FA Cup: Arsenal vs Chelsea fuses the past and the present

Arsenal’s season could hang on one crucial FA Cup final against Chelsea. This match is as massive in the present as it is symbolically. And here is why.

Arsenal’s season obviously did not go according to plan, but that doesn’t mean it has to end that way. With all other trophies long since off the table, the Gunners still have a shot at stealing the double from Chelsea and taking home Arsene Wenger’s favorite FA Cup.

But there is more to this match than just the match itself. The symbolism that goes into it is enough to take notice of.

Arsenal vs Chelsea. In the match up itself, there plenty to talk about. In the Gunners you have the traditional, the old-timey. Wenger has been trying to live in 2003 for the past decade. As the game has evolved around him, he has stubbornly (perhaps admirably) stuck to his guns and his values.

Chelsea, meanwhile, have adapted and re-adapted to the modern era a handful of times in the past decade. When the current modernization does not work, they readjust and become even more modern. Each time they fall behind and re-modernize, they win a title. It’s the prototypical instant gratification that Arsenal spurns, yet it comes around as successful more often than the Gunners consistency does.

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Then there is Arsene Wenger and Antonio Conte, the living embodiment of their respective teams. Wenger is all of a sudden the last long-term investment in the managerial world. The man that believes in what has worked in the past but is still slowly coming to terms with he future.

Antonio Conte, meanwhile, is the future. The revolution in a Premier League that doesn’t like revolutions. His three at the back formation had long been phased out of England, but Conte won the title with it.

And there is so much more to it than that. From the North London perspective, it gets deep. Will Arsene Wenger ever win a trophy again? Will this be the best chance he ever gets? Most of us accept that Wenger is going to stay regardless of the outcome of the Final, but there are some that believe that if Le Prof takes home one last trophy, then he will call it quits.

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There are so many moving parts here, not to mention the defensive woes that the Gunners have. Chelsea will be high on life while the Gunners should be at the other end of the spectrum. So whose passion wins out? The passion of the team that already has the biggest honor or the passion of the team that is begging for honors?

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