FA Cup Final Day...

Gone are the days of all day coverage, gone are the days of the cup final being the conclusion of an English League season. At least they have made it a standalone fixture with no PL games on the same day this season.

It doesn't seem as special as days gone by, but it is still a great occasion. While a lot of people will be cheering on Crystal Palace, Manchester City will be favourites. Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth and Fulham fans will want a City win so 8th is a European place.

Crystal Palace have had 2 glorious failures in their only previous FA Cup finals. Back in 1990 they played out an all time classic. After one of the greatest semi-finals, where they beat Liverpool 4-3, they went in against United as underdogs. Gary O'Reilly shocked United with an early opener before Bryan Robson levelled. Mark Hughes put United ahead on the hour which led to Steve Coppell using his wildcard. Ian Wright was a doubt for the final after breaking his leg earlier in the season, but made the bench at Wembley. With 69 minutes on the clock Wrighty came on, and 3 minutes later he scored the goal that took the game to extra time. 2 minutes into the extra period and Wright scored again. Sadly for the Eagles, Hughes also scored his second of the game and it went to a replay. The replay was a dull fest won by a Lee Martin effort.
In 2016 the same two teams met, and late in the game Jason Puncheon opened the scoring. This led to a memorable and cringey dance by Eagles boss Alan Pardew. He had barely made it back to his seat when Juan Mata equalised, and once again the final went to extra time. Palace looked to have the advantage when Chris Smalling was sent off, but it was United who won it as Jesse Lingard showed his beans.

Manchester City have won the cup 7 times, including most recently in 2023. They have been the wrong side of big shocks in finals though, including a year ago as they lost to a very poor Manchester United squad. However, the 2013 final was a major shock. Wigan Athletic were days away from relegation while previous season champions City were on the way to a second place finish. Against all odds, Wigan kept a City side with the likes of Aguero, Tevez, Toure and David Silva in it goalless. Pablo Zabaleta then picked up a late red card, and it looked like Wigan would have a man advantage in extra time. Then Wigan got a corner in the dying seconds of normal time and ex-Crystal Palace man Ben Watson headed the match winning goal.

The 17th May is a special day for Arsenal fans and the FA Cup final. Back in 2014, with a long trophy drought eating away at us, we faced Hull City in the final. And the first 10 minutes were an absolute disaster. With memories of a shock defeat to Birmingham in the league cup fresh, James Chester and Curtis Davies gave Hull a 2-0 lead, and it could have been more with Alex Bruce being denied by a goalline clearance. We needed inspiration from somewhere, and Santi Cazorla provided it with a stunning free-kick past Alan McGregor. Yaya Sanogo came on in the second half and proved an irritation for the Hull defence. He won (controversly) the corner that got us the equaliser, with Laurent Koscielny pouncing on a loose ball ahead of the 'keeper. In extra time Sanogo was again involved, with Giroud then back-heeling the ball into the path of Aaron Ramsey, who slammed the ball home to give us a 3-2 win and our first trophy since 2005.

A 1-0 win over Southampton, thanks to a Robert Pires goal, was on 17th May 2003.



Enjoy the FA Cup final, and then settle in for Eurovision!!