Manchester City Tries To Make History With FA Cup Win

Back to back English Premier League champions Manchester City have already established themselves as an elite team under Pep Guardiola. Should they pick up a win in Saturday’s FA Cup Final, however, they’ll have reached ‘legendary’ status. If Manchester City emerges victorious against Watford they’ll have become the first team in history to win all three major English football championships in the same year.

The so called ‘Domestic Treble’ also includes the EFL Cup and the Premier League title. The EFL Cup was first contested in 1960 and underscoring what an impressive feat the Domestic Treble would be there have been some excellent football teams in the 59 years since it’s debut. Seven teams have won the FA Cup and the League cup–Preston North End (1889), Aston Villa (1897), Tottenham Hotspur (1961), Arsenal (1971, 1998, 2002), Liverpool (1986), Manchester United (1994, 1996, 1999) and Chelsea (2010). Three teams have won the FA Cup and the EFL Cup in the same year–Arsenal (1993, Liverpool (2001) and Chelsea (2007). In 2001-2002, Liverpool won the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) but no team has ever won all three of the top awards for English football.

Pep Guardiola has made this game an emphasis for his team and has commented to the media throughout the competition he’s anxious to take one of the few cups he’s never won. City reached the semifinal of this competition two years ago, losing to Arsenal. With easily one of the best teams in Manchester City history this will certainly be Guardiola’s best chance to win the FA Cup. The team played tight in the final fixtures of the Premiership season but they clinched the title with a win over Brighton last weekend and have now won 7 straight in all competitions. 3 of their last 5 wins have been by a 1-0 margin so this might be an opportunity for City to push the tempo somewhat against a Watford side that really can’t hang with them in terms of playmaking talent.

The Watford Hornets have a long and extremely unique history in English football. They first competed in 1898 and for a time were owned by a lifelong supporter by the name of Sir Elton John. The team actually did well during the time that John owned the team but continued their pattern of over a century by bouncing up and down in the secondary and tertiary levels of English football. The finally earned promotion to the Premiership in 1999 but after a dismal season in which they went 6-6-26 to finish at the bottom of the table they were relegated. They made it back up in 2006 but the results weren’t much better–they went 5-13-20 and although they finished with 4 points more than in their previous run at the top level they were still in last place and relegated again. For much of the next 8 years they struggled in the Football Championship finishing 11th or lower in five of those seasons. In 2014-2015, they finished second and once again earned promotion. They’ve been at the top level ever since with finishes of 13th, 17th, 14th and 11th this season.

Watford has reached the FA Cup finals only once before (1984) and despite the obvious qualitative disparity between the teams do have the advantage of no expectations whatsoever for this game. They’re expected to lose to the Manchester City juggernaut who have the pressure of trying to make history. That might be an issue for a lesser team but Pep Guardiola’s side demonstrated during the Premiership championship race that they are highly adept at dealing with pressure. That was evident on the final day of the EPL season when after falling behind 1-0 at Brighton 27 minutes in they responded with a goal just a minute later and went on to score three more in a 4-1 win. Not surprising given Guardiola’s reputation and resume, but this is a very talented and mentally tough Manchester City team.

Watford deserves a lot of credit for reaching this point in the competition during which they have eliminated Woking Town, Newcastle United, Queens Park Rangers, Crystal Palace and Wolverhampton. They limped to the finish line in the Premiership, however, winning just 1 of their final 6 contests including 3 straight. The defense has been downright shoddy during this losing streak having allowed 9 goals while scoring only two. They’ve also lost 4 of their last 6 games away from Vicarage Road and have lost 8 straight to City in Premiership play and 10 straight in all competitions. This year, City won 2-1 at Vicarage Road and 3-1 at Etihad Stadium.

Were this a different matchup, Watford’s ‘nothing to lose’ mentality might make them worth a look. In this case, however, they’re simply playing a team that is on another level qualitatively. The FA Cup Finals have been very tightly contested in recent years with 13 of the last 14 decided by only a single goal. This will likely be another exception. Watford’s best chance in theory is to come out aggressive and push tempo but on a practical level Manchester City is just too good for that to work. This game will likely be a reprise of the Brighton & Hove Albion matchup from the last time out. Watford has had a nice run and props to them for their highest ever EPL finish. This game, however, will be a reality check.

BET MANCHESTER CITY -1.5, -2 -122 OVER WATFORD

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