Triumphant manager Pedro Martinez Losa described masterminding Arsenal’s 14th Women’s FA Cup triumph in front of a record crowd at Wembley Stadium as "a dream come true".
An 18th-minute striker from England forward Dan Carter was enough to settle a contest with 2015 victors Chelsea.
The Gunners lifted the trophy in front of a 32,912 fans and Martinez Losa was blown away by the experience.
Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea
SSE Women's FA Cup final
Wembley Stadium
Saturday 14 May 2016
He said: "It feels unbelievable. It’s a dream come true. I feel very proud of the club and I hope the fans can be proud of the victory.
"I have played in front of 15,000-20,000 people, but this is very different.
"There is a culture of football in England, everybody understands the game.
"It’s beautiful to live here and this is an incredible experience and to be in this position as a winner is the best feeling ever.
"This group of players work so hard and they deserve this moment. They are all winners and it’s a fantastic feeling.
"We are proud of our past and now we have to look to our future.
"The future is different, it is more competitive the league is more professional and more people are involved. We had 33,000 people at Wembley.
"Football is always evolving and we have to too."
Alex Scott and Kelly Smith lift the SSE Women's FA Cup
Arsenal started the match on the front foot and were good value for their opening goal, Carter curling a sublime effort across goal and into the top corner after cutting past full-back Hannah Blundell.
Fran Kirby missed Chelsea’s best chance to equalise before the break, her low shot at the near post blocked by Sari Van Veenendaal with her feet.
After the break Kelly Smith, who rolled back the years with a virtuoso performance, saw her header come back off the crossbar.
But Chelsea had little to offer in response and gracious Blues boss Emma Hayes conceded the best team won.
Hayes said: "Congratulations to Arsenal.
"It was a fantastic performance and a reminder of how it is about a single game. It’s not about previous history or recent form, it’s about showing up and putting in a performance and Arsenal did that.
"They dominated in the first half. Once we played a little higher up the pitch we slowly came into the game and created some chances, but it’s not always about having a million chances just the right ones. I’ve got no complaints about the result.
"When you look at our attacking talent, the goals we’ve scored so far this season there will be some disappointed heads in the dressing room.
"When you’re working hard as a coach on the touchline to keep moving things around to try and create opportunities for the team you know that is because we are struggling to carry out the game plan and that is what we did.
"But that’s a credit to Arsenal, they put us under a lot of pressure and got their just reward for that."
