Chelsea v Manchester City: FA Cup final – live

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Calum McFarlane's pre-match thoughts

It’s a great occasion and a massive privilege to lead a massive club out in such a big game – I’m really looking forward to it.

[Would a win salvage the season?] This club is known for winning silverware so it would be a little bit of a salvage, but we know we need to be better in the league. We’re doing everything we can to win today.

It's great to have Reece back. He’s such a good player – we know what he brings to the team and he showed that in 30 minutes against Liverpool.

Levi [Colwill] is in a good place and has trained really well. It’s another boost for the team to have him back.

Even though it’s been a difficult year we’ve had some really good performances against Europe’s elite, the Premier League’s elite. We’re hoping we get that again today.

“Makes you think though,” writes Bill Hargreaves. “You got your left back, your right back, and now Cole Palmer has a Henry V haircut - nothing at the back. You know, Quasimodo predicted all this.”

Rodri talks to TNT Sports

It’s a big day, a big final; we need to show our best. It’s always special to play a final – it’s our fourth [FA Cup final] in a row and it means a lot, but we haven’t won the last two so it’s an important day.

If you’re reading this entry, you’re in the wrong place. Go to Simon Burnton’s liveblog, right now, but come back before 3pm.

I’d love a nine-goal thriller. Bet José would too.

“Tracksuits instead of specially commissioned cup final suits,” says Matt Emerson. “Game’s gone.”

Whatever happened to the Spice Boys? The strong, silent type.

Cole Palmer warms up at Wembley. Photograph: Javier García/Shutterstock

So, about that team news. As expected, Chelsea will start with a back three. Calum McFarlane has made two changes from last weekend’s draw at Anfield: Robert Sanchez and Reece James come in for Filip Jorgensen and Andrey Santos.

Pep Guardiola prefers Omar Marmoush – who had a penalty saved by Dean Henderson in last year’s final – to Rayan Cherki. City’s designated FA Cup goalkeeper James Trafford is back in net. Phil Foden has to settle for a place on the bench alongside Cherki, Ruben Dias and Gianluigi Donnarumma. But Rodri is back, Rodri is back and Rodri is back.

The FA Cup final XIs

Chelsea (3-4-2-1) Sanchez; Fofana, Colwill, Hato; Gusto, James, Caicedo, Cucurella; Palmer, Enzo; Joao Pedro.

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Acheampong, Tosin, Chalobah, Essugo, Andrey Santos, Neto, Garnacho, Delap.

Man City (4-2-3-1) Trafford; Nunes, Khusanov, Guehi, O’Reilly; Bernardo, Rodri; Semenyo, Marmoush, Doku; Haaland.

Substitutes: Donnarumma, Dias, Reijnders, Stones, Ake, Kovacic, Cherki, Savinho, Foden.

Referee Darren England.

When Chelsea drew at Manchester City in the league in January, they dominated the second half after Calum McFalarne made a half-time switch from 4-2-3-1 to 3-4-2-1. This is a longwinded way of saying they may well start with a back three today.

‘Stirring’ is the subject of Matt Dony’s email. And he doesn’t mean a synonym of ‘rousing’

Is the score not something like 115-74 to City? The magic of the cup, eh?

“Challenge to City,” says Krishnamoorthy V. “Show me your Conference League.”

And the latest score on FA Cup final day is Krishnamoorhy 1-0 Smyth.

The Scottish title race is reaching its conclusion at Celtic Park, where Celtic and Hearts are drawing 1-1 after 50 minutes. Celtic’s goal was another penalty, but this time there was no controversy. You can follow the rest of that game with Simon Burnton.

The first email of FA Cup final day

“One writes off Chelsea at their own peril,” says Krishnamoorthy V. “Show me one team that has won everything on offer. If a Hammersmith Over-70s Welfare Cup was announced tomorrow, Chelsea would nick that too.”

I agree, but haven’t City won everything as well? Apart from the Hammersmith Over-70s Welfare Cup.

Pep Guardiola has described his ­decade managing Manchester City as “effing* fun”, and suggested Saturday’s FA Cup final against Chelsea might not be the last time he leads the team out at Wembley.

While Guardiola’s contract expires in summer 2027, there is increasing expectation that he will depart the club in the close season. Saturday’s final will be City’s 24th cup appearance at the national stadium under the Spaniard, with Guardiola aiming to claim the 17th major trophy of his 10 years in charge.

* He may not have actually said ‘effing’

We should have the team news by 2pm. Chelsea are expected to start Levi Colwill, who returned from long-term injury at Anfield last week. As for City, the main questions are whether Rodri is fit to return and whether the rejuvenated Phil Foden has done enough in the past week to earn a stating place.

Chelsea players, including Liam Delap, on the Wembley pitch. Photograph: Tony O Brien/Reuters

Cole Palmer has a quick juggle. Photograph: John Walton/PA

As meteoric rises go, Calum McFarlane’s takes some beating. Six years after he and his assistants Harry Hudson and Dan Hogan were working for a south London charity that provides football and education for disadvantaged children, they will lead out Chelsea to face Manchester City in Saturday’s FA Cup final.

There have been accusations of cronyism given they have connections to Joe Shields, Chelsea’s co‑head of recruitment, that go back years, to when McFarlane, Hudson and Hogan were at the charity, the Kinetic Foundation, or beyond. But James Fotheringham, Kinetic’s co-founder, is dismissive of that.

“The narrative is of people being given an unfair opportunity,” he says of a backlash that has led to abusive messages being posted on Kinetic’s social media sites since McFarlane was appointed as Chelsea’s interim manager for the second time this season. “Calum did the hard yards at City, Southampton and Chelsea and has got seasons under his belt to get to that position. I think if anyone gets thrown into a six-game environment, you bring someone who you’ve been on the touchline with for 300 games and who knows how you work … That’s the truth of the situation Calum’s in.”

Marc Guéhi’s whirlwind 12 months in the FA Cup: captaining Crystal Palace to glory at Wembley last season, experiencing the competition’s greatest shock via the holders’ third-round elimination at sixth-tier Macclesfield and, on Saturday, aiming to claim the trophy again when Manchester City face Chelsea.

In a story-rich competition the defender’s is one of the more intriguing, particularly as Palace’s triumph was their first trophy and City, who he joined nine days after the Macclesfield reverse, were their scalps in the final, beaten 1-0 by Eberechi Eze’s 16th-minute strike.

He says: “I feel like my football life is crazy. There’s no consistency to it. It’s very unpredictable. And it’s fun, interesting. I’m glad to be given the opportunity to play in such a prestigious final again. And for this club, I know how much it means to them to win trophies.”

Chelsea fared well as underdogs in their most recent outing in a final. They surprised Paris Saint-Germain in last summer’s Club World Cup, racing into an unassailable 3-0 lead by half-time and disrupting the European champions thanks to a clever tactical approach from Enzo Maresca.

Perhaps there will be more of the same at Wembley. Chelsea have form when it comes to upsetting the odds in a big game, although the one problem with bringing up the PSG win before Saturday afternoon’s FA Cup final against Manchester City is that the challenge of coming up with a plan smart enough to beat Pep Guardiola is no longer Maresca’s responsibility.

The subplot is that it is quite possibly a clash between Maresca’s past and his future. For Chelsea, the moment when a season of promise began its descent into chaos is, from their perspective, when their former head coach began to act like a man who wanted to leave. The infamous comment from Maresca about his “worst 48 hours” at the club after the win over Everton in December still clouds the air at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea’s reaction will be interesting if Guardiola steps down at the end of the season and Maresca, the leading candidate to replace his former boss, joins City.

Preamble

And now for something completely different: an FA Cup final between Chelsea and Manchester City. These two great clubs have met in a Champions League final, a League Cup final and a classic Full Members Cup final, but never, until today, on the FA Cup’s big day.

It’s a surprising stat given the size of the two clubs and their recent FA Cup record. Since the turn of the century – what did happen to that Millennium Bug – Chelsea and City have been involved in 17 of the 26 FA Cup finals.

In recent years, it’s been harder to deal with Kipling’s impostors. Chelsea were runners-up in three consecutive seasons from 2020-22, an unwelcome record that they hope to share by sundown. That’s because City – who won the FA Cup in 2023 en route to the Treble – have lost the last two finals.

City start as strong favourites, regardless of those defeats, and have an outside chance of a second domestic treble under Pep Guardiola. Chelsea have not won a domestic trophy since they beat Manchester United 1-0 in the 2018 FA Cup final.

Yet in that period they have won all three European trophies, a Super Cup and two Club World Cups. Funny old team. They can’t be trusted – but nor should they be written off.

Kick-off 3pm BST