Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal: FA Cup final highlights and recap

Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 in the FA Cup final on Saturday, May 27. Here are all the highlights from the match.

Arsenal won the FA Cup for the third time in four seasons, beating Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley Stadium thanks to goals from Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey. This has been a disappointing, tumultuous season for the Gunners, who missed out on the top four for the first time in 20 years, but their performance Saturday was up there with their very best under Arsene Wenger.

Arsenal took the lead after only four minutes through Sanchez, and thanks to some questionable refereeing. The Chilean burst into the box after what looked like it could have been a handball, and waved off Aaron Ramsey, in an offside position, before finishing past Thibaut Courtois.

The linesman initially flagged for offside on Ramsey, who moved toward the ball before making way for Sanchez, but referee Anthony Taylor decided the Welshman wasn’t interfering with play and awarded the goal.

As controversial as the decision was, Arsenal were well worth their lead. They dominated the first half, and could have scored three within the first 20 minutes. Mesut Ozil, played through by Sanchez, saw a shot cleared off the line by Gary Cahill in the 16th minute, before Danny Welbeck hit the post with a header. Welbeck came close again on the half hour mark, with Cahill clearing off the line ahead of an Arsenal player.

As good as the Gunners were, the Blues were awful, slow into the tackle and lazy in possession. They did create one or two chances — Diego Costa was denied by an excellent block in the 15th minute — but overall were completely outplayed.

The second half turned on another big refereeing decision, when Victor Moses was sent off in the 67th minute after receiving a second yellow card for diving. This decision, however, was impossible to debate, with the wing-back clearly trying to deceive the ref.

Chelsea equalized 10 minutes later through Diego Costa, whose close range volley took a slight deflection of Per Mertesacker on its way in. David Ospina should probably have done better, but didn’t live to regret his mistake long when Ramsey nodded in the winner three minutes later.

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Highlights

Chelsea miss out on their first league and FA Cup double since 2009-10, while Wenger has surely given himself some extra breathing room as speculation continues to mount about his future.