From 2 0 down inside 10 minutes, countless penalty appeals waved away, missing Germans and misfiring Frenchmen, to 3 2 up thanks to Aaron Ramsey's late heroics, they made it.
They even managed to survive a goalkeeper going AWOL at the death, but they made it.
Just when it looked as though his team were ready to throw in their collective cup final towels the diminutive Spaniard stepped up and stepped up big.
Standing www.lionsauthenticofficial.com/authentic-larry-warford-jersey.html over a 25 yard free kick the midfield maestro lashed it in past Allan McGregor to peg the Tigers back almost immediately.
You feel that, such is the fragility of this Arsenal team, if he hadn't found the net it could well have been game over after just 20 minutes.
Paging Olivier Giroud
Maybe it's the hours spent shaping that quiff, or the countless sleepless nights consigned to the sofa Olivier Giroud ain't quite right lately.
Sure there was that delicious goal against West Ham a few weeks back but in a major final you need your centre forward to be on his game.
And in this game, he simply wasn't.
The ruthless and rapier sharp chance taker of the first half of the season seems a distant memory, and he never truly looked at the races at Wembley.
Improved with the introduction of Yaya Sanogo alongside him and a delicious late back heel notwithstanding must be filed under must do better.
Get him on the plane
Many on the banks of T. J. Jones Youth Jersey the Humber have been championing Curtis Davies' cause for an unlikely call up for Brazil all season.
And after his titanic Wembley display Roy Hodgson may well be thinking twice about his decision to leave him out.
The Tigers skipper headed every ball, made every tackle and of course netted the second goal on an all action evening at the office.
He rode his luck at times but it was, as the cliche says, a real captain's knock.
Lost: Two German internationals. Last seen at 5pm
While Giroud was as good as anonymous two of his lionsauthenticofficial.com/authentic-larry-warford-jersey.html supporting cast were just as lifeless.
Again when the pressure is on you need your biggest names to step up for Arsenal no name is bigger than that of Mesut http://www.lionsauthenticofficial.com/authentic-t-j-jones-jersey.html Ozil.
I've defended the 42m German before but he was a peripheral figure at best at Wembley. It's true that he needs more teammates running beyond him to be at his effervescent best but he still needed to do more when his team needed him the most.
Lukas Podolski hasn't even got that excuse. An extremely poor display from a man with 112 international caps. Not good enough.