For the first time in a decade the engravers will have to put aside their usual stencil and set to work on the unfamiliar italics of Liverpool Ladies, who with this win over Bristol Academy captured the Women's Super League title and a trophy that has, in one form or another, been in Arsenal's hands for 10 years.
Two points behind Liverpool at kick-off, Bristol might also have clinched the title but, as if to underline the scale of the transformation at a club that had finished each of the past two seasons bottom of the table, Liverpool's victory was a comfortable one.
"I'm delighted," said the manager, Matt Beard, still shaking champagne from his hair.
This was the former Chelsea manager's first season on Merseyside and the first fully within the Liverpool set-up for his overhauled team
"When I came to the club our plan was to be in a position to challenge at the top. The players deserve the credit for the shift they've put in."
The crowd was primed for a festival of goals after last month's meeting at Bristol, won 4-3 by Liverpool.
That result might account for a frantic opening in which both defences quickly and without much care for art put an end to fledgling attacking moves. Liverpool, though, were first to settle; Nicole Rolser, the German forward still in fantastic form, afforded the Bristol defenders no such luxury.
The longer the game went on the further Bristol retreated and the more assured the interchanges between Rolser and her teammates became, until after half an hour a Liverpool goal looked certain.
Rolser twice worked the Bristol goalkeeper, Siobhan Chamberlain, before a Fara Williams shot from 35 yards bounced off the outside of the post.
Bristol were increasingly unable to cope and on 35 minutes Rolser wriggled into the area and was upended by Alex Windell. Louise Fors slotted the ball into the bottom right-hand corner for her eighth goal of the season.
A lob from Bristol's Laura Del Rio that dropped beyond the far post two minutes later was virtually the only moment of concern for Rachael Laws in the Liverpool goal.
By contrast Chamberlain had to be on her toes constantly but there was little she could do when, after 78 minutes, Natasha Dowie chested the ball down for Katrin Omarsdottir to strike firm and low from 12 yards out. The crowd rose and roared as if the trophy was being lifted there and then.
"We don't want it to be just a one-off season," Beard said. "We've got an incredibly focused group of players and almost everyone is on a two-year contract, so we'll regroup in the close season and look to go again."
Both sides will play in the Champions League next season while Arsenal watch on.
Player of the match Nicole Rolser (Liverpool).
Source: The Guardian
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