The FA Cup final has arrived and thoughts of the arches, the pageantry, the Wembley sunshine brings with it a warm, fuzzy glow. It hasn’t always been like that.
We are in the middle of a well-timed renaissance for the oldest sporting competition in the world, which until a few years ago was nearing crisis point. Cast your mind back to Manchester City’s 6-0 victory over Watford in 2019 and recall fears of an impending monopoly following five consecutive seasons of ‘Big Six’ winners, the Premier League subtly elbowing the FA Cup out of its sacred space, and clubs playing second-string sides to cope with fixture congestion.
Since then we’ve had Arsenal win it to kick-off the Mikel Arteta era, Leicester City victorious with a Youri Tielemans wonder-goal, the first-ever Manchester derby won by Man City on their way to a treble, Erik ten Hag clinging to his job in a repeat fixture the following year, and then Crystal Palace causing one of the great upsets.
In the process, the magic has come back and the relevant authorities have recalibrated accordingly. OK, it still isn’t back to being the last domestic game of the season, but the 2026 FA Cup final does at least have the Saturday all to itself and even the traditional 3pm kick-off time.
And it has as much story behind it as any of the post-Covid finals, the theme this year being endings and new beginnings.
Pep Guardiola is widely expected to step down this summer after a decade of unprecedented success as Man City manager. A third FA Cup win, and a second domestic trophy of the campaign, would just about provide him with enough umph - enough semi-authentic celebration – to say he has gone out on a high.
It would be his 20th major honour as Man City boss, a nice round number to paint all over the bus for the open-top parade that would follow; a swansong that falls short of what they had hoped for but adequate to put a full-stop on the era.
Or maybe enough to relaunch it. Guardiola looked jaded and weather-beaten in the early parts of this campaign, when the rumours of his departure first broke, and looked sincerely re-energised by the EFL Cup win in March, his first trophy in 18 long months. Winning the FA Cup could bring back a rush of old feelings that would convince him to stay, especially with performances over the last two months suggesting the rebuild is more or less complete.
There is a sense of fun at Man City for the first time since maybe 2018/19, a freedom and frisson to the way Jeremy Doku, Rayan Cherki, and Antoine Semenyo have helped Guardiola transform City from positional play into something more direct and transitional. Riding on top of that bus, basking in the devotion of the fans below, Guardiola could fall back in love with the job – and find motivation to emulate his hero Sir Alex Ferguson by overseeing a full regeneration next year.
As for Chelsea, the endings and beginnings are considerably clearer. It would fit so neatly with the club’s modern history if Callum McFarlane became the latest weird name on the list of Chelsea trophy winners, joining Roberto di Matteo, Rafael Benitez, and Guus Hiddink as interims who overachieved. Claiming titles in the midst of chaos is simply the Chelsea way.
But whatever happens the match will bid farewell to McFarlane and, more importantly, put a full stop on the epochal, disastrous phase one of the BlueCo project.
Reports that Xabi Alonso is close to becoming the new Chelsea manager indicates a significant shift in strategy by the owners, who can only have convinced the most highly-regarded young manager in Europe to join them by promising to rip up their entire business model and start again.
Alonso is too smart to walk into the world’s most chaotic club without cast-iron assurances he will take charge of the transfer strategy and be allowed to sign experienced players.
Again, it would be typical Chelsea to end this period of absurdity with an FA Cup trophy to show for it, their third trophy in 12 months and, most significantly, their seventh since 2000, overtaking Arsenal to become the most successful in the competition this century.
And what could be more Chelsea than the previous six winners being six different managers: Gianluca Vialli, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Hiddink, Di Matteo, and Antonio Conte. If McFarlane was to become the seventh he would be by a distance the strangest name on that list – which is why it almost certainly won’t happen.
The clubs could scarcely be further apart right now. Chelsea are hopeless. Man City feel destined to give Guardiola a good send-off.
There might be narrative balance here, a strong story to sell for both clubs, but when all is said and done Chelsea arrive at Wembley on Saturday as the biggest under-dogs since Watford back in 2019. A similar result is on the cards, forcing the most aggressive, most urgent ending possible to BlueCo 1.0 - and sparking something in Guardiola, turning a routine FA Cup triumph into a new dawn.
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