Chelsea have defeated Manchester United 1-0 in the FA Cup Final, a match was rather dull to say the least. Eden Hazard provided the only scoring, on a 22′ penalty conversion, and many of us who watched the game probably wish we could those 90 minutes of our lives back.
While the game itself wasn’t off-the-charts thrilling, there is a fair of amount of interesting FA Cup news, notes, nuggets and tidbits relating to this one, so let’s spin through it.
-Olivier Giroud, who always seems to get it done whenever he plays in Wembley Stadium, was proven right when he said he’d be Chelsea’s good luck charm at the national stadium. The former Arsenal man has now been on the winning side, with two different teams, in the last two FA Cup finals.
Manchester United forward Alexis Sanchez is the reverse example, as he was on the winning side last year with Arsenal, and now on the losing touchline with United this time around. Nemanja Matic is the only player who was with the FA Cup runner-up for both this season and last. Obviously, everybody who has played for Chelsea this season and last season, falls into the category of losers last time, winners this time.
-This is Chelsea’s eighth FA Cup title, which is tied with Tottenham Hotspur for the third most. Only United (12) and Arsenal (13) have more.
Coming to a cinema near u soon! #FACupFinal pic.twitter.com/SHA49Uxvvg
— PAUL McG AFC ???? (@Afcpmg) May 19, 2018
This also gives Chelsea a FA Cup “treble,” as the Blues also won the youth and ladies FA Cup tournaments this season.
-For Jose Mourinho this is his first loss in an England domestic cup title game, and it comes at the hands of Antonio Conte, the man with which he verbally sparred for the early months of 2018.
In the course of his career, covering all countries that he has managed in, Mourinho entered this match having won 12 of 14 domestic cup final games.
Finally, Chelsea became the first FA Cup runner-up to win the title the very next season since Arsenal in 2002.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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