Arsenal FA Cup win: Nine lessons we learned as Gunners thrash Aston Villa at Wembley

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8) Benteke won’t have impressed his many suitors

Christian Benteke Aston Villa

This may be harsh on Christian Benteke, who was playing in a side that were totally overrun from the first minute and hardly got enough of the ball to create any chances, but the big Belgian international did not look like a £32.5m player yesterday (his rumoured release clause). Speculation suggests Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea are all after him, and while he’d clearly get more opportunities to show what he can do if playing for a bigger club, there is cause for concern that he just didn’t look at the races in this crucial game for his club. Part of being a big player is accepting that it is down to you to provide some inspiration, and he didn’t look at all confident in doing that whenever he did get a touch of the ball, wasting an opportunity to turn on the edge of the box when he could have fashioned a chance. In addition, his attempt at marking Per Mertesacker for the third goal was pathetic, and displayed his lack of belief that the game could be turned around. Villa might do well to cash in on him this summer, but it will be interesting to see if clubs are still so keen on him.

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