Premier League top shots begin their journey to the finals of the oldest national football competition in the world as they make the entrance to the FA cup competition today. The big professional teams in England such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester City don’t enter the competition until the third round of the competition in January.
As an annual knockout football competition that comes with a lot of surprises, it is left to be seen if current champion Manchester City will retain the title this season having won the competition 6 times, including last season when they won convincingly by defeating Watford 6-0 in the finals. Their title defence begins with today at 18:31 pm when they host league two sides, Port Vale, who are currently 10th in the league table. Going with the poor run of form of Manchester City in their quest to defend their premier league title and a squad not strong enough to compete with European elites for the champions league, this might be Pep Guardiola’s opportunity to end the season with at least one trophy.
As the most successful club in the FA competition with 13 FA titles, Arsenal FC would look to increase the gap between their closest rival for the most successful FA cup club, Manchester United (with 12 titles) as they host Leeds United on Monday at 20:56 pm. Arsenal will also hope to win the competition to make up for what is likely to be a bad season, going by their unconvincing performance, position on the league table and the possibility of not making it to any European competition next season. The competition will also be an opportunity for new coach Mikel Arteta to prove his mettle by winning a trophy and beginning his managerial career on a high.
Highflying Liverpool will hope to take their impeccable form of the Premier League into this completion as they play host to another Premier League club Everton tomorrow Sunday at 17:01 pm, in what will be a dicey Merseyside derby. With the signing of a new coach Carlo Ancelotti who is not new to the FA, having led Chelsea to victory in the 2009-2010 FA cup, beating Portsmouth 1-0 in the final at Wembley, Everton poses a great threat to Liverpool who have neither won the cup under Jurgen Klopp nor in the last 13 years.
At Stamford Bridge, another new person in the managerial role, Frank Lampard will hope to transfer his experience from winning four FA cup titles as a Chelsea player (2006-07, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2011-12) to his Chelsea side when they take on fourth-placed championship side, Nottingham Forest, tomorrow Sunday at 15:01 pm. Like Arteta, Lampard will be hoping to make this competition the first he will win as a manager, especially with a slim chance of him guiding Chelsea to win the premier league and champions league this season.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Manchester United will be looking to put behind their defeat to arch-rivals Arsenal last weekend when they play fellow premier league club Wolverhampton Wanderers who have won the FA Cup four times, most recently in 1960, at Molineux Stadium, today at 18:31 pm. Having ended as runner up and won the competition once in the last five years, United will be hoping to make up for their inconsistency and a poor run of form in the premier league by winning the competition this season.
The FA cup was first played during the 1871-72 season. It is organized by and named after The Football Association (The FA). It has been known as The Emirates Cup since 2015, named after its headline sponsor. The tournament consists of 12 randomly drawn rounds followed by the semi-finals and the finals. The first six rounds are the qualifying rounds of the competition. After premier league teams make an entrance into the competition, there are usually four rounds (fourth round, fifth round, quarter-finals, semi-finals) before the finals.
Winners of the FA cup competition receive the FA cup trophy and also qualify for the Europa League and also a place in the FA Community Shield match. Having won seven FA cup finals as the manager of the competition, Arsene Wenger is the most successful manager in the history of the competition.
Chelsea has won the competition 9 times, Manchester City, 6 times while Liverpool has won the competition 7 times.