Dennis Bergkamp's hopes of filling the cockpit of Arsenal's attack in today's FA Cup final were ended in a terse, one-sentence statement from Highbury yesterday afternoon.

On the instructions of manager Arsene Wenger, it said simply: "Dennis Bergkamp will not be taking part in tomorrow's FA Cup final."

In those 12 words the confidence, if not the ambition of the Highbury faithful diminished and the hopes of their opponents, Newcastle United, for a first FA Cup win in 40 years were reignited.

Earlier in the week, there had been sufficient optimism in Wenger's statements to suggest that the Dutch player's rate of recovery from a hamstring injury was precisely on schedule. However when Bergkamp trained yesterday, he may have felt that if he broke down during today's game, his hopes of recovering in time to lead Holland's attack in the World Cup finals would have been negligible.

That's the thought which may well have been in his mind on Thursday when he said: "I won't play if I'm not 100 per cent because it would be too much of a risk if I did."

Ironically, then, the man who did so much to enrich Arsenal's season and put them on course for a repeat of their 1971 FA Cup and championship double will now miss out on the promise of their second big triumph. Newcastle will have little difficulty assessing the damage Bergkamp's defection will do to team morale after having to make do for so long without their own rainmaker, Alan Shearer.

Shearer, perhaps even more central to England's hopes of World Cup survival than Bergkamp is to Holland's, is back on Tyneside and playing for his home team on the most glamorous day of the English domestic season. It is superficial, of course, to dismiss this as a tale of two centre forwards, one buoyant, the other temporarily broken. Behind the advance of two of England's most famous clubs lies a remarkable story of triumph over adversity, of the ability of ambition to conquer all.

When Arsenal lost at home to Blackburn in December, there weren't many who fancied their chances of invading Manchester United's empire. The sceptics may even have included Wenger, who was so upset by Tony Adams's poor level of performance that he ordered him to a fitness clinic in France.

Adams would return a new man and with the Dutch axis of Bergkamp and Marc Overmars demoralising opposing defences, they embarked on a 10-match winning sequence which brought them the championship.

No less than Frank McLintock, the Scottish centre back who led them to the promised land in 1971, Adams now enjoys patriarchal status at Highbury.

"I was too young to know anything about the team which won the double in 1971, but, like every player who has pulled on an Arsenal shirt since, I've never been allowed to overlook it," he said. "This is our chance to make history of our own."

Newcastle's troubled season, which at one point dipped so steeply that survival in the Premiership represented the summit of their ambition, has been rescued by some gritty Cup performances, not least when Shearer's goal took them through a difficult semi-final tie against Sheffield United.

For a club with a reputation for swashbuckling football, Kenny Dalglish's pragmatism hasn't always fitted comfortably. In that there is another element of irony, for when Dalglish's Liverpool teams were on song he frequently branded Arsenal as the arch-disciples of the conservatism which was said to be stifling English football.

Now the roles are perceived to be reversed with Arsenal's European flair, represented by the Dutch pair and the three galvanic Frenchmen, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Nicolas Anelka, giving them all the advantages in crowd appeal.

Predictably, it's not a line which is echoed by Daglish, who can point to the exciting skills of Shearer, Keith Gillespie and Gary Speed as evidence that Newcastle can be as attractive as any side in the Premiership.

Speed joins the uncompromising David Batty in an attempt to disrupt Arsenal's French powerbase of Vieira and Petit in midfield, but, apart from Shearer, it isn't immediately obvious from where Newcastle's goals will emanate.

From a situation in which Wenger appeared to have settled on Bergkamp and Anelka as his best attacking formation, a shaft of light has suddenly appeared for Ian Wright who, no less than Tony Adams, deserves to rate as one of the great Arsenal players of all time.

After claiming a first team place almost by right for so long, the most prolific goalscorer in Arsenal's history suddenly found himself in the uncomfortable position of having to sit on the bench for the final phase of that thrilling championship charge.

Now the speculation is that Wright will be included when Wenger names his team just before the kick off, giving him the chance to provide one final twist in this eventful season.