Saturday 30 May 2015 20:57, UK
Arsenal beat Aston Villa 4-0 to win the FA Cup for the 12th time on Saturday afternoon after goals from Theo Walcott, Alexis Sanchez, Per Mertesacker and Olivier Giroud.
And former Liverpool and Republic of Ireland international defender Phil Babb - watching the game from the Sky Sports News HQ studio - rated each players’ performance at Wembley Stadium…
Arsenal
Wojciech Szczesny - 8
Good handling, but largely untroubled.
Hector Bellerin - 8
Good industry and overlapping, a very solid all-round game.
Per Mertesacker - 9
Dominant and did not give Christian Benteke a kick throughout.
Laurent Koscielny - 8
Very solid and alongside Mertesacker at the back he managed to contain the Villa attack, in particular Benteke.
Nacho Monreal - 8
Provided good overlaps to compliment the Arsenal attack, while largely untroubled at the back.
Francis Coquelin - 8
Mopped up anything in front of the back four in his role as a defensive midfielder.
Santi Cazorla - 9.5
Not quite a 10, but very nearly the perfect display from a very talented footballer.
Aaron Ramsey - 8
A very strong first-half performance, got himself in the box and managed to get a couple of shots off too and gave a typically industrious performance.
Mesut Ozil - 8
The quiet assassin. His work-rate was up on previous games, and his touches of class helped to unlock the Villa defence.
Alexis Sanchez - 9
A fantastic goal, one of the greatest FA Cup final goals ever, and a brilliant all-round performance, unselfish and always working for the team.
Theo Walcott - 9
Caused the Villa back four all kinds of problems in the first half, scored a fantastic goal to open the scoring with his left foot and fully justified Arsene Wenger’s decision to start him up front instead of Olivier Giroud.
Substitutes
Jack Wilshere - 7
Came on and tried his best, displaying little bits of skill along the way, but without enough time to truly influence the game though.
Olivier Giroud - 7
Again, not enough time to make much of an impact, although he still took his goal well from three yards.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - 7
Came on as a token gesture for the final few minutes.
Aston Villa
Shay Given - 7
Some fantastic saves in the first half in particular and did not really deserve to be on the losing side.
Alan Hutton - 7
Good industry, although got booked early on in the game and that caused him to go in his shell a bit thereafter.
Jores Okore - 6
Found it difficult against the movement of the Arsenal attackers.
Ron Vlaar - 6
Not the most mobile of defenders and again like with his centre-back partner Okore, found it difficult to cope with the Arsenal front line.
Kieran Richardson - 7
One of Villa’s best performers on the day, showed good industry down their left flank with some overlapping runs before going off injured.
Tom Cleverley - 6
Got booked early on in the game and thereafter failed to stamp his authority on proceedings whatsoever.
Ashley Westwood - 6
Tried to help his back four out in his role as a defensive midfielder, but Arsenal were just too good on the day and he found himself overwhelmed.
Fabian Delph - 6
Another who found himself booked early on. Tried to get himself on the ball, but when he did he found that he had few options around him and all in all it was a difficult afternoon for him.
Charles N'Zogbia - 5
Very, very quiet and ineffective throughout.
Christian Benteke - 7
A very quiet afternoon, although he did not get much service at all , while never looked like scoring a goal either.
Jack Grealish - 7
Lots of expectation on the young man’s shoulders, but he looked tired from very early on and in the end it was all too much for him to carry by himself.
Substitutes
Leandro Bacuna - 6
Came on as a full-back, but made no impression whatsoever.
Gabriel Agbonlahor - 7
The man who is Villa through and through came on and tried his heart out, but it was all too little, too late.
Carlos Sanchez - 6
The defensive midfielder was introduced late on in an act of damage limitation.
