FA Cup: How Arsenal chucked the monkey off their backs

Santi Cazorla at his sumptuous best

Nothing much happened afterwards, referee blew the half time whistle, the score line read Arsenal 1-2 Hull City. What I saw after HT and based on the reports, the manager delivered one of the best prep talks at half time. Chak de India-ish I would say. Also, after the match, Santi told that it was manager’s order to strike the free kick to goal keeper’s left. What a genius man he is!

In the second half, we came out of blocks and controlled the game. It was typical Arsenal as the players were passing the ball around and the opponents were begging for it. However, we didn't create any clear cut chance, which was concerning as the score line still read 1-2. Then came the substitution. Wenger substituted a player with more than 100 caps and 45 goals for Germany for the one who had not scored a goal all season! This raised so many eye brows. Fans were perplexed. TV camera showed so many questioned eyes. However, this proved to be a master stroke as the opponents found it difficult to match the pace and physicality of the newly arrived player (and people say he doesn’t do tactics!). We then dominated the game, sent the waves of attack. They defended like anything.

In the 71st minute, we got a corner. Santi delivered a beautiful ball over the top. After a scramble in the penalty area, Laurent Koscielny, Arsenal's defensive player of the season, swiveled and poked the ball home. Goal! 2-2. we were back on level terms. The players didn’t celebrate this time as the scorer injured his foot while scoring; it was another heart in the mouth moment for me as I knew how important he was for our defense.However, the injury wasn’t serious and he was able to carry on. Now, it was all about the third and final goal, the winning goal. Whoever scored that should have the cup as the clock was slowly approaching 90 minutes. After so much huffing and puffing,no one was able to score and the Lee Probert blew Full Time whistle.

The match went into extra time, two halves of 15 minutes. Penalty kicks if the score was still the same. We forced the issue and took the game to them. Chances were missed, crossbars were rattled, shots were fluffed and 'Ohhhh's were uttered from so many mouths. A couple of brilliant substitutions injected the pace and zip into Arsenal's game. They were pretty much on top while Hull decided to defend for their lives and take the game to penalties. In the 110th minute, after some intelligent exchanges of the ball, Olivier Giroud back heeled the ball into the path of onrushing Arsenal's attacking player of the season, (Welsh Messi as they would say) Aaron Ramsey,who, without hesitation, slotted the ball into Hull's net (he was running tirelessly in the 110th minute of the match,like a machine!). The net was ruffled, the stadium was erupted and the players went berserk. They knew that the cup was within their gasps now and Aaron Ramsey added his name to the lists which contained Charlie Georges, Ray Parlors and Patrick Vieiras.

10 minutes later, Arsenal had won the cup. Players ran around the pitch and celebrated like hell. Some of them were on their knees and succumbed to emotions. The team was awarded the cup and the drought was over. Players chased the manager, grabbed him, soaked him with champagne and gave him Goosebumps. I was ecstatic for him. In difficult times, when others left, he showed loyalty, stayed at the club (by rejecting multimillion salaries offered by richer and bigger clubs), endured the enormous pressure and built the whole team from the ashes. Today, he was reaping the fruits of all the stress and pain he endured during these 9 years. It was his victory more than anyone else's. Suddenly he looked 10 years younger. He had THAT smile on his face which we were devoid of during all these years. Oh God, how have we waited to see this man so happy once more! The man I respect the most,as much as my father. And I think the below picture is going torule the wallsof my pc and mobile for months to come!