Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood admitted he felt “sick” after their thrashing by Arsenal – but believes his players will ultimately be stronger for it.
Trailing 1-0 at the break after Theo Walcott struck, Villa were blown away by further goals from Alexis Sanchez, Per Mertesacker and Olivier Giroud.
Arsenal 4-0 Aston Villa
FA Cup Final
Wembley Stadium connected by EE
Saturday 30 May 2015
Former England and Tottenham midfielder Sherwood conceded his team were second-best throughout, but does expect Villa's first trip to Wembley Stadium in 19 years to prove a useful experience for his squad.
He said: “I feel sick, and so do the boys. You can only know how good winning feels once you have had to watch the other team walk away with the Cup. You don't want to be going up those stairs first.
“The team has scrapped against relegation for the last four seasons and that isn't good enough for a team like Aston Villa. We need to improve.
“The job was to keep the team in the division which I managed to achieve, the job now is to improve this group of players so that next year we are not scrapping against relegation and perhaps we might have a couple more trips to Wembley.
Jack Grealish runs at Aaron Ramsey
“Staying up is no consolation for losing this game. I wanted to win, I came here to win for myself, the players and our great fans, but unfortunately we couldn't do that.”
Villa, chasing their first FA Cup final triumph since 1957, had been thumped 3-0 and 5-0 by Arsenal already this season.
And they barely threatened Wojciech Szczesny's goal, as Arsene Wenger's team ran riot at the other end.
“The fans were great and I'm sorry we didn't give them anything to cheer about”
Tim Sherwood Aston Villa manager
Sherwood admitted they were powerless to repel Arsenal's superiority once again.
He added: “They deserved to win. They have outstanding, world-class footballers and we couldn't nullify their threat and we couldn't impose ourselves on them either.
“The fans were great and have been all season and I'm just sorry we didn't give them anything to cheer about.
“We need to add to the squad, but some of my players need to get better. We need to change their mentality, because they are used to losing football matches which is not a good habit.”
