FA Cup Final: Chelsea v Arsenal Preview

After missing out on the top-four for the first time in 20 years, Arsenal have the opportunity to go some way to rescuing what’s been a disappointing campaign by securing what would be a record-breaking 13th FA Cup. For Chelsea, victory would crown what’s been a remarkable start to Antonio Conte’s tenure as they cruised to the Premier League title, whilst their progress in this competition has also been fairly serene.

Since deploying three at the back as an exercise in damage limitation at the Emirates when they were 3-0 down, Chelsea have proven extremely clinical as they’ve had a W32-D2-L4 record in all competitions since that seminal defeat in North London. The Blues eased past lower-league sides Peterborough, Brentford and Wolves in the early stages of the Cup before being faced with tougher challenges in the last two rounds. They broke down a typically stubborn Mourinho side at the Bridge before outclassing Spurs in the semis, despite neither Hazard nor Costa starting at Wembley, though that duo were decisive in getting the Blues over the line when they were introduced as substitutes around the hour mark.

In the league, the Blues have impressed against their nearest rivals after that defeat at Arsenal and against Liverpool prior to that, going W5-D1-L2 against fellow top-six sides, though the fact that they kept only one clean sheet in these 10 games will give the Gunners some encouragement. However, as so often seems to be the case, Wenger’s men have struggled against the big teams, going W1-D2-L5 against teams above them in the league this term, though they did manage to net in all but one of these games. They did have some success in the semi-finals of this competition as they managed to see off Man City and interestingly that win came after Wenger had himself introduced three at the back after a string of disappointing results.

Whilst that formation would in theory have made his side tougher to break down here, Wenger is struggling to find three central defenders who are able to line up after Koscielny was sent off against Everton and is suspended as a result, whilst Gabriel was stretchered off in the same game and Mustafi is also a doubt with suspected concussion after a blow to the head in the win over Sunderland. That leaves the so far impressive Rob

Holding and Per Mertesacker, who made his first appearance of the season when he came off the bench against Everton after recovering from a serious knee injury.

The club captain’s likely presence in the starting line-up will hardly fill Gunners’ fans with confidence, nor will their recent record against Chelsea. The win at the Emirates early on in the campaign ended a run of seven defeats in nine winless clashes with Chelsea for Wenger (excluding the Community Shield victory in 2015), and normal order was restored with the Blues winning 3-1 at the Bridge in February. What’s more, as far as the FA Cup is concerned, Wigan’s 2013 triumph over Man City was the only instance since 2001/02 of the underdogs coming out on top in finals since 2000/01.

Having said that, the likes of West Ham against Liverpool back in 2006, Hull against Arsenal themselves in 2014 and Palace against Utd last year took the tie beyond 90 minutes and despite the strong record of favourites, Arsenal’s victory over Tim Sherwood’s Aston Villa in 2015 was the only time a team has won an FA Cup Final by more than one goal since 2003/04, so it would be a surprise to see a resounding victory for Conte’s title winners. (Telegraph UK)