By Tony Attwood
Before we finish our round up of the forthcoming match with Nottingham Forest I thought I would offer a little insight into the workings of the FA in relation to the FA Cup, and its relationship with Arsenal.
The Emirates FA Cup web page is a page which promises us “A complete list of previous Finals and Winners in The FA Cup.” It is on the FA’s web site and is the official record of their most famous competition which is sometimes promoted as the old football competition in the world.
Rather oddly it starts with a picture described as “Kenny Dalgish and Ian Rush celebrate with The FA Cup in 1986” – for no reason, but well we know how much in love with Liverpool the FA were for many a long year.
But then if one goes on a bit further one can see that this, the official page of the FA Cup on the official FA website, suggests that the current holders of the FA Cup are not Arsenal but Chelsea.
The fact is that eight months after the last FA Cup final, the old bodkins in the Football Association still have not yet received their carrier pigeons from the ground telling them the result. They have have in fact missed out last season’s FA Cup Final totally. In FA Cup terms it does not exist.
Which is a fairly good reason why Untold has to exist – to correct the mindless gibberish that pours out from the FA day by day. If they can’t even get their official site of their main competition right, what chance is there of anything else?
All of which in a sort of roundabout way made me think about the recent FA Cup – in fact the FA Cup in the era of the Premier League. Here is the list
| 1992–93 (R) | Arsenal | 2–1 | Sheffield Wednesday |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993–94 | Manchester United | 4–0 | Chelsea |
| 1994–95 | Everton | 1–0 | Manchester United |
| 1995–96 | Manchester United | 1–0 | Liverpool |
| 1996–97 | Chelsea | 2–0 | Middlesbrough |
| 1997–98 | Arsenal | 2–0 | Newcastle United |
| 1998–99 | Manchester United | 2–0 | Newcastle United |
| 1999–2000 | Chelsea | 1–0 | Aston Villa |
| 2000–01 | Liverpool | 2–1 | Arsenal |
| 2001–02 | Arsenal | 2–0 | Chelsea |
| 2002–03 | Arsenal | 1–0 | Southampton |
| 2003–04 | Manchester United | 3–0 | Millwall |
| 2004–05 | Arsenal | 0–0 | Manchester United |
| 2005–06 | Liverpool | 3–3 | West Ham United |
| 2006–07 | Chelsea | 1–0 | Manchester United |
| 2007–08 | Portsmouth | 1–0 | Cardiff City |
| 2008–09 | Chelsea | 2–1 | Everton |
| 2009–10 | Chelsea | 1–0 | Portsmouth |
| 2010–11 | Manchester City | 1–0 | Stoke City |
| 2011–12 | Chelsea | 2–1 | Liverpool |
| 2012–13 | Wigan Athletic | 1–0 | Manchester City |
| 2013–14 | Arsenal | 3–2 | Hull City |
| 2014–15 | Arsenal | 4–0 | Aston Villa |
| 2015–16 | Manchester United | 2–1 | Crystal Palace |
| 2016–17* | Arsenal* | 2–1* | Chelsea |
*Final does not exist according to FA.
Which leaves us with these total number of wins from the Premier League era, ahead of this season’s cup, in which Arsenal play for the first time this afternoon.
- Arsenal 8
- Chelsea 6
- Manchester United 5
- Manchester City 1
- Wigan Athletic 1
- Portsmouth 1
- Everton 1
You might notice the cup doubles – winning the FA Cup two years running – Chelsea have achieved this once and Arsenal twice. Chelsea have achieved three cups in four years once, Arsenal twice. No other club has done this in the modern era.
Chelsea are the prize runners up having come second three times, Arsenal once. Newcastle and Manchester United have each come second twice, and Arsenal once.
Quite what we can do about the FA’s inability even to record things properly on their own web site, when they won’t reply to questions about what on earth happened to all the Community Shield money from the Grenfall Tower collection, I don’t know. They seem completely immune to any sort of negative publicity, and of course the newspapers and bloggettas don’t like to get involved in such delicate matters as other people’s money.
But all we can do is keep pointing out their ineptitude.
Finally, credit where it is due. The Guardian does come up with a really good headline today. You have to know a bit about English literature to get it, but if you do, it is rather funny.
Forest v Arsenal: bloggettas attack Mr Wenger and home and away form and recent games
Nottingham Forest v Arsenal and an altercation with a fox
10 years of Untold Arsenal: pondering the question of 3 types of match fixing
I always gave a copy of Eats,shoots and leaves to each of the graduate engineers who were assigned to me during their formal professional training at London Underground. An excellent work covering English grammar in an easy to understand way.
Off topic there are three Arsenal games today.
12:30 our U23s are away at Liverpool. The game is being shown on Liverpool’s web site live.
13:30 Arsenal Women are away at Chelsea – this game is on BT Sport 2 with coverage starting at 13:15 and that is followed by the Cup Tie against Nottingham Forest on the same channel.
Early lunch required!
Again off topic I’m afraid.
Our U18s had their first game of the New Year yesterday beating a resilient Aston Villa away. They won with two second half goals – both penalties.
The referee clearly will be sent for re-training and none of our other teams can expect a penalty for at least a month or two as the Club’s allocation has now been used up.
Well done to the U18s. I hope today’s games also produce wins.
COYG
You write the FA show that Chelski are the 2015 -2016 cup holders but your list shows that Manure were that seasons’s cup holders.
How pathetic are the FA. It’s as though they, or the person responsible, could not bring themselves to update it. I expect there may some more PL type PIGMOB interfering to stop us winning it again this year.
The Liverpool v Arsenal U23 game has been called off due to a frozen pitch.
Good news about the under 18s Andrew. Except about them using up all our penalties of course.
Tony,
the page actually says Manure are the last cup winners. Not Chel$ky
Im a bit confused here, if the FA cup is the main competition of the FA,then who’s competition is the premiership
Two legged tackles are allowed in this game and no replays against us???
Why are my comments into moderation for deservedly calling the FA twats their real name? Ok give me a name to call them after this robbery.