a few weeks ago, but Emiliano Martinez has grabbed his opportunity with both hands which is always preferable for any goalkeeper. He will play against Chelsea and he will most definitely give Arteta a few headaches when it comes to choosing his first choice keeper for next season. With the attacking players Chelsea will have on show Martinez will have to be at his best if we’re going to have a chance.

I imagine Arteta will play Hector Bellerin on the right of the defence with David Luiz in the centre alongside Rob Holding. If he opts for three central defenders I would prefer to see Tierney alongside those two with Saka on the left as Sead Kolasinac is an accident waiting to happen all too often. Of course Luiz is the definition of an accident waiting to happen as the five penalties he gave away this season indicate. I really find it hard to understand how we extended his contract a few weeks ago, but we are so limited in the centre of our defence that I suppose we couldn’t afford to let him go. Hopefully William Saliba will very quickly become the player we want him to be when he joins us.

With five at the back and Xhaka and Ceballos in midfield it would leave Aubameyang attacking from the left which is where he gets so many of his goals. I would imagine Alexandre Lacazette will play through the middle with his ability to hold the ball up and harass the opposing defenders. He’s added a few goals in recent weeks too and it would be the ideal game for another blockbuster like we saw a couple of weeks ago.

The last place should realistically go to our record signing, but Nicolas Pepe hasn’t had the easiest first season in English football. I think it’s too easy to keep him out of the game and he needs to find a way to become more involved. He has the ability to be our match winner against Chelsea, but we could see him on the bench with Arteta possibly favouring a player who might give us more work rate.

We had great results against both Liverpool and City so recently and I expect us to try to play in a similar fashion against Chelsea. If we try to take the game to them too much our defensive deficiencies on the break could come back to haunt us so it will probably be a case of looking for our chances on the break or from a turnover. Chelsea’s defence has been no better than ours for most of the season and they actually conceded six goals more than us in the Premier League.

It’s going to be very strange watching the FA Cup Final with no fans in the stadium, but it has become the new normal. I hope we can put in a performance to be proud of and it has to be better than what we saw against the same opposition in the Europa League final last season. It would be great for Arteta and our future if he could inspire the players to put in a performance to win the cup. 

I won’t say I think we will win, but I definitely think we have a very good chance. Chelsea are rightly the favourites as they finished fourth in the league and we had our worst finish in 25 years all the way back in eighth place. It’s a one off game though and City realised in the semi-final that we can give just about any team a game if we’re at our best. All I wish for is Arsenal to be just that and hopefully it will be enough to finish the season in some glory with a nice shiny trophy.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.