All Arsenal fans everywhere probably breathed a big sigh of relief as Arsenal cruised to a 4-0 victory in the FA Cup Final on Saturday, and there was no sign of any nerves at all from the players, but Arsene Wenger admitted to a few nerves himself and that a defeat would have been a disaster for his side.
But having got the desired result he is very happy that the Gunners passed the test with flying colours. “I feel that we are moving forward, that we have made progress,” he told Arsenal Player. “The cohesion, the quality, the desire, the intelligence of the players is there. So we have some very good ingredients to do more.
“It’s a great weekend. I was a bit nervy because having got to the final, what a disaster it would be not to win it.
“But we dealt well with pressure, had a convincing performance and the game was a continuity of what we produced in 2015.”
Theo Walcott, who was given a surprise start at centre-forward but rewarded Wenger by scoring the first goal with just his 9th touch of the ball, also agreed that this result just showed how brilliant the team was as a whole: “It’s absolutely incredible. It’s a great achievement to win the FA Cup on consecutive years and it just shows this is a special team and we’re going to continue to win many more, I’m sure.
“It’s weird how things come to place, scoring the goal with my left foot, which was the leg I had an issue with. I’ve worked really hard, not just me, everyone behind the scenes that nobody gets to see, the support and the faith that the manager’s had in me. The fans have been incredible as well. We need to remember the players who all contributed to the run to the final, it wasn’t just about the players who played, it’s almost a whole squad here. It’s a family thing and it means as lot to everyone.
“We knew that if we defended well we would win the game. We did that exactly. We defended really well from top to bottom and we were leading 1-0 at the break. Shay Given was absolutely fantastic in goal but we had a great performance. When you want to turn it up, you have to do it in finals and all the lads turned up.
“It’s an incredible amount of support that we have, not just in England but across the world. We want to do this more and more for these guys because they deserve it and this group of players deserve it. I’ve been here for a long time and this is the best group.”
Theo has been at Arsenal for a long long time, so for him to say this team is the best he has played with is a real compliment to the lads. If this team doesnt win the title next season there is something very very wrong – and maybe we could even win the Champions League as well. We don’t just want the FA Cup anymore, but it certainly felt like a great stepping stone!
Did JACK really say that about the SPUDS in public!