Chelsea will play Manchester City in the 2025–26 FA Cup final after defeating Leeds United in Sunday’s semifinal.
Enzo Fernández shook off recent controversy to head in the game’s opening goal for the manager-less Blues in the club’s first outing since Liam Rosenior’s sudden exit on Wednesday. The side overseen by interim boss Calum McFarlane had to withstand a second-half onslaught from the Yorkshire outfit but ultimately held on to end a rocky week on a memorable high.
Manchester City booked their return ticket to Wembley with a comeback victory over second-tier Southampton on Saturday. Finn Azaz stunned the Cityzens (and perhaps himself) with a sumptuous opening goal in the 79th minute to inspire fantasies of another upset during what has unmistakably been a brilliant edition of the world’s oldest cup competition.
Those dreams lasted just three minutes before Jérémy Doku equalized for Pep Guardiola’s side. Nico González rattled in his own screamer to fully erase Azaz’s glorious effort and set City up for a potential domestic treble.
Guardiola warned that feat was still “far, far away” with some justification. Arsenal will do their best to deny City Premier League glory while Chelsea will undoubtedly put up a fight in the FA Cup final. After all, McFarlane has already pitted his wits against the greatest manager of his generation and emerged with a 1–1 draw at the Etihad back in January.
When Is the 2025–26 FA Cup Final?
- Date: Saturday, May 16
- Location: London, England
- Venue: Wembley Stadium
- Kickoff Time: 3 p.m. BST / 10 a.m. EST / 7 a.m. PST
The FA Cup final used to be the traditional conclusion to each English domestic season, coming the weekend after the top flight was wrapped up but before the European honors were dished out. That is no longer the case.
For the second year in succession, the showpiece fixture in the Football Association’s calendar will take place a week before the Premier League is concluded. To maintain the illusion of tradition, there will be no top-flight clash scheduled on the same day—Saturday, May 16—with most of that weekend’s round of league matches set for the following Sunday before every team kicks off at the same time one week later on May 24.
Neither of the FA Cup finalists have any continental competition to juggle anymore, so all the attention will be squarely focused on that day out at Wembley.
Wembley Regulars Out to Avoid More Heartbreak
As Guardiola was so keen to point out, Manchester City became the first team in the history of the FA Cup to reach four successive finals. “We did it again,” he beamed. “We are in the final again.” According to Guardiola, “Now it’s easy.” The hard work of getting to the showpiece fixture has already been achieved. However, it hasn’t always turned out so well for City at this stage of the competition.
The serial finalists were beaten by Crystal Palace last May one year after losing to Erik ten Hag’s bedraggled iteration of Manchester United. At the time of that 2024 final, United sat lower in the league (eighth) than the famous ‘Crazy Gang’ Wimbledon side of 1988 (seventh) which pulled off the almighty upset of defeating champions Liverpool. City had beaten United in the 2023 final.
City once again come into the 2026 final as favorites but history suggests that counts for little. In fact, should Guardiola be beaten for a third straight season at Wembley, City would become the first team since Chelsea (2020–22) to lose three FA Cup finals on the spin.
The Blues have not returned to the Wembley showpiece since their final defeat of that sequence against Liverpool on penalties. Chelsea’s last triumph in the competition came in 2018, with a narrow 1–0 victory over Manchester United. Serial champion Antonio Conte was parading the touchline for the Blues on that sunny day at Wembley and McFarlane has the chance to replicate that feat in what would be only his seventh match of senior management.
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