Tony Adams really struck a chord when he said that he wanted his statue taken down and for the players to stop calling him Mr. Adams. Subservience and a sense of bashful youthfulness has pervaded the club ever since the departure of our big hitters and has done for a number of years, youth acting as a form of handicap to the players' ability to be truly self-critical and providing a teddy-bear covered blanket with which to hide behind.
Now the players have accepted the mantel of the great Arsenal sides before them, having proved themselves to be worthy winners of the prestigious FA Cup.
On our journey to the final we dismissed high flying Liverpool, cruised to victory against our North London rivals and demolished a strong Everton side. Lest others forget our ride to the final was fraught with stern opposition, playing 3 of top 6 sides in the premier league. Someone look up the stats but there can't be many other teams who have faced 4 premier league sides en route to victory.
I couldn't quite believe how terribly we started the match, it really did beggar belief. Weeks of anticipation, hundreds of photographs from the official site of the 'lads training hard for the final' spammed my newsfeed, they were prepared right? The lads were 'up for it' by the club's own admission.
Yet before Arsenal had even touched the ball we were 1-0 down, suckered into Bruce's shock and awe tactic of hitting us hard in the first 10 minutes and playing for set pieces. Wenger should have expected this and the obvious lack of preparation for set pieces is inexcusable. Hull loaded the back post with players to ensure that they won the first ball and in both cases were fortunate that fluffed first touches, fell to Hull players who had lingered around the six yard box.
It has become something of an adage this season that success from set pieces is often more about the second phase, winning the first header and sending the ball back across goal. Teams can train to defend in a static situation, when the ball is approaching from a predetermined location where everyone can see it, but once the ball is ricocheting around the box it's open hunting season.
2-0 down after 10 minutes I could barely conceal my anger and frustration. 'Not again' was all I could think, the vitriol and ceaseless goading on social media would have been unbearable. Fans of teams whose season has been even more implosive than ours (Chelsea, Manchester United & Tottenham) would have crawled out from beneath the woodwork to make one last twist of the blade.
The lifeline came in the form of a sweetly executed free kick from Santi Cazorla. I thought this guy couldn't rank anymore highly in my estimations of what it means to be a true professional, but the little Spaniard has raised his own bar even higher, which is a shame because the guy is 5 foot 2.
The free kick was textbook, curled over the wall, clearing it by a comfortable margin on its trajectory, destined for the postage stamp that sits in the fabled corner between post and crossbar. I've never seen this postage stamp but I have it under good authority that it's there and boy did Santi find it. Perhaps he was mailing the ball to Mourinho, along with a note reminding him what a two-faced, money-grabbing impostor he really is.
Santi's goal breathed life back into the 30,000 or so Arsenal fans who had turned half of Wembley into a sea of red. Having been slouched in my seat, head in hands for the first 25 minutes, rousing to sing out of pride rather than expectation of a dramatic turnaround, I was on my feet gesticulating like Poyet on crack and singing until my voice resembled Johnny Vegas after a night on the ale.
Hull may have caught us completely off-guard, cold from an end-of-season run in that eventually proved to be a cruise into fourth place, but I truly felt that the longer the match continued the more our quality would shine through in the way that lead us to two victories against Hull in the league.
Lead by an imperious Ramsey we made a solid start to the second half, controlling the tempo and playing the kind of football that has seen us take goal of the season (there's another trophy for that right?). I've lost count of the amount of chances we created but it has to be hundreds, maybe even thousands each one more flirtatious than the last. As one Hull fan said to me after the game 'If Arsenal knew how to finish you would have been 6-2 up before the end of the game' an honest appraisal from one of many Hull fans who were extremely gracious in defeat.
The equaliser couldn't have come from a more deserving source, Laurent Koscielny who has been one of our top 3 players this season. A rock at the back he has also shown a willingness to get forward at times and has scored a couple of important goals, none more so than his prod to poke the ball home after poor Hull defending allowed a Cazorla corner to bounce around the six yard area.
Cue absolute pandaemonium in the Arsenal section. I was lucky enough to have an aisle seat for the game and took full advantage when the equaliser went in running about hugging absolute strangers and pumping my fists in a way that even Jurgen Klopp would have found a little creepy.
From that point on the game was always going to be ours. Hull were spent and threw their last roll of the dice bringing on Sone Aluko who provided an injection of pace but saw little of the ball as we dominated the midfield.
We probably should have won it in full time, Ramsey's delicate cross to Giroud saw the handsome Frenchman's header cannon off the crossbar, whilst Cazorla had a stonewall penalty waved away by Probert, who by everyone's admission had a poor game.
Had we lost, this blog would have been a 1,500 word tirade of abuse aimed at Probert for facilitating Bruce's anti-football. From the third minute Hull displayed the worst time-wasting I have ever seen, and I mean ever, Mourinho and Chelsea fans would have proud. In fact I'm pretty sure I spotted a poorly-disguised Mourinho taking notes, dazzled by Hull's patented '3 players receiving treatment simultaneously' master class. How McGregor wasn't booked for time-wasting is and will forever remain a mystery.
As the full-time whistle went Arsenal fans erupted in a round of songs, reeling through the hymn sheet encouraging the players one by one to give everything in what would be the most important half an hour of their careers.
Wenger brought on Wilshere and Rosicky in place of Cazorla and Ozil, the latter who was a little disappointing for large spells. The two substitutes completely changed the game, bringing a dynamism and willingness to get forward that along with a shift to 4-4-2 overwhelmed the Hull defense who had been used to only having to contend with Giroud's Vitruvian frame.
Suddenly there were two targets in the box, Sanogo (who had been brought on in place of Podolski around 60 minutes) proved to be a real nuisance, throwing his weight around and making some incisive runs. My one criticism of the young Frenchman would be his carelessness in one-on-one situations but thankfully his wasted chances didn't cost us.
The first half of extra time flew by and once again nerves began creeping in for the supporters. We had to win this is normal time as the uncertainty of penalties is too tumultuous to call, we weren't willing to leave 9 years of missed opportunity in the hands of fate or those of an unconvincing Polish keeper.
The man of the moment and undoubtedly Arsenal's player of the season Aaron Ramsey stepped up to seal the game with a finely executed volley which threaded a gap the size of a needle's eye past a flailing McGregor. We had done it, and despite Fabianski's blast from the past we held on to secure a trophy, the first in living memory for a whole generation of Gooners.
Seeing the smile on Wenger's face and the way the player's were clearly celebrating for their manager is something I will never forget. He is a man who has given so much to build Arsenal into one of the most respected and successful teams in history and has done it all without ever losing face despite the goading and disrespect of others. Now is his chance to show the world what he has built and in years to come we can look back and say it all began with our famous FA Cup comeback in 2014.
Congratulations Arsene and congratulations to the team of 2014.
