Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fired Arsenal to their second Wembley triumph of the month after their FA Cup success
It did not have quite the significance or the glory of the FA Cup final, a mere 28 days ago.
But the storyline remains the same: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is centre stage and Mikel Arteta keeps winning at Wembley.
Pre-match favourites were once again undone by Arteta’s game plan and Aubameyang, apparently always on the brink of signing a new Arsenal contract but never quite there, delivers the goals which are accumulating an unlikely haul of silverware.
Arsenal (Gunners), a club that has endured huge turmoil in the past year, not least over the summer, where staff have been sacked and executives removed, exude a defiant optimism.
Despite the pay cuts imposed on players and the financial issues caused by lockdown and the lack of Champions League football, they continue to make unexpected progress.
The winning strike from Aubameyang was in the penalty shoot-out, which came after the 1-1 draw. It was decisive and struck with the authority of a man in the prime of his career, hard and high into the top corner, beyond Alisson.
It was the fifth of Arsenal’s penalties, Reiss Nelson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Cedric Soares and David Luiz having preceded him in a perfect shoot-out.
For Liverpool, Mohamed Salah and Fabinho were both on target before Rhian Brewster stepped up. He was only brought on in the 90th minute, presumably specifically to take a penalty. However, his strike, pretty much his first touch, though firmly struck was high and crashed off the bar. As such, successful strikes from Takumi Minamino and Curtis Jones couldn’t prise the initiative back.
So yet again it was Arsenal taking home a trophy against the odds. Once more they eschewed possession and gambled that their pace on the break would secure them a trophy.