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GUNNER LOVE THIS…Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey wheels away to celebrate his winning goal in the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday night. — Mailonline

Oliver Holt in LONDON
For 90 minutes, this was how we had all imagined Arsene Wenger’s brave new Arsenal would one day become in the best of all possible worlds – this was the Gunners bullying Chelsea with beauty.

It felt as though this performance in the FA Cup final was everything that Wenger has been working towards through all the years of being second best to Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City.

This was his dream unfolding before disbelieving eyes. On a day when Wenger wrote his name into the history books by winning English football’s most famous competition for a record seventh time, the Arsenal boss reminded even those who have come to doubt him why they once loved him so much.

This was one of the best Cup finals of recent years, breathless and full of rare skill, and Arsenal, depleted to the point of crisis in defence and beset by the protests of their own fans, pulled off one of the competition’s most memorable triumphs.

Even in Wenger’s canon of works, the 2-1 win over Chelsea at Wembley on Saturday must rate as one of his finest achievements. So often fragile against the other big teams, Arsenal did not shrink. They had grown to the point where they were playing like giants. When was the last time we saw them this intense and determined?

They didn’t just outplay Chelsea, they embarrassed them. Arsenal were magnificent. They made the Premier League champions look mediocre. They gave them a lesson in incisive, passing football and wonderful movement and sharp, clean tackling and dominant defending.

Alexis Sanchez ran the show. Chelsea simply could not get anywhere near him. His goal in the opening minutes should have been ruled out for handball and might have been cancelled out for offside but neither was given.

Mesut Ozil did everything his admirers know he can do. He caressed the ball and his opponents into submission. Now and again, he even chased back. It took a brilliant goal-line clearance from Gary Cahill to deny his delicate chip over Thibault Courtois. Only the clunk of a post denied him what would have been a wonderful goal in the dying minutes.

Danny Welbeck was bright and lively up front. Chelsea couldn’t cope with him, either. He hit the post with a header that beat Courtois. He had another effort cleared off the line. Granit Xhaka was rock solid in midfield and we have not said that often this season.

And Per Mertesacker?

He had only played 37 minutes all season but against Chelsea, he was a colossus. Playing at the heart of Arsenal’s nascent back three, he subdued Diego Costa for most of the match and made several critical challenges.Sure, it was the FA Cup final.

It wasn’t the Champions League final or the crucial game in a battle to win the Premier League. But Arsenal were playing so well that even the staunchest of the Wenger Out Brigade must have felt their hearts fluttering a little. Even when Costa equalised 14 minutes from time, Arsenal did not crumble as they have so often before in recent years. This was a different Arsenal.

A different animal. In less than a minute, they had taken the lead again, this time through Aaron Ramsey. It felt as if everything was falling into place. It felt as if Wenger’s vision was being realised. Even if it was too late to influence anything else this season, it was the kind of display and the kind of spirit that afforded a glimpse of what might yet come to pass under more years of Wenger at the Emirates.

So what now?

Does this change anything in the long drawn-out saga of whether Wenger stays or goes. As Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke sat in the stands, a white rose in his lapel, he must have been thinking that the club would be mad to get rid of the man he has backed so loyally.Does this victory not change anything for those ingrates who want Wenger out of the club? Does this not suggest to them that Arsenal is still capable of excelling under the greatest manager it has ever had?

In an interview that was aired on the BBC several hours before kick off, Wenger sounded deeply wounded by the way Arsenal supporters have castigated him and his players at various times throughout another season in which they have failed to live up to their fans’ expectations.

He sounded, too, like a manager past caring about whether he burned his bridges with the supporters. Maybe he feels as if the bridges have been burned already although as he walked round Wembley on Saturday evening with his celebrating players, the manager who has been abused so often by his own supporters this season heard their cheers for him cascading down from the stands. ‘’I don’t mind criticism because we are in a public job,’’ Wenger said in the interview, ‘’but I believe there’s a difference between being criticised and being treated in a way that human beings don’t deserve.

‘’The lack of respect from some has been a disgrace and I will never accept that. I will never forget it. The behaviour of some people during the season, that is what hurts me most. — Mailonline