It was the game that proved we all know absolutely nothing about football. The world and his wife wrote Arsenal off before kickoff, but it was the north London club who emerged victorious over Premier League champions Chelsea in the FA Cup final on Saturday.

The 2-1 result unquestionably caught experts and neutrals alike off-guard and captain Per Mertesacker played a crucial role in the surprise win. In fact, it was his promotion to the starting XI due to injury that forced Arsenal into playing a deeper line that allowed them so much space to punish their London rivals on the counter.

But tactics aside, Mertesacker's individual performance was nothing short of monolithic at the heart of Arsenal's back three, going toe-to-toe with Diego Costa and hardly giving the Blues front-man a sniff until his late goal - which required some frankly world-class chest control from the Spain international.

Indeed, the German giant finished up with the most clearances, aerial duels won and shots blocked of any Arsenal player, whilst weighing in with two tackles and one clearance. Most impressively of all, Mertesacker did it without committing a single foul.

With his contract due to expire at the end of next season, Saturday's cup final may well have been Mertesacker's last high profile performance for the Gunners. Should that be the case, however, it was a fantastic swansong from the club captain.

https://video.footballfancast.com/video-2015/arsenal-appeal.mp4