Arsenal end long drought

Arsenal recovered from going two goals down in the opening eight minutes to beat Hull City 3-2 after extra-time in the FA Cup final and win their first trophy for nine years at Wembley on Saturday.

The winning goal from Aaron Ramsey came after 108 minutes of a sensational match which began with Hull, in their first Cup final, scoring two early goals. The first came after James Chester put the ball wide of goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski after only four minutes before captain Curtis Davies scored from a tight angle to make it 2-0 four minutes later.
Arsenal halved the lead after 17 minutes when Santi Cazorla scored with a superb free-kick.

Despite dominating possession for long periods Arsenal had to wait until the 71st minute before Laurent Koscielny equalised when he turned and scored from close range after Hull failed to clear a corner.

The winner came when Ramsey scored with the outside of his right foot to give Arsenal their 11th FA Cup win, equalling the all-time record held by Manchester United.

“We wanted to make history and win the game. It was the turning point in the life span of this team,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.

“If we hadn't come back it would have been terrible. I praised the spirit many times of this team. Congratulations to Hull they played very well.”

The start of the match defied logic given recent form as well as the two teams’ hugely contrasting histories.

In some ways the goals came too early for Hull as Arsenal had plenty of time to get back into the match, which is how it panned out.

Chester, returning from injury, made the early breakthrough. Arsenal failed to clear a corner and the Hull defender planted the ball past the despairing lunge of Fabianski.
Hull quickly went 2-0 ahead when Arsenal failed to clear another set-piece and although Fabianski got a hand to a header from Alex Bruce to palm the ball on to his left-hand post, Davies lashed it in from the tightest of angles.

Hull almost went three up four minutes after that when a looping header from Bruce, the son of manager Steve, was dropping into the Arsenal goal until Kieran Gibbs headed it clear from under his own crossbar.

Arsenal were back in the game after Bruce fouled Santi Cazorla some 25 metres from the Hull goal.

After dominating for most of the match, Arsenal’s equaliser came when they got a couple of lucky deflections at a corner with the ball falling to Koscielny, who turned and scored from close range.

Ramsey then found the net for the winner in extra-time to spark wild celebrations.