FA Cup Final: Lampard and Arteta face off in season-defining derby

By the time the English domestic season is finally completed at Wembley on the 1^st of August with the FA Cup final, it will have been 362 days since the season’s curtain-raiser, the Community Shield, was played out in glorious sunshine in front of 90 000. While neither Arsenal nor Chelsea were involved that day, it will nevertheless be close to a year since their first competitive match of the 2019/20 season when they finally do battle on a stage they will be no stranger to despite the absence of spectators. 7 of the last 11 finals have contained at least one of the two London sides, with victory in all 7 (4 for Chelsea, 3 for Arsenal) showing that both are well accustomed to cup final success and are unlikely to shy away from the challenge. This same pairing produced an exhilarating final back in 2017 where the Gunners triumphed 2-1 thanks to an Aaron Ramsey winner despite being underdogs on the day, and if performances over the past 12 months are anything to go by, Saturday promises to produce another end-to-end encounter that has the potential to be defined by unfathomable errors as much as it does moments of class.

One thing is for certain, that either Frank Lampard or Mikel Arteta will cap off their debut managerial campaign in the Premier League in the best way of all, trophy in hand and doubters silenced (for now). For the loser, those who question the pair’s experience in the dugout will undoubtedly find their voices more than ever following Saturday’s final, although the criticisms directed at Lampard for much of his first year at Chelsea have been somewhat doused by the securing of Champions League football next season after a final-day 2-0 win over Wolves. For Arteta, however, the pressure remains firmly ramped up with the FA Cup now the only possible way Arsenal can reach Europe next season, after the Spaniard oversaw the Gunners’ worst league finish (8^th) for 25 years. Despite this, both Arteta and Lampard were praised for getting their tactics spot on in their respective semi-finals, as Chelsea’s relentless off-the-ball pursuit caused a weakened Man Utd to crack and Arsenal’s ability to soak up the Man City pressure allowed Arteta to beat his former boss on the counter-attack. Both have also had to deal with not insignificant off-the-field issues for much of the season, with Lampard initially hamstrung by a transfer ban before the club were able to get it lifted in time for the January window, only for the hierarchy to be uncharacteristically hesitant to invest, resulting in the arrival of no new faces. Meanwhile in North London, growing calls for Stan Kroenke to sell up and move on have become as deafening as ever despite the Emirates being empty and £150m being spent on players last summer, while a contract saga with star man and captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is in danger of dragging on for too long, giving Arsenal fans uneasy flashbacks to the mismanagement of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil. These are issues which may well be out of Arteta’s control, but could nevertheless come to define his second season in management, making ending his first on a high all the more pivotal.

The last time there was an Arsenal-Chelsea FA Cup final, there was 44 years’ worth of managerial experience in the dugout, with Arsene Wenger and Antonio Conte also sharing 29 major trophies as managers. This time there will not even be 1000 days in the combined technical areas of each side, but what is guaranteed is that come Saturday evening, one of these clubs will have marked their new dawn with quantifiable success, while the other will be left to rely on the intangible success of growing potential to justify what is ultimately a gamble.