12 Jun 2019
Manchester City seek an unprecedented English treble when they face Watford in the 2019 FA Cup final on Saturday (5.30pm) at Wembley Stadium.
Having taken the League Cup and retained their Premier League title, they hope to bring the curtain down on another fantastic domestic season by bagging the FA Cup for the sixth time in 11 attempts. They last reached the final in 2013, but suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Wigan. The Latics were relegated from the top flight that season.
Watford’s only appearance came in 1984, when they lost 2-0 to Everton and they will be keen to lift the trophy for the first time in their 121-year history.
Silverware is the incentive for the players, but for the club, the added carrot is £3.6m in prize money for the winners, double last year’s total.
City and Watford have met six times in the FA Cup, with the Sky Blues winning three, drawing two and losing once. Overall, City are unbeaten in the last 15 games against the Hornets, winning 13 and drawing two with a total goals aggregate of 41-6. Watford’s last win over City came in 1989.
Manchester City are 2/9 to win the FA Cup, while Watford, who finished 11th in the Premier League table following three successive defeats, which included a 4-1 thumping at home by West Ham on Sunday, are priced at 12/1. The draw, which has occurred in five of the previous 28 meetings, is available at 11/2.
THE ROAD TO WEMBLEY
City, who last won the FA Cup in 2011 when beating Stoke City 1-0, have scored 20 goals in this season’s tournament. They need one more goal to become the highest-scoring team in the FA Cup this season, as they are tied with Chelsea.
Boss Pep Guardiola has become the first manager to reach both major domestic English cup finals in the same season since Kenny Dalglish with Liverpool in the 2011-12 campaign.
They are the ninth different team to reach both major domestic English cup finals within the same season, after Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday and Tottenham Hotspur.
They have made trips to Wembley look easy under Guardiola – and are unbeaten in their last six games in all competitions there (W5 D1), conceding just one goal in those matches.
Yet they have had a relatively comfortable ride in cup competitions this season. In the League Cup, they faced Oxford United, Fulham, Leicester, Burton Albion and Chelsea. In the FA Cup, they defeated Rotherham, Burnley, Newport County, Swansea and Brighton – hardly a Murderers’ Row of big hitters.
They were made to work hard at Swansea and were 2-0 down with 21 minutes remaining, but came through that quarter-final tie against the Championship side.
Brighton were also tough to break down, yet the Citizens came away with a 1-0 semi-final win thanks to a Gabriel Jesus goal, which puts him on three FA Cup goals, along with teammate Phil Foden. Jesus has scored 12 goals in 16 appearances in cup competition this season (FA Cup, EFL Cup and Champions League) compared to seven goals in 29 appearances in the Premier League. However, there is speculation that Guardiola will offload him in the summer.
Having already seen off Woking, Newcastle, QPR and Crystal Palace in the competition, Watford staged a remarkable comeback from 2-0 down with 12 minutes to play in the semi-final to beat Wolves 3-2 in extra time.
Gerard Deulofeu became the seventh player to score a brace in an FA Cup semi-final and his tally helped the Hornets score a total of 10 goals in their five FA Cup games.
Watford’s win at Wembley was their first since May 1999 (2-0 v Bolton Wanderers in the second tier play-off final). They had lost five of their six games in all competitions at the venue before beating Wolves.
WHO WILL WIN?
The trends and the odds point to a City victory. They have won the last 10 meetings and are unbeaten in the last 15 (W13 D2).
Of course, City were celebrating hard on Sunday night following their remarkable Premier League title win over Liverpool, who were denied a first title in 29 years with City’s 4-1 win at Brighton. They fully deserved their party after 14 straight Premier League victories.
Watford looked mentally fatigued as they were torn apart by West Ham at Vicarage Road. It was their fourth defeat in six games since beating Wolves in the semi-final, their sole win in that span was a hard-fought 2-1 victory at rock-bottom Huddersfield.
Watford have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last 14 games since defeating QPR 1-0 in the FA Cup fifth round. Watford are 15/2 to keep a clean sheet in normal time on Saturday.
Goals are usually forthcoming when there two sides meet. No less than eight of the last 10 clashes have yielded three goals or more and it is 1/2 that both sides find the net in normal time.
The last six meetings have yielded goals totals of five, six, four three and four total goals respectively.
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City have beaten Watford by a margin of two goals or more in seven of the last 10 meetings and they are on offer at 11/8 -2 goals on the handicap and 6/1 to win 3-0.
The Hornets have managed to score at least once in the last three meetings – they lost 2-1 at home in December and 3-1 at the Etihad in March – and it is 3/1 that Watford win or draw the game on the Double Chance market, and Evens that they score over 0.5 goals in normal time.
City have won five of the last 10 meetings to nil and it is 5/6 that they do the same on Saturday, while the Genting Casino FA Cup odds for City to win but concede are 15/8.
To see all the odds on this clash, click here.
