FA Cup Final: Arsenal vs. Aston Villa
By Mike Cardillo
The FA Cup final between Arsenal and Aston Villa takes place Saturday at 12:30 p.m. (FOX). Many Americans have a weird obsession with English soccer. The FA Cup, which dates back to the 1800s, uses nostalgia as much as anything to try to remain relevant. The question is, on a nice late May afternoon, should eschew a trip to the beach, park, etc. to watch the final?
For Arsenal …
Simple question for Arsenal supporters: is finishing third in the Premier League and winning a second straight FA Cup enough to call 2014-15 a success? Is it progress? Winning surely beats losing, but should a team of Arsenal’s caliber — self-inflated or not — be doing more? Will winning the Cup stop you from fretting about Arsene Wenger following the first setback next season?
Last year there was justifiable excitement for Arsenal since it snapped the club’s trophy-less run that dated back to 2005. Does that still hold any cachet a year later? My guess is more Gunners fans are worried about shoring up the defensive midfield — a Sisyphusian question if there ever was one, or better yet a Vieira-ian question — than lifting the FA Cup at Wembley on Saturday.
As much as I like the songs of Ray Davies and The Kinks, it’s impossible to borrow nostalgia for England. Winning the FA Cup is an achievement, sure, but pales in comparison to the other major competitions nowadays at a club like Arsenal. (A win by the Gunners also keeps Aston Villa out of the Europa League, which also affects Liverpool, among others.)
Here’s a fun poll.
For Aston Villa …
Since we’re talking history, it’s easy to forget that Aston Villa is among the English clubs which have won the Champions League, well, technically the European Cup in 1982. Since then Villa — about as traditional as you can get in English soccer — has faded down the table. A couple years ago Villa flirted with the Top Four under Martin O’Neill. The last two years they’ve done just enough to avoid relegation.
In turn winning the FA Cup is about as much as the team can expect nowadays. Winning it gives Villa bragging rights over local rivals Birmingham City — which beat Arsenal in a League Cup final not too long ago — and Arsenal, at least until the next EPL season kicks off.
Villa are at least interesting, from afar. Christian Benteke rediscovered his goal-scoring form around March to basically keep Villa above the bottom three. Youngster Jack Grealish is some unexpected new blood, off-setting EPL castoffs like Joe Cole. The English soccer press loves to obsess over anything and everything manager Tim Sherwood does, too.
Score Guess …
Bentekes’s presence alone makes Aston Villa a livelier underdog in the final than Hull City a season ago — and Hull took an early lead in that match before losing. If Arsenal get caught out, his pace and strength could make Per Mertesacker look foolish. That said, Wenger has a full team at his disposal. Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Özil, Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and even Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere are in pretty good form going into the summer. Arsenal ditched its big-game curse last year and unless an individual player makes a really dumb decision and gives away a penalty or gets sent off, this is the Gunners game to lose. … Arsenal 2, Aston Villa 1.