It was almost as if Arsene Wenger told his players this was going to be his last game or maybe it was "Gentlemen, I need this win to stay on next season." Whatever the message might have been, the Arsenal players responded with a near-perfect performance to completely outplay Chelsea and clinch their third FA Cup title in four years and Wenger's record seventh.
Antonio Conte might have been, rightly, praised to the heavens for his tactical nous this season, but in this final, the Italian met his match in Wenger, who set his team up to perfection, with his players responding by giving their manager a truly brilliant performance.
There was only one team in the first half, and it wasn't the one everyone expected to dominate proceedings, and while Chelsea came into it in the second, Arsenal deserved to win this game, and then some.
Arsenal came in with a plan, they executed that plan really well and, as a result dominated the first half from minute one.
The opening goal came in the fourth minute, and while it was controversial, it was no more than Arsenal deserved. Alexis Sanchez tried to clip a ball over the Chelsea defence, David Luiz put in a poor clearance with his head, with the ball falling back to the Chilean, who controlled it with his chest, and maybe a bit of the hand as well.
As the ball popped over, it went towards Aaron Ramsey, who was offside, but Sanchez continued his run and placed the ball past Thibaut Courtois with the outside of his right foot. Chelsea protested over a possible Sanchez handball and that the offside Ramsey was interfering with play, but after conferring with his assistant, referee Anthony Taylor gave the goal.
If that goal was to wake Chelsea up, it did not, with Arsenal continuing to call the shots in this FA Cup 2017 final.
It could have so easily been three and done by around the 20th minute mark for Arsenal, with Mesut Ozil denied by a last-gasp clearance from Gary Cahill and Danny Welbeck seeing his header hit the post, with Aaron Ramsey then unable to get the right contact to guide the rebound into the back of the net.
Chelsea just struggled to keep the ball long enough to create problems for Arsenal and that was down to Wenger's tactics. The Arsenal manager had Mesut Ozil playing a little deeper to make an extra man in midfield and with it overwhelm Ngolo Kante and Nemanja Matic, while the Chelsea wing-backs, so important to their forward play, weren't given any time on the ball as well.
Arsenal also completely overwhelmed Chelsea in those intangibles, that make all the difference in a cup final.
To Chelsea's credit, though, they did go into halftime only a goal down, which gave them a good chance of mounting a comeback and getting that double to complete the season.
The Blues did come out stronger in the second 45, as was to be expected, but that also opened up more spaces for Arsenal on the counter-attack.
A little after Victor Moses forced a nice save off David Ospina, preferred by Wenger to Petr Cech in goal, a sumptuous Sanchez pass got Bellerin away on the right, but the right wingback's cross found a deflection and Ozil and Ramsey, who were both free in the middle, were denied a tap-in.
Bellerin had the opportunity to make up for that missed cross by getting all the glory himself, but his shot from the edge of the box was well kept out by Courtois.
Chelsea would shoot themselves in the foot on 68 minutes when Moses, on a yellow card, decided to put his name up for England's diving squad in the next Olympics, with Taylor having no hesitation in showing a second yellow and leaving the Blues down to ten men.
You would have thought the game was done there, but Arsenal have the penchant for making it difficult for themselves don't they.
It was the man who always gives Arsenal trouble – Diego Costa – that scored the goal, but it was a goal that never should have been, with Ospina making a real hash of a shot from Costa, that albeit took a deflection, but should have been kept out anyway.
Wenger replied by bringing Olivier Giroud on for Danny Welbeck, who had an outstanding game, and within seconds, Arsenal were back in the lead again, with the substitute getting the assist.
Giroud was played in behind with a nice pas, with the Frenchman then finding a perfect cross for Ramsey, whose late runs had caused Chelsea trouble all game. The Welshman got in ahead of Kante this time and planted his header into an empty net.
The Arsenal end went wild, so did the players.
And while Costa nearly equalised one more time – this time Ospina did make the save – Arsenal, and more importantly Wenger, would not be denied.
Result: FA Cup 2017 final:
Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea.
Scorers: Alexis Sanchez 5, Aaron Ramsey 79. Chelsea: Diego Costa 76.
Red cards: Chelsea: Victor Moses 68.
