Why FA Cup Final Success Should Not Be Enough to Satisfy Arsenal

With the last Premier League game of the season comfortably won, Arsenal fans took great delight in proclaiming—60,000 united in song at the Emirates Stadium—that they are off to Wembley on Saturday. It will be the Gunners’ third visit to the national stadium in under a year, yet the novelty seemingly is still to wear off.

That is perhaps unsurprising, given the nine-year trophy drought Arsene Wenger’s side endured before last season’s FA Cup triumph over Hull City. Arsenal are a club that has of late been faced with their own top-level mortality and now savour every opportunity presented their way to underline their elite status.

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Saturday’s Wembley clash against Aston Villa should see the Gunners retain their FA Cup crown, although as last season’s extra-time victory over Hull proved these sort of games are rarely straightforward exercises in procession when Arsenal are concerned. Even still, Wenger will surely lift a sixth career FA Cup atop the stadium’s famous steps this weekend.

But FA Cup success should not be enough to satisfy Arsenal and Wenger. The Gunners should be more than just a cup team, even in the Premier League’s new order—dominated by the oil barons of Manchester and the King’s Road. Their sights should be set on bigger and better things.

Arsenal, perhaps for the first time in a decade, have made genuine progress over the past year. Last season’s points tally might not have been beaten, but down the home stretch, the Gunners showed they are not far away from becoming bona fide title challengers—as often as that has been uttered in vain over the years.

The difference this time, however, is that Wenger has found a way to keep hold of his best players. Arsenal have finally taken to flexing their financial muscles in the transfer market—signing Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in successive summers—while staving off interest in their own players by bowing to the wage demands of Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud, and signing them to bumper new deals.

And so this could be the most important summer in Wenger’s 17-year Arsenal career. The Frenchman mustn’t miss the opportunity to add the final pieces his puzzle needs, and he must target top-tier talent that can improve the Gunners’ starting lineup—not just add depth. With two or three of the right signings, Arsenal could be real contenders next season, and Wenger must recognise that in this summer’s window by acting accordingly.

The best teams are distinguished by the league titles they win. Look at Real Madrid, who have sacked Carlo Ancelotti just a year after delivering La Decima for a failure to clinch the Spanish Liga title. Of course, that is a somewhat extreme example as Real Madrid should never be taken as an example of rational club management, but it does illustrate just how important domestic success is regarded, even by teams that pride themselves on European prowess.

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Arsenal are a long way short of Real Madrid’s standard, but they are within sights of Chelsea and Manchester City—the two teams that finished above the Gunners in this season’s Premier League table. Catching them should be a viable ambition for next season.

FA Cup success on Sunday would be a pleasant way to cap what has generally been a positive campaign for Wenger and Arsenal, but it certainly shouldn’t be taken as a defining achievement. It’s not something for the club to herald as vindication of their methods and practices over the past few years.

Wenger still has challenges to overcome in the short term before Sunday’s match at Wembley. With just one more fixture to be played of a long and gruelling season, Arsenal could be forgiven for feeling a twinge of fatigue against Aston Villa, and that is something Wenger is wary of.

“We lack a bit of sharpness at the moment, the way we prepare our chances and our finishing as well,” admitted Wenger a couple weeks ago, following the goalless home draw against Sunderland—as per John Cross of the Mirror. “It’s a bit worrying for the cup final.”

Against West Bromwich Albion on Sunday there was little sign of such tiredness, with Walcott netting a hat-trick in a 4-1 win, but should the Gunners fail to overcome Villa this weekend, it could be put down to more than just stage fright.

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There is a case for Walcott to start through the centre, rather than in his more familiar wide position, given his performance against West Brom. And with Danny Welbeck set to miss out through injury, there is a possibility that Wenger could partner Walcott with Giroud up front, although it seems more likely that he will opt for one or the other.

But it is at the back where Wenger might have to ponder longest and hardest, with Arsenal’s sometimes shaky defensive line set to come up against Christian Benteke, who is arguably the Premier League’s most potent striker over the last few weeks of the season.

Arsenal thumped Villa 5-0 the last time they faced them—at the Emirates Stadium in early February—but the Birmingham club are a much-changed side since then, with Benteke embodying the way Tim Sherwood has imposed a more offensively enthralling style of play. Aston Villa might have endured a difficult league campaign, but they still have the quality to cause an FA Cup upset as they showed in the semi-final against Liverpool.

A convincing win—rather than the jittery, nervous victory recorded against Hull City last year—would at least show that Arsenal are more adept at handling the demands and pressures of the big occasion, but not much more could be drawn from an FA Cup triumph on Sunday. The Gunners are finally in a position to target more.