Arsenal - 2 Chelsea - 0The best finishers end on a double. Arsenal are halfway towards completing that once rare English footballing feat for a third time because in Saturday's FA Cup final their aim was truer than that of a Chelsea team who settled for nearest the bull.
The Cup having been won for the eighth time, Arsenal can now deal with their 12th championship under "any other business". That Arsene Wenger is about to win his second Premiership title, and with it his second double, is open only to minimal doubt, but ideally he would like to do so at Old Trafford on Wednesday night with Alex Ferguson and Manchester United looking on.
Arsenal were not at their best in the Millennium Stadium but, when it mattered, they were still better than Chelsea. A hallmark of a successful team is not only the ability to win matches with below-par performances but to have players able to rise above themselves when more vaunted colleagues are having an off-day.
Nobody summed this up better than Ray Parlour, who was preferred to Edu in midfield largely because Wenger felt his combative qualities would be better suited to a London derby with a recent history of physical, fractious encounters.
Parlour was picked to run, tackle, hustle and hound. The last thing he was there to do was score a goal which ranked with some of the best seen in FA Cup finals. The goal from Freddie Ljungberg which completed Arsenal's triumph 10 minutes later was even better but Parlour's was the one that mattered more.
This was hardly a vintage performance by Arsenal and overall it was not a final to be remembered for much apart from its goals. That was the way of it when Charlie George's wonderful shot against Liverpool completed Arsenal's first double, at Wembley in 1971.
Nevertheless there were moments of the highest quality, apart from the actual goals, in Arsenal's performance which Chelsea did not match. Claudio Ranieri's side stopped their opponents in the first half and began to dominate them in the second but, even as this was happening, glimpses of the true Arsenal shone through the murk of fouls and mistakes.
Patrick Vieira, for example, suffered an afternoon of unforced errors but still produced the superbly timed long ball from the left midway through the first half which found Dennis Bergkamp clear and onside. The Dutchman's header caught Carlo Cudicini off his line but then flew wide and Bergkamp's game, which had begun quietly, never picked up.
Then there was the slick turn in the penalty area by Sylvain Wiltord eight minutes before half-time, followed by a short cross which saw Lauren head just over the bar. The consistency with which Wiltord, Lauren, Parlour and Ashley Cole found space and made supporting runs propped up Arsenal's game when Chelsea were threatening to take over.
Had Mikael Forssell been fit Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink would never have been risked and, as it was, he became so restricted in his movements that any danger he posed to Tony Adams or Sol Campbell was token.
This left Eidur Gudjohnsen as the focal point of Chelsea's attack but when he did break clear in the penalty area towards half-time an aberrant offside flag was against him and his best shot, a long dipping effort just before the hour, was turned over by David Seaman.
Graeme Le Saux, another fitness doubt, did manage to last the distance, despite being booked after two minutes, but not so Celestine Babayaro, who tweaked a groin muscle early on and stayed off for the second half. This brought on John Terry, who would have started the game had he not woken up with a virus.
Tactically Ranieri's approach was sound. Chelsea played the pressing game necessary to deny Arsenal space for their passing, Vieira and Bergkamp were relentlessly tracked down and for a long time Ljungberg and Thierry Henry were marginalised.
The frequency with which Frank Lampard caught the eye in the first half was a mark of Chelsea's effectiveness, though neither he nor Emmanuel Petit was able to turn the sense of an advantage into a practical demonstration. Increasingly the dominant Chelsea figure was Marcel Desailly, who combined an awesome presence at the back with massive forward runs, but even he was caught out when Parlour scored.
Arguably the pivotal moment in the match arrived on the hour when Jesper Gronkjaer turned Arsenal on the right and slipped the ball across to the incoming Le Saux, who scooped his shot over. Having seen Cudicini palm away a shot from Henry, who had been set up by Vieira's inspired chip, at the start of the second half Chelsea were by then entertaining serious thoughts of victory.
Then in the 70th minute Adams's quick pass from the back found Wiltord in space with Parlour rapidly gaining ground to his right. Wiltord slipped the ball to the midfielder who, with Desailly and his fellow defenders backing off, threw them a dummy before producing a shot from just beyond the arc that Cudicini could only help into the top right-hand corner.
With 10 minutes remaining Ljungberg, who was in his own half when he received the ball from Edu, the substitute for Bergkamp, decided to become Sweden's answer to Prince Obolensky. Leaving Petit and William Gallas agape at his acceleration he shook off Terry's clumsy, clawing challenge and sped on to curl the ball inside the far post.
ARSENAL: Seaman, Lauren, Campbell, Adams, Cole, Wiltord (Keown 90), Parlour, Vieira, Ljungberg, Bergkamp (Edu 72), Henry (Kanu 81). Subs Not Used: Dixon, Wright. Booked: Vieira, Henry. Goals: Parlour 70, Ljungberg 80.
CHELSEA: Cudicini, Melchiot (Zenden 76), Gallas, Desailly, Babayaro (Terry 45), Gronkjaer, Lampard, Petit, Le Saux, Gudjohnsen, Hasselbaink (Zola 68). Subs Not Used: de Goey, Jokanovic. Booked: Le Saux, Terry, Gudjohnsen.
Referee: M Riley (Leeds).
