Can Manchester City Add to FA Cup Haul?

With the March international break behind us, and England recording the two routine wins that everyone expected them to achieve, thoughts turn back to domestic action. Most teams, however, will have to wait a little longer for the football to resume, because before the Premier League gets going again, we have the quarter finals of the FA Cup.

It has been a strange year in the most prestigious and historic domestic cup competition in the world and that has left us with a brilliant last eight, or one that is rather underwhelming. Your opinion of that depends on whether you want to see the Premier League big guns slugging it out in the latter stages of the competition or you prefer the magic and romance of the cup. It may also depend on just what happens next.

Man City are the clear favourites to lift the trophy this year and if they do, one might argue we have ended with the worst of both worlds. We will have one of the same old big clubs winning but we will also have a group of low-key matches that do not necessarily set the pulses racing. However, for the other seven teams left in the 2024/25 FA Cup there is a remarkable opportunity to either end a long wait for more FA Cup glory, or in fact to win the cup for the very first time.

FA Cup Quarter Final Ties

• Fulham v Crystal Palace – 29th March, 12.15
• Brighton v Nottingham Forest – 29th March, 17.15
• Preston v Aston Villa – 30th March, 13.30
• Bournemouth v Man City – 30th March, 16.30

As we can see, there is no Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Man United or Newcastle in the last eight this term. None of the five clubs to have won the FA Cup most often have made the quarters, though Man City and Aston Villa are joint-sixth with seven victories apiece. Preston and Forest both have two wins to their names, though Preston’s last triumph was way back in 1938 and Forest’s was in 1959.

Fulham, Palace and Brighton have all made the final once in the past without winning the FA Cup, whilst Bournemouth have never even made it that far. Those who believe in the magic of the cup will desperately be hoping that one of that quartet can add a new name to the trophy’s engraving. However, it is, as said, City that are favourites and if they can get past the Cherries their odds will shorten very significantly, with a trip to the south coast providing a stuff test for Pep Guardiola’s struggling team.

Can City Win It? Indeed, Should They?

City are the team deemed most likely to lift the FA Cup this season. The bookmakers make them a 9/4 shot, with Villa net at 4/1, Brighton 11/2 and Fulham 17/2. The other three PL clubs are all priced at odds of around 10/1, with Preston the huge, huge outsiders at a massive 150/1.

So clearly asking whether City can win the trophy is rather silly. They can and are expected to, but given their form this year, we feel it would take a brave punter to back them at their current price, ahead of a tough trip to Bournemouth. Last November the Cherries got the better of Pep’s men in the league, winning 2-1 on home soil. Amazingly that was the club’s first-ever triumph against City but they will certainly fancy their chances of causing an upset this time around given how well they have played at times this term.

Andoni Iraola’s men are not in the best form but despite poor results of late they only trail City by four points in the Premier League. This FA Cup quarter final seems certain to be a tight affair but assuming Pep’s men do prevail they will certainly have a great chance of going all the way. At a neutral venue – after this round the remaining games will be played at Wembley – City would certainly be very well fancied to beat whoever they face in the rest of the competition.

City Could Join Trio on Eight Wins

This competition is City’s only chance of winning silverware in what has been a campaign to forget for them. Even if they do win the FA Cup and finish inside the top four, it will still be a very disappointing campaign for a club that has won so much in recent years.

Strange as it may seem to many younger football fans, City were, for a long time, almost a bit of a laughing stock. Very much in the shadow of Man United they had won little in their history. Prior to the Abu Dhabi ownership of the club they had won just two league titles and four FA Cups, as well as a couple of League Cups and the 1970 European Cup Winners’ Cup. Should they win this year’s FA Cup they will move clear of Villa and join Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs on eight FA Cup wins each.

That would see them sit joint-third on the list of most FA Cup victories, with only city rivals United (13 wins) and Arsenal (14) above them. They claimed their fifth title in 2010/11 when they beat Stoke City 1-0. They were upset by Wigan in the final two years later but came back to win their sixth FA Cup in 2019, thrashing Watford 6-0 at Wembley. Win number seven came in 2022/23, as part of a remarkable treble alongside the league and Champions League.

If they do make the final this year it will be an impressive third FA Cup showpiece in a row, with their surprise loss to the Red Devils last year preventing them from claiming yet another double. Making three finals in a row is not the sort of history they were expecting to make at the start of this campaign but even so, yet another day out at Wembley would be welcomed by their fans.