Emma Hayes hailed the in-form striker Fran Kirby and said her Chelsea side gave “some dominant performance” in their second FA Cup win. The manager, due to give birth to twins this month, said her side’s superiority meant it was the “most relaxed I’ve felt in a final in my entire career” and joked it was a “bonus” given her condition.

A Ramona Bachmann double and a goal from Kirby gave Chelsea their first silverware of the season and exorcised the ghosts of two years ago. This was a rematch of the 2016 final, for which Hayes said the Blues “didn’t turn up”, when a curling Danielle Carter strike won Arsenal the trophy. This time Chelsea did show up and a goal from Vivianne Miedema to reduce the deficit to 2-1 after Bachmann’s double was not enough to turn the game for Arsenal.

Joe Montemurro was full of praise for the forward line his team were up against. “We’re obviously disappointed but they’re a powerful team,” the Arsenal manager said. “There were a couple of structural things we need to work on but I don’t want to take away from them and what they are able to do to teams with the power they have up front.”

The opening chances fell to the Gunners. Three minutes in Beth Mead was able to break free on the left but her teasing ball into the box was poked clear before it could reach a red shirt. Seconds later, Jordan Nobbs played an almost identical ball in, this time from the right, but Maren Mjelde got herself in front of a waiting Miedema.

Both sides were nursing hangovers but neither seemed to be letting that get to them. Arsenal had suffered their first defeat in 14 games when they crumbled at Birmingham last Sunday – Ellen White’s hat-trick breaking a back line that had conceded only five goals since Montemurro took charge in October. Meanwhile Chelsea, still unbeaten in the league but having slipped behind Manchester City on goal difference, missed out on a first Champions League final after a 5-1 aggregate loss to Wolfsburg.

The Blues’ first chances came through Kirby, the Professional Footballers’ Association and Football Writers’ Association player of the year. Twice in quick succession the England striker picked up the ball on the left and danced past three tight Arsenal players but her square passes were crowded out.

Shortly after that Bachmann and Ji So-yun played a one-two on the edge of the box, the Swiss forward spinning beautifully but shooting wide of the far post. The chances did not stop for the Gunners, though, and the best of the half came as a delightful ball over the top put Mead in on goal with just Hedvig Lindahl to beat but a sprinting Mjelde chased her down before she could get a shot away.

As the clock ticked towards half-time Chelsea began to ramp up the pressure and Ji and Bachmann continued to combine well on the right. Chelsea began the second period as they ended the first and it did not take long for them to break the deadlock. Bachmann and Ji linked up again, this time getting Kirby involved, who fed the ball back to Bachmann and the forward blasted high into Van Veenendaal’s net.

Arsenal were undeterred by falling behind, Lindahl was forced to palm the ball away from Mead. Five minutes later the Gunners captain, Kim Little, who has won the cup three times with her club, played a pinpoint pass to Miedema, who perhaps should have shot first time but turned and gave the Blues time to rush back.

The Gunners’ wastefulness in front of goal was then punished by Bachmann again. Her shot from the right looped in off the 21-year-old defender Leah Williamson to extend Chelsea’s lead.

From then the game began to slow, Chelsea happy to sit back and Arsenal searching for a way to break through a defence that had not conceded in the competition. But the pressure eventually paid off, Mead’s cross into the box finding Miedema and this time the Euro 2017 winner did not wait, sweeping the ball past Lindahl to halve the deficit.

But just three minutes later Kirby picked up the ball on the edge of the Arsenal area, stepped past Louise Quinn and fired home to deal a hammer-blow to the Gunners. It was her sixth FA Cup goal this season and it keeps Chelsea in the hunt for the double.