closed Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea

[Jase 43,479]

20 minutes ago, Strike said:

I will move past it. I don't even remember who played in the FA Cup final last year.

That is because we weren’t in it. Why would any of us even bother with it?

But it was a different case with the Europa League final last season, wasn’t it?

[Jase 43,479]

5 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Yeah, I won't really be bothered if we lose. It'll be annoying, yes, but our goals for the season have already been met.

I'm more concerned about the Havertz chase than I am this game. Winning the FA Cup would be nice for a couple of days (and AFTV would be gold) but it just doesn't mean as much as it used to.

This is a proper cup tournament, not one a one-off game for a trophy like the Community Shield. 

Since we are in the final, it’s kinda BS to say it doesn’t mean much, particularly it is the FA Cup. Lots of players, especially the younger ones, haven’t won a single trophy in their career and winning it would help give that winning feeling and breed that winning mentality in the team, much in the same way it did when we won the League Cup under Mourinho in 2004. 

[Special Juan 28,141]

It will mean huge amounts to all the players but imagine what it will feel like for players such as Mount and Reece etc the young lads if we win it.

Huge for them and for frank as well.

[Steve 10,227]

10 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Yeah, I won't really be bothered if we lose. It'll be annoying, yes, but our goals for the season have already been met.

I'm more concerned about the Havertz chase than I am this game. Winning the FA Cup would be nice for a couple of days (and AFTV would be gold) but it just doesn't mean as much as it used to.

Frustrates me reading stuff like this. Way more up for grabs than just a trophy in this game. Confidence for the young lads. Franks first trophy as a manager. A positive end to what was a very hard season and a very depressing one at that. This is the FA Cup not the community shield.....

[Laylabelle 9,535]

We lost to them in 2017 and we lost to them in 2002 in FA Cup finals.. i want us to end this season on a high high. Losing a final is shit especially to your local rivals..again! Hope we can show the fighting spirit we have for some of our other games and not go with a wimper.

[Krypt 241]

10 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

It will mean huge amounts to all the players but imagine what it will feel like for players such as Mount and Reece etc the young lads if we win it.

Huge for them and for frank as well.

Fully agree. It also sets that winning mentality in them. 

I still believe winning the league cup in Jose's first season set off a belief in the players.

[Pizy 18,916]

I guess you guys are more romantic than I am. I don't think the modern footballer will take as much from winning or losing an FA Cup as they probably did years ago. People talk about how winning it can be a platform for players/managers/clubs to then go on and do big things. Arsenal have won it how many time recently? It has done fuck all for them.

Would it be nice for Frank's confidence and give us all a great feeling for a week? Yes. Will it be some massive deal if we lose and set us back at all? No.

Maybe it's because I'm not English but I just don't care much about this competition at all. Holds no real special place in my heart. All about the PL and CL and nothing else for me.

[Special Juan 28,141]

4 minutes ago, Pizy said:

I guess you guys are more romantic than I am. I don't think the modern footballer will take as much from winning or losing an FA Cup as they probably did years ago. People talk about how winning it can be a platform for players/managers/clubs to then go on and do big things. Arsenal have won it how many time recently? It has done fuck all for them.

Would it be nice for Frank's confidence and give us all a great feeling for a week? Yes. Will it be some massive deal if we lose and set us back at all? No.

Maybe it's because I'm not English but I just don't care much about this competition at all. Holds no real special place in my heart. All about the PL and CL and nothing else for me.

Madness.

[Vesper 30,185]

8 minutes ago, Pizy said:

I guess you guys are more romantic than I am. I don't think the modern footballer will take as much from winning or losing an FA Cup as they probably did years ago. People talk about how winning it can be a platform for players/managers/clubs to then go on and do big things. Arsenal have won it how many time recently? It has done fuck all for them.

Would it be nice for Frank's confidence and give us all a great feeling for a week? Yes. Will it be some massive deal if we lose and set us back at all? No.

Maybe it's because I'm not English but I just don't care much about this competition at all. Holds no real special place in my heart. All about the PL and CL and nothing else for me.

its a huge deal for me

I fucking HATE to lose finals

I even HATE to lose the CS (we are a joke in it and it pisses me off!)

I am trophy greedy like that

the FA Cup is the most prestigious national cup on the planet

[Special Juan 28,141]

I hate when we lose pre season friendless, I also hate losing at tiddly winks and Monopoly...

I want us to win everything.

[Vesper 30,185]

3 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

I hate when we lose pre season friendless, I also hate losing at fiddly winks and Monopoly...

I want us to win everything.

right there with you m8!

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Im super hyped up for today, this isnt just any game damnit. Its FA cup final against Arsenal. 

Come on Chels!

[Vesper 30,185]

8 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

I hate when we lose pre season friendless, I also hate losing at tiddly winks and Monopoly...

I want us to win everything.

the ten most vexing Chels losses for me (plus some bonus shit to get me all argy bargy, lolol)

 

[Vesper 30,185]

CABALLERO READY FOR ANYTHING

27 MIN AGO

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/07/31/caballero-ready-for-anything

Willy Caballero is excited ahead of the FA Cup final but thinks Chelsea need to approach the match prepared for any situation.

Having already secured our target of a top-four finish in the Premier League, we can put the cherry on the cake by beating Arsenal at Wembley to end the campaign with silverware. It is an opportunity Caballero is looking forward to, having already picked up one winner’s medal in the competition with Chelsea, when we beat Manchester United in the 2018 final.

‘It’s another great opportunity for us, for the club,’ said the goalkeeper, who signed a contract extension in May. ‘This final will be a little bit different with no supporters, but we have the same ambitions to win it again.

snip

[Vesper 30,185]

1915 VS 2020 – TWO CHELSEA FA CUP FINALS IN HISTORIC TIMES

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/08/01/1915-vs-2020---two-chelsea-fa-cup-finals-in-historic-times

An FA Cup final like no other – it is how today’s behind-closed-doors meeting between Chelsea and Arsenal at an almost empty Wembley is being described, and quite rightly so.

It is not, however, the only unusual FA Cup final in which Chelsea have taken part. Back in 1915, the club’s first appearance in the famous showpiece event, it was not a global pandemic that was the backdrop to the sporting event but the First World War, and although fans were present in numbers, circumstances conspired to mean that like today, many Chelsea supporters who would have loved to be there were excluded.

Indeed the match 105 years ago is one of those finals that stands out sufficiently to join the likes of the ‘White Horse Final’ and the ‘Matthew’s Final’ in earning its own, specific moniker.

Chelsea versus Sheffield United in 1915 was the ‘Khaki Final’ and here we look back on the story surrounding that match…

The Pensioners, as was Chelsea’s nickname then, were 10 years into our existence and even the FA Cup as a competition was a mere 43 years old.

Although we were beaten by Sheffield United on the big day, the match retains an important place in Chelsea history, and in English football’s as well with it played under the dark shadow of the war that had covered Europe and beyond.

From the photograph above of army uniformed supporters watching from the terraces, it is clear why the game came to be known as the ‘Khaki Cup Final’.

The county had been informed that football as it was known would cease the following month, and that Chelsea – in whichever form – would ply our trade under the localised auspices of the London Combination, not the Football League.

When so many loved ones were perishing in the trenches and oceans enveloped by the Great War, the threat of relegation was always the lesser one. The possibility that fate might befall the Pensioners was suspended, and glory still awaited in the FA Cup final.

Kick-off at Old Trafford on Saturday 24 April was at 3.30pm and Chelsea were looking to their stars of the day like Bob Thomson and Jack Harrow to take us to a first trophy triumph.

‘They don’t play a bit like a club at the bottom of the League!’ exclaimed one reporter from the West Bromwich area after his men had been routed by four goals to one in the league the week before, and the remark was quite justified by Chelsea’s display in that win.

Harry Ford was in fine form down the wing although Lieutenant Vivian Woodward was not quite on his mettle after his engagements with the German army in France.

 

snip

[Nero 1,874]

Quote

Anthony Taylor will on Saturday become the first referee to take charge of the FA Cup final on two occasions since 1901. The FA’s reasoning is that this is not a normal year and not a normal cup final, and that it would be unfair for a referee’s one shot at the biggest game of their lives to be behind closed doors with no friends or family in attendance. As a result, they have appointed Taylor, who was in charge when Arsenal and Chelsea met in the 2017 FA Cup Final.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/07/31/referees-get-chance-take-charge-fa-cup-final-giving-anthony/

[Steve 10,227]

57 minutes ago, Pizy said:

I guess you guys are more romantic than I am. I don't think the modern footballer will take as much from winning or losing an FA Cup as they probably did years ago. People talk about how winning it can be a platform for players/managers/clubs to then go on and do big things. Arsenal have won it how many time recently? It has done fuck all for them.

Would it be nice for Frank's confidence and give us all a great feeling for a week? Yes. Will it be some massive deal if we lose and set us back at all? No.

Maybe it's because I'm not English but I just don't care much about this competition at all. Holds no real special place in my heart. All about the PL and CL and nothing else for me.

[Nero 1,874]

 

  

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, Pizy said:

I guess you guys are more romantic than I am. I don't think the modern footballer will take as much from winning or losing an FA Cup as they probably did years ago. People talk about how winning it can be a platform for players/managers/clubs to then go on and do big things. Arsenal have won it how many time recently? It has done fuck all for them.

And yet when new players join us, they talk about the winning mentality the club have, they talk about the club are always challenging and winning trophies etc. If the Premier League and Champions League are the be-all and end-all, am sure they would not have said that and/or would not be so keen to join us considering we do not always challenge for the league title or Champions League every season. The consistent winning culture, fostered by winning domestic cups as well as the Premier League and European trophies, has been one of the main attractions for players over the years. 

The difference between us and Arsenal is that we always have been in a better position than them to make it count and consistently win things, even when we have average seasons etc. And this is all the more relevant now considering what we are building for the future. A win here would give them a big confidence boost.

1 hour ago, Pizy said:

Maybe it's because I'm not English but I just don't care much about this competition at all. Holds no real special place in my heart. All about the PL and CL and nothing else for me.

I can assure you that this has nothing to do with being English. It is the fact that we are in a proper cup competition and that there is a major (domestic) trophy waiting to be won. Go ask fans on social media and am sure you will see many non-English fans are keen to win the FA Cup as well as the English ones.

[Pizy 18,916]

7 minutes ago, Jason said:

And yet when new players join us, they talk about the winning mentality the club have, they talk about the club are always challenging and winning trophies etc. If the Premier League and Champions League are the be-all and end-all, am sure they would not have said that and/or would not be so keen to join us considering we do not always challenge for the league title or Champions League every season. The consistent winning culture, fostered by winning domestic cups as well as the Premier League and European trophies, has been one of the main attractions for players over the years. 

The difference between us and Arsenal is that we always have been in a better position than them to make it count and consistently win things, even when we have average seasons etc. And this is all the more relevant now considering what we are building for the future. A win here would give them a big confidence boost.

I can assure you that this has nothing to do with being English. It is the fact that we are in a proper cup competition and that there is a major (domestic) trophy waiting to be won. Go ask fans on social media and am sure you will see many non-English fans are keen to win the FA Cup as well as the English ones.

Look, I want to win it, I will be watching and cheering the lads on, I will be happy if we do win it. But I won't lose a second of sleep or be devastated if we lose. That's all I'm saying.

This isn't the late CL final or losing a massive PL match where I'd be depressed for ages afterward. I'll just think "ah, whatever. On to next season."