IT ALL COMES DOWN TO WEMBLEY FOR UNITED
London, and Wembley, await for Manchester United, who will meet Chelsea on Saturday in the club’s 20th Emirates FA Cup final. It all comes down to the Reds’ 56th and final game of the season.
Jose Mourinho’s men capped a positive Premier League campaign last Sunday, by beating Watford 1-0 thanks to Marcus Rashford’s first-half goal. But, although United finished with 12 more points than last term and secured our highest league finish since 2012/13, the prospect of silverware makes Saturday's clash against the Blues a season-defining one.
“This club is about titles, about trophies, it’s about finals,” accepts Ander Herrera, whose winning goal in the semi-final victory over Tottenham Hotspur last month earned the Reds' place in this weekend's showpiece fixture. “We have another chance to play in another final against a top team.”
The Spanish midfielder was an unused substitute during United’s last FA Cup final win – a 2-1 success over Crystal Palace in 2016, when Jesse Lingard’s extra-time volley sealed what was, at the time, a record-equalling 12th triumph for the club.
But Herrera is under no illusions as to the difficulty of the task awaiting United at the national stadium.
“[There is] fifty per cent of possibilities for us. We will respect Chelsea, they are a top team and are used to winning as well. That makes the final even more difficult. But we are Manchester United, so they are going to respect us as well.”
Herrera was injured when the two sides last met, in February’s league match at Old Trafford, which the Reds won 2-1, but his bad luck gave Academy graduate Scott McTominay a chance to shine.
“There are positives to take from that game,” said the Lancaster-born Scottish international, who received widespread praise for a disciplined man-marking job on Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard. “The FA Cup final is the cup competition in England that everyone wants to win. It’s important that we do go and really take the game to them and come away with the trophy.”
Like Herrera, Phil Jones was on the bench for the 2016 final against Palace, but can harbour high hopes of winning a starting berth on Saturday, after an excellent performance alongside Chris Smalling in the semi-final against Spurs.
United’s no.4, who is approaching seven years at the club, believes the pressure on the team to regularly win silverware should be embraced ahead of challenges like Saturday’s final.
“It’s a fantastic history that we’ve got. Time does not stand still and we can’t let opportunities pass us by like the FA Cup final coming up. This team and this squad is the one that has to keep producing trophies and maintaining the history of the club.”
On Saturday, Mourinho’s men have the chance to do just that, by winning a record-equalling 13th FA Cup, which would, once more, make United the competition’s most successful club, alongside Arsenal.
More importantly, it would add another piece of silverware to Old Trafford’s bulging trophy cabinet, and provide tens of thousands of travelling Reds with one of the days of their lives beneath the famous Wembley arch.
Come on, United!
www.manutd.com