As the season draws to a close, we begin to look forward to the marquee event of the English football season, the FA Cup Final. This season it will take place on May 25, at Wembley as usual and could well be a repeat of last season’s final between the two Manchester giants. The semi-finals take place this weekend with Manchester City taking on Chelsea and Manchester United taking on Championship side Coventry.
Manchester City vs. Chelsea
It was a short turnaround for Manchester City who were forced into extra time and penalties in their UCL match against Real Madrid on Wednesday night. The fact that they ended up losing the tie makes the build-up to this match even trickier for manager Pep Guardiola, as their dream of winning back-to-back CL titles is now gone, as is their hope of winning two trebles. ‘in a row. There is still plenty to play for as they hold the advantage in the PL title race and are very close to another cup final. This is the sixth consecutive season that Manchester City have reached the final four of the FA Cup, making them the first team to do so. They don’t have the best record at this point though as they have only won two of the previous five games and one of the defeats was against Chelsea. On the plus side, they have a very good overall record against Chelsea and are unbeaten in the last eight head-to-heads, but they face a Chelsea side who will be looking to reach their second domestic cup final this season.
Chelsea’s season was turbulent, they really struggled at the start of the season, but they managed to reach a cup final, eventually losing to Liverpool in the EFL Cup in February. They are now one step away from another day at Wembley and have hit a good run of form which has seen them climb the table. If they win their match in hand, they will overtake West Ham and Manchester United into seventh place. They are unbeaten since the EFL Cup final in February and have not lost a league game since February 4 against Wolves and they warmed up for this match with a 6-0 defeat to Everton last weekend . Chelsea’s expensively assembled squad is now starting to look more like a team and Mauricio Pochettino will be happy that progress is being made after his poor start. Chelsea have won five semi-finals in a row and have one of England’s most in-form players, Cole Palmer, who they signed from Manchester City last summer, so he will certainly want to prove something to his former players employers.
Coventry v Manchester United
Coventry are certainly the surprise of this season’s FA Cup as they reached the semi-finals thanks to a last-minute victory over PL side Wolves. The Midlands club will certainly be underdogs against one of the giants of English football, but they have nothing to lose and their Championship season has collapsed as two consecutive defeats mean they are now very unlikely to he qualifies for the playoffs. in the Championship as they are eight points behind with four matches to play. Their minds may have been on this match, but their poor performance in their 0-3 defeat to relegation-threatened Birmingham City last weekend will have worried their manager ahead of a trip to Wembley. This is a free kick as such, as few give them much hope against Manchester United, but the unpredictability of their opponent’s performances will make them believe that they may be able to get the better of the Mancunian giants. This is only their second FA Cup semi-final, so their fans will surely enjoy their day, whatever the result. Another interesting connection between the two is the fact that manager Mark Robins played for Manchester United and scored the winning goal in the 1990 FA Cup semi-final.
Manchester United’s struggles are well documented, an early elimination from European football, a poor defense of the EFL Cup and very poor recent performances which have left them far from European qualification for next season. A list of horrendous injuries certainly hasn’t helped manager Erik Ten Hag, along with various off-field issues, but there’s no doubt that his on-the-job work and FA Cup victory will mean he has a chance of ‘be in the hot seat next season. It has been almost impossible for United to keep clean sheets as they struggle to get four fit defenders onto the pitch. So we’ll have to wait and see what news from the team this weekend. As always, they will have to look to outplay their opponents, as keeping a clean sheet is almost an impossible task considering the number of shots they concede per game.
Last updated: 04/19/2024
