The final of the oldest football competition in the world takes place at Wembley on Saturday and sees two of English football’s biggest names up against each other.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of Chelsea's duel against Manchester City.
Match Facts
- Start: Saturday, 16 May at 15:00
- Venue: Wembley Stadium
- Coverage: BBC One and other European channels
- City have won the FA Cup on seven occasions before, last doing so in 2023
- Chelsea has eight FA Cup trophies, the last one being in 2018
Betting Tip: Chelsea - Manchester City
Manchester City are deserved favourites here. With the 2-0 EFL Cup final win over Arsenal a few weeks ago, they showed they can step it up when they need to and remain calm under pressure in the biggest moments.
This could be another slow-burner decided by a single goal, or maybe end 2-0 to City. But we’ll have that little bit of a safety net that there might be a third goal on our side as well, so a win for City with less than four goals in it looks the way to go at 2.5.
- Prediction: Manchester City to win in 90 minutes and under 3.5 goals
- Odds: 2.5 (at the time of writing)
City Expected to Win in 90 Minutes
City are 1.73 to win the game in 90 minutes and 1.36 to lift the trophy by any means. If you think it will be after extra time, you can get 8.5 on that, while a City win on penalties pays 13.0.
On the match odds market, a 90-minute draw is 4.0, while Chelsea winning in normal time is 4.4; odds for a Chelsea win after extra-time or on penalties are both 15.0.
The over/under goals market is somewhat undecided: over 2.5 goals is 1.73 and ‘unders’ is 2.0. That makes sense because it’s been a 5/5 split on this market over the last 10 finals.
You can get 2.6 on a penalty being awarded at any time for either side, while it’s 8.0 that Chelsea win to nil, and 3.1 that Pep Guardiola’s men manage to win without conceding.
Possible High-Scoring Game
Speaking of goals, who can get one here? Erling Haaland got an important one at home to Brentford at the weekend and is 1.95 to score again here.
January signing Antoine Semenyo is 3.0, but the in-form man at the moment for them is Jeremy Doku, who looks a good price at 4.8 to get one himself. He has three in his last two matches.
For Chelsea, your best bet might be Enzo Fenandez at 5.5. He scored the only goal of the game in the semi-final win over Leeds to get them here in the first place, and then again at the weekend in that 1-1 draw against Liverpool. Cole Palmer, who has been quiet these last few weeks, is 4.0 to get on the scoresheet.
Chelsea’s Nightmare Season
Though City were knocked out of the Champions League in the Round of 16 by Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate, they went on to beat rivals Arsenal 2-0 in the ELF Cup final, so already have one piece of silverware for the season.
But in a way, this match comes at a bad time for them. They’ll have played a crucial game in the Premier League title race in midweek against Crystal Palace before the final, so they may be a bit tired.
As for Chelsea, it’s been a nightmare season that saw them knocked out of the Champions League 8-2 on aggregate by PSG, and they currently sit just ninth in the league.
But that’s only half the story.
Calum McFarlane is their third manager of the season after the sackings of Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior. There has been indiscipline among the players, too, with skipper Enzo Fernandez fined and suspended after suggesting he’d like to move to Real Madrid, while other senior players, like Marc Cucurella, have also been warned about their conduct.
All part of the reason why City are such strong favourites.
