Dating back to 1871 the FA Cup is the oldest knock out cup competition in the world and has a special part in many of the older fans hearts who remember when the Saturday after the conclusion of the domestic league was set aside as Cup Final day. Fans would walk down Wembley way to soak up the atmosphere while in homes across the land TV’s were tuned to Grandstand and the build up would begin. Teams arriving on the coach in suits and inspecting the pitch along with analysis of every possible scenario from the studio experts.
In 1887 Aston Villa beat West Brom 2-0 to lift the trophy for the first time in their history before going on to lift the trophy six more times, until their last time in 1957, beating Manchester United
2-1. For Arsenal the history is richer and more current. First lifting the trophy in 1930 the Gunners have gone on to hoist it another ten times with last season being the latest. Currently the side from North London are jointly the most successful club in the competition who, along with Manchester United, have eleven FA Cups in the trophy room, a record Arsenal will hold solely with a victory on Saturday.
For the vast majority of neutrals I think Villa would be the side they are hoping to see win on Saturday, and of course United fans will want to jointly still hold the record of most FA Cup wins come the final whistle. The odds on favorites are Arsenal without a doubt but Villa have caused surprises this season, seemingly rejuvenated under the new manager Tim Sherwood. The ex Spurs player and Manager would love to win a trophy and to beat Arsenal would surely make that victory so much sweeter.
Head to head it is not even a contest with Arsenal picking up two victories in their League meetings, scoring eight goals over the two games and conceding zero. That was before Tim Sherwood took the reigns and since then the side clawed themselves out of danger, beating Everton, West Ham and Tottenham along the way. The side were also unlucky not to get anything against Manchester City after going 2-0 down they got back level before a gut punch goal in the dying seconds gave all the points to this years runners up and that’s the key.
Tim Sherwood seems to be able to motivate his teams for that one big push in games against big teams or when a result is needed. They did it against Liverpool in the Semi Finals after going a goal down and they can certainly do it again against Arsenal.
Arteta, Debuchy and Oxlade-Chamberlain are back in contention but striker Danny Welbeck is out. For Villa it may be a case of Shay Given returning in goal for the recently uncertain Brad Guzan while Cissokho, Richardson and Okore are also in contention for a place in the squad.
When asked for a prediction my head said an Arsenal win, no question, but I also think we will witness a very special game.
Jason is a Freelance Soccer Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @PACityboy and www.facebook.com/jasonbardwell1979
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