Chelsea and Manchester City will battle it out for football’s oldest prize at Wembley Stadium this Saturday.
The two teams, of vastly differing fortunes, will have the chance to claim glory in the FA Cup final. City will look to lift their second trophy of the season as they continue to chase a domestic treble, whereas Chelsea will have the opportunity to salvage some success from a tumultuous campaign.
Novice vs Master
Calum McFarlane will take charge of the final in just the sixth game of his managerial career. Conversely, Pep Guardiola could claim his 20th major honor in a decade since joining City. Across his illustrious career he has won 22 of the 26 major finals he has managed in, numbers that very few managers, including McFarlane, could ever dream of replicating. It will of course be McFarlane’s first major final.
Despite this, McFarlane has already faced Guardiola before in his short career as a top level manager. During his first spell as Chelsea interim boss earlier this year, he took on the Catalan in his very first match. The result was a positive one for Chelsea too, as they successfully stole a point at the Etihad with a late equaliser from Enzo Fernández. A similar performance will be required this Saturday, but the FA Cup has proven time and time again that you should never count out the underdog.
Heartbreak hat-trick?
City will play in a fourth consecutive FA Cup final – something which no other side has achieved in the 154-year history of the competition. However, they will be looking to avoid a third successive cup final defeat, after finishing as runners-up in each of the last two seasons. The core of the squad should be driven by their previous disappointments.
Despite this, for many of the players in City’s ever-evolving squad this will be their first ever FA Cup final. That will be the case for the likes of Rayan Cherki, Antoine Semenyo and James Trafford, who will be eager to get their hands on the famous prize. Whilst Marc Guéhi, who captained Crystal Palace last season, will be the only player on the pitch with a winners’ medal from last season.
Guardiola’s vengeance
Even if City’s players are over their back-to-back final defeats, Guardiola, ever the perfectionist, is certainly not. That was given away recently when, unprovoked, the Catalan remarked, “We lost the two finals of the FA Cup because the referees didn’t do the job they should do, even the VAR.”
Indeed, Dean Henderson should certainly have been sent off in the first-half of the final last year when he handled the ball outside the area, blatantly denying a clear goalscoring opportunity. The Palace goalkeeper escaped without punishment and went on to make a critical penalty save later on in the game. It is less obvious what incident he is referring to in the final the year prior.
Still, it is clear that there is still plenty motivating City’s boss as he takes his side to Wembley for the 24th time during his tenure. Whilst he remains stubborn in his stance that he has one more year remaining on his contract whenever questioned, uncertainty still surrounds his future.
If he is to depart this summer after ten years in Manchester, then this will be his last final and potentially his last chance to claim more silverware. Guardiola will surely want to sign off by doing what he does best – winning trophies.
Chelsea’s chaotic campaign
It is also unknown who will be Chelsea manager next season, following yet another chaotic campaign that has come to characterise the club since the BlueCo takeover. After success under Enzo Maresca last term, the Italian coach, who is tipped to be Guardiola’s heir at City, was dismissed at the turn of the year following a fallout with directors. Since then, the club have been in freewill.
Liam Rosenior’s short stint in charge seemed doomed from the start. After little more than three months and seven consecutive losses in the Premier League and Champions League, he was unsurprisingly sacked.
McFarlane came in and looked to have steadied the ship with a comprehensive FA Cup semi-final win over Leeds. However a humiliating home defeat to a relegation-threatened and heavily-rotated Nottingham Forest side demonstrated that there is still much work to be done. A solid performance against Liverpool at Anfield last time out can provide some hope, and earned just their first point in seven league fixtures.
The truth is Chelsea’s season is already too far gone. Regression has been widespread and abundant across the club. They will miss out on Champions League football and be forced to deal with the severe financial implications of that. Furthermore, even the UEFA Conference League spot now seems out of their reach and faith in the ownership and board is at an all-time low. Lifting the FA Cup on Saturday is the only hope of salvaging any success from an otherwise catastrophic campaign for Chelsea. It would also come with the benefit of Europa League qualification, which is more than they can achieve via the Premier League.
