LONDON — There were fireworks before and fireworks afterward, fizzing and crackling and disappearing into the sky. Before the F.A. Cup final, just as the players for Arsenal and Chelsea were emerging from the dressing rooms, half a dozen enormous black boxes, spaced around the Wembley field, spurted jets of flame.
After the final, as Arsenal’s players passed the oldest trophy in English soccer, an avatar of the game’s history, among themselves to celebrate a 2-1 victory, there were glitter cannons shooting red and white foil into the crowd and, more important, into the television cameras.