Securing victory in 5 consecutive matches takes you to the final and 6 victories wins you the trophy. That is the glamour of the FA Cup. Practically every professional team in England participates in the tournament and gets an equal chance at attaining fame and glory. Players give it their all and managers gamble immensely to strike the right balance to survive each round. It epitomises cup football and the idea of ‘giving it everything except the kitchen sink’ – and probably throwing in the kitchen sink too when everything else wasn’t good enough.
Arsenal has a long-standing history when it comes to the FA Cup. The Gunners have lifted the trophy on 10 occasions and are currently the second-most successful team in the tournament; Manchester United has won it 11 times which is one more than Arsenal. The team’s tryst with the tournament goes as far as the fans creating a song of their own to celebrate whenever the Arsenal team qualifies to play the semi-final and final matches at Wembley Stadium. ‘She wore a yellow ribbon…’ is the song that most Arsenal fans love to sing from the time that Arsenal qualifies to play at Wembley until the point that the match ends either in favour or against Arsenal.
Alas, nothing has been in favour of Arsenal for the past 9 seasons. The trophy drought was among the most talked about topics in English football especially since a change of stadium was blamed as a possible cause. Incidentally, the last trophy Arsenal managed to lift as champions was the FA Cup trophy of 2005. With that in mind the Arsenal team will be all set to walk out onto the Wembley pitch to face Hull City AFC in the 2014 final of the FA Cup.
On paper, Arsenal has been slated to win the tournament hands down. The team has recovered from a rocky phase to go on a 6-game unbeaten run including a win on penalties in the FA Cup semi-final against Wigan Athletic. The team has scored 13 goals and conceded 4, with the last 4 games being clean sheets for Arsenal goalkeepers. This has helped Arsenal retain 4th position in the Barclays Premier League table to secure a UEFA Champions League spot for the next season. To add to this, Arsenal also beat Hull City 3-0 on 20th April 2014 in a game which was hailed as a ‘dress rehearsal’ to the FA Cup final. If the statistics are anything to go by, Arsenal are the clear favourites and this shows in the bookmaker’s odds as well which have a 4/9 odds on an Arsenal victory as opposed to a 13/2 chance of Hull City winning the cup.
In terms of attacking prowess, Hull will be without key strikers Nikica Jelavic and Shane Long who are both cup-tied having played for Everton and West Brom respectively. Jelavic has scored 2 goals in a single appearance in the FA Cup this season. In comparison, Arsenal can rely on Olivier Giroud who has scored 3 goals from 5 appearances (4 from the bench) and Lukas Podolski who has scored 3 goals in as many appearances in the FA Cup this season. The odds are clearly in favour of Arsenal lifting the trophy for a record-equalling 11th time, especially since Hull City are in disastrous form having lost 4 of their last 5 games while conceding 13 goals and only scoring 4.
But Arsenal will not be able to make short-work of this game. It is a cup final; to be precise – it is the FA Cup final. It is a match which is notoriously known to be unpredictable. A case in point would be last year’s cup final when Wigan Athletic managed to ruin Manchester City’s party to take away the trophy. Wigan was struggling to avoid relegation and yet managed to steal a win away from a Manchester City team that had won the Premier League title the previous season. In doing so, Wigan became the first team to win the trophy and be relegated in the same season. This match serves to give Hull City hope for when they face Arsenal. Considering that they are in a better position than Wigan was at the time of their final. Hull City has a chance to win the trophy and a possible UEFA Europa League berth by defeating Arsenal. With nothing to lose, it can be expected that they will come out with all guns blazing (no pun intended) and give Arsenal a run for their money.
Many have written Hull City off by stating they are weak opposition for Arsenal to face in the FA Cup final. The victory and eventually lifting of the trophy has already been marred under the guise that Arsenal will walk away with the crown by steamrolling a team that will not give them a fight. Firstly, slating Hull City to be ‘weak opposition’ for the FA Cup is disrespectful to the club, the players and the fans. Respect is a key component of the game and, no matter the level of quality in a team, they should be given the due respect they deserve. Secondly, Arsenal have by no means been able to waltz into the finals.
Arsenal’s FA Cup campaign began with a North London Derby which tends to be among the most important games in the season for Arsenal Football Club. The 3rd round fixture against Tottenham Hotspur was seen off with a 2-0 victory. This was followed by a relatively easier fixture as Coventry City was dispatched 4-0 in the 4th round. Then came Liverpool in the 5th round and Everton in the quarter-final who were beaten 2-1 and 4-1 respectively. The semi-final was played against Wigan Athletic in a nervy match that ended in a 1-1 draw in normal time and needed penalties for Arsenal to qualify for the finals. Arsenal has faced 3 top-level Premier League clubs as well as the holders of the FA Cup trophy in the 5 matches it took them to reach the final. It hasn’t been an easy road; every match has been as good as a ‘cup final’ and Arsenal definitely deserve a shot at glory having worked hard to reach that position. Winning the FA Cup will be immensely deserved and will bring a much-awaited end to the 9-year trophy drought.
Most Arsenal players have commented about how a win in the FA Cup can start a snowball effect and lead to more trophies in the future. This is linked to the transfer rumours surrounding Arsenal ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Big names such as Karim Benzema, Diego Costa, Alvaro Morata, Julian Draxler, Mario Mandzukic, Antoine Griezmann, Angel Di Maria, and more have been linked with potential moves to Arsenal following the World Cup. A victory in the FA Cup will bring silverware back to Arsenal and show players that the team is ready to compete for trophies once again thus attracting more quality to the club.
The snowball effect in the transfer window will be supplemented by Arsenal’s recently revealed spending power. In a report published by FinancialFairPlay.co.uk in December 2013, the club has been hailed for being the most profitable club in the Premier League with a positive profit/loss report of 52 million pounds over the seasons of 2010-11 and 2011-12 from ticket prices alone. On 1 May 2014, The Guardian reported the club to have the second-highest turnover in the league at 283 million pounds for the year ending 31 May 2013. Arsenal’s profits are expected to rise with the end of this season and a transfer kitty of 150 million pounds is expected to fall in Arsene Wenger’s lap for the start of the next season if he does finalise a new long-term contract post the FA Cup final.
A victory in the FA Cup would be the start of many good things for Arsenal Football Club who slumped out of the Premier League title race this season but kept one hand firmly on the oldest football cup competition in the world. A victory would be well-deserved and will definitely need to be well fought for; something Arsenal has been doing in its cup run this season. Let’s hope they can keep it up, come on you Gunners!
