‘Cup win could start successful era for Arsenal’

LONDON — Victory over Hull City in this month's FA Cup final could set Arsenal up for a long overdue period of success, their Welsh midfielder Aaron Ramsey has told The Observer.

Arsenal go into the May 17 final as strong favourites to claim their first silverware since their last FA Cup win in 2005, and Ramsey says a victory could be the catalyst for a new period of trophy-gathering for the success-starved North London club.

"It could be massive," he told the Sunday newspaper. 

"In terms of players, hardly anyone has won anything in the dressing room, so that will just give us, hopefully — all being well and we do win the FA Cup — the hunger to realise what it is like to win a trophy and the feeling that you get afterwards, which will drive us on.”

"There are leaders in this team, there are people that are hungry to win and we're still a really young team," he added.

"We showed that with what we achieved up to February when we were top of the league up till then. So we're close. Maybe we just need to win one thing to go on and be successful for five or 10 years."

Arsenal topped the table from September to January apart from one week over Christmas, but their title challenge faded during Ramsey's 21-match injury absence.

By the first week of November, the 23-year-old Wales international had scored 11 goals — as many as he had done in the previous five years.

But while he was sidelined, Arsenal were beaten 5-1 at Liverpool and 6-0 at Chelsea and in a nine-match spell between the beginning of February and the beginning of April they won only two league matches.

They also lost 6-3 at Manchester City just before he was injured, and the Welshman says those defeats proved insurmountable as far as the title challenge was concerned.

"Those were the games that really cost us. You take those three matches away and we've been really solid as a team. So that's what we need to build on next season, stay in the games early on in the first half, when maybe we've been a bit naive."

After Everton's defeat to Manchester City on Saturday, Arsenal are guaranteed a Champions League qualifying place for next season, but their immediate target is success in the Cup final over first-time finalists Hull.