Eden Hazard penalty fires Chelsea to victory against Manchester United in flat FA Cup final
Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United: This was almost certainly Antonio Conte’s last match as the Stamford Bridge boss, but it still brought his first knock-out trophy as a coach
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Your support makes all the difference.For all the debate about the modern meaning of the FA Cup, there can be no doubt about its meaning for both these sides’ seasons, and their managers. That is the clarity that it brings, that’s what Chelsea’s jubilant celebrations show. Their season instantly feels so much more positive and joyous after Eden Hazard’s penalty secured a 1-0 win, and the club’s eighth FA Cup. Manchester United’s campaign now feels as inconsequential and aimless as some of their attacking at Wembley.
The success of lifting tangible silverware – something you can hold, and gloriously pass around as the Chelsea players did – at least temporarily outweighs the issue of Champions League qualification
That’s the thing about this match, too. It’s not just a final, but offers the chance at a final say – not least for the Chelsea manager. This was almost certainly Antonio Conte’s last match as the Stamford Bridge boss, but it still brought his first knock-out trophy as a coach, as well as a reminder of why he is so good and why the club wanted him in the first place.
Jose Mourinho has meanwhile endured his third full season without a trophy, ensuring it ends with a deep sense of pointlessness, despite the progress that second place in the Premier League was supposed to represent.
The result here, however, undeniably represented the truth of this game at least. Chelsea had been focused, United so profoundly flat.
There was a definite sense of things evening out in that regard, even if there were some caveats.
There had been some talk around the United camp in the build-up that they have effectively been “on the beach” since those key April wins over Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, and that that spell represented the peak of the season. It was talk given a lot of back-up from the very first moments of this game. United were immediately sloppy and made a series of errors, characterised by Marcus Rashford’s dismal cross-field ball to the feet of Tiemoue Bakayoko rather than one of his own teammates, and culminating in Phil Jones’ “no-look tackle” tackle on Hazard for the penalty.
One of the deeper problems for Mourinho, though, was that these weren’t just individual errors. They were part of a collective dysfunction.
United were actually trying to do much of what they’ve done all season, especially in games like this, but circumstances ensured it didn’t have the same effect.
They couldn’t show the resilience they had in comebacks against both this Chelsea side in the league, and against Spurs in this competition. The hard-edge of Mourinho’s management eventually meant they were blunted.
Their first-half poverty in attack without the unfit Romelu Lukaku crystallised how Mourinho’s fundamental attacking approach is dependent on a big man up front, and his team then had no one to play it up to, and apparently no idea where to go. It didn’t help that Rashford’s confidence looks ruined.
The defensive shape was meanwhile based on shackling Hazard, but it is irrelevant what shape you have if the Belgian is on this kind of form. He seemed utterly determined to shape the end of this season in a positive way, and to finally win the FA Cup for the first time.
The goal might have just been a well-taken penalty that sent David De Gea the wrong way, but it came from the fact Hazard was in such a fearsome mood. There was an electrical charge on the pitch any time he got the ball.
No one else was at his level, but Chelsea were on a better level than they’ve been for much of the season. Whether that is down to the manager or the match this is hard to say, but it was easy to see the effect. Even if was primarily down to the players’ sense of pride after a poor campaign – as had been the mood around Cobham all this week – it was similarly easy to see how a coach like Conte could hone that and work with it.
There was a sharpness to Chelsea in challenges, with even the often-criticised Bakayoko looking like the strong midfielder they signed from Monaco. Other players who have struggled this season, like Gary Cahill and Victor Moses, similarly stepped up. It was as if the old Conte focus had returned, if only for one last game, maybe one last hurrah.
Chelsea’s gameplan was itself admittedly entirely based on counter-attacking, but there was a proper commitment to it. There was no slackness. Everything was full-blooded, even if they were never quite full-blooded in attack.
Mourinho had no option but to do that himself in the second half, such was the uninspired nature of United’s play. They had creditably upped it before he introduced Anthony Martial and Lukaku, as a proper football match finally seemed to break out.
They still couldn’t break Chelsea. The damage had been done, the pattern of the game set.
The scoreline wasn’t to be changed, but it might just change perceptions of the season – and maybe the future, too.
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