Chelsea became 2018 Emirates FA Cup champions at Wembley, as Eden Hazard’s first-half penalty sealed a 1-0 victory over Manchester United.
It’s the Blues’ eighth FA Cup victory and their first since 2012 and also completes a unique treble for the west London club who also won the Women’s FA Cup and FA Youth Cup this season.
We hear from some of the key figures in Saturday’s win.
Gary Cahill
“It’s unbelievable, you can see what it means to us, what it means to the staff and what it means to the fans.
“This was to save our season, and by that I’m not saying we had a magnificent season by any stretch.
“We’re used to winning – not in an arrogant way – but we have to try and win things. It’s difficult to do back-to-back leagues, but that’s two league titles, an FA Cup and a runners-up medal in four years, so it’s not bad is it.
“Rudiger was fantastic, as were all the boys. We weathered a lot today, we had a lot of defending to do.
“They pushed us to the very end, as you can imagine with a 1-0 scoreline we had to take a lot of gambles in the late stages but it was fantastic.
“Azpilicueta has been superb all season and Thibaut pulled out some magnificent saves for us too so we’re buzzing.
“We got the job done, that man again Eden with the penalty, we’re delighted.
“It’s a dream come true because this is the first one as captain of the club. Last year we all know John was the captain but he let me wear the armband and pick the trophy up in the Premier League, which was fantastic but this was extra special for me.
“This competition is special to play in, we needed to achieve this goal for everybody no matter what happens in the future."
Cesc Fabregas
“It hasn’t been the best of seasons, we know that. Sometimes these things happen but it’s important for these people, look at them, they’re singing and having fun on the final day of the season, leaving on a high. It’s important for them.
“It was important to keep it tight, we know that when we play with five defenders it’s more difficult to put a higher press up the pitch because we have one player less, one more at the back, so in midfield it is tough, you have to run. But we did it well, we were compact, disciplined, and in the end it was a very well-deserved victory.
Eden Hazard
“We tried to defend well, we just kept a clean sheet and scored one goal, that was enough today.
“I think if we want to win a lot of games we need to play better because we played very defensively today.
“At the end, this was the most important thing, you just need to win, and we won it so I’m just happy.
“To see the fans celebrate the trophy is something we like, we didn’t have a great season but at least we finished well, that was the most important thing.”
Thibaut Courtois
“To keep a clean sheet today in an important game and win my first FA Cup is amazing.
“All season has been long for us, especially speculation about everything – it’s not easy for us.
“Obviously Man City were amazing this season, there’s nothing we could do about that but we could have finished in the top four and we slipped on the way.
“So to win the FA Cup now is nice, to finish the season with a trophy is better.”
