Arsenal 4-0 Aston Villa
by Simon Williams
at Wembley Stadium

It was quite possibly the most embarrassingly one-sided FA Cup final in recent history.

Arsenal became the first team to ever win the FA Cup 12 times after brushing aside Aston Villa in impressive fashion Saturday evening.

Theo Walcott opened the scoring five minutes before the break, smashing home the ball after a Nacho Monreal’s cross was knocked down by Alexis Sanchez.

Sanchez doubled his sides lead 10 minutes after the restart with a thunderous strike from 30-yards, the ball swerving and dipping on it’s way to goal.

Per Mertesacker headed home the Gunners’ fourth after some poor Villa marking before substitute Olivier Giroud netted a fourth deep into injury time.

“I’m very proud. All of us want to achieve things that are difficult and for the club it is great we have won it 12 times, more than any other club,” said Arsene Wenger, who became only the second manager to win six FA Cups, joining Aston Villa’s George Ramsay.

“We feel we have made progress since the start of the season in the way we play and manage our games. There is a certainty about our football. We finished third, we won the Cup, so it’s a good platform to do better next year.”

For Aston Villa, who managed just two shots in the entire game, it was a disappointing end to a frustrating season that saw Tim Sherwood’s side finish just above the relegation zone.

“I feel sick and so do the boys,” said the Villa manager. “You can only know how good winning feels once you have watched the other team walk around with the Cup at the end of the game. You don’t want to be going up those stairs first.

“The team has scrapped against relegation for the last four seasons and that isn’t good enough for a team like Aston Villa. We need to improve and we need to add to the squad. But not only that, this group of players need to get better. We need to change some of their mentalities.”

Sherwood also confirmed that some players had already been told prior to the game that they are free to leave Villa Park in the summer transfer window.

He said: “There will be a few changes, as many as we can possibly do. Some of the boys have been told already they won’t be here next year or they can go and find other clubs.”