FA Cup Final Moses: We’Ll Stop Arsenal

Victor Moses says Chelsea’s 3-0 loss to Arsenal eight months ago remains fresh in the minds of the players, but is confident Antonio Conte’s winning 3-4-3 formula will see the Blues win the FA Cup today at Wembley

The Gunners inflicted a heavy defeat on the Blues side at the Emirates Stadium last September when first-half goals from Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil stunned the eventual Premier League champions.

Such was Arsenal’s dominance in the first 45 minutes of the Premier League game that Conte reacted by switching to a 3-4-3 set-up for the second half as Blues shut out the Gunners.
The defeat rounded off a disappointing month for Chelsea following the 2-2 draw away to Swansea and the 2-1 loss at home to Liverpool earlier in September.

But it would prove the key moment in the season as Conte kept faith with the 3-4-3 formation for the trip to Hull the following week as Chelsea embarked on a 13-game winning streak in the league.

Indeed, Conte admitted recently the heavy loss to Arsenal was the turning point for Chelsea in their title-winning campaign, which Moses has now admitted the players still think about.
When asked about the defeat at the Emirates Stadium, Moses said: “We still think about it. We lost two games in a row against Liverpool and Arsenal. We felt very sad after that game but we played them at Stamford Bridge and won 3-1.

“We beat them once and they beat us once.
They’re going to want revenge but we’ll stick to our tactics and try and make sure we win.
“We want to stick our formation [way of football]. They beat us at the Emirates but we switched to 3-4-3 which is the manager’s favourite formation, and it’s worked for us this season.

“Teams are finding it very hard to break us down. We’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves and make sure we win on Saturday because Arsenal are going to do their best to try and beat us.”
He added: “If we beat them it’s going to be a double for us, so we want to do it. We’re looking forward to it. Hopefully, we can.
“We’ve got the league title and they’re going to want to win because they missed out on top four. We’re going to try and stop them because we want the Double.”