Man City beat Chelsea 1-0 to win FA Cup and return to Premier League battle on a high note

LONDON – With their English Premier League title chase on hold for a day, Manchester City were expected to head into the FA Cup final against Chelsea on May 16 with all guns blazing.

Pep Guardiola’s men were not on fire, however, but they still managed to clinch a slim 1-0 win to complete a domestic Cup double following their League Cup final win in March.

Captain Bernardo Silva, who is leaving City at the end of the season, told the BBC: “Everything about my journey at Man City was fantastic and it’s really nice to finish this way.

“Hopefully… we still have a small dream that we can fight for the Premier League.

“With it being my last season, it’s special to give the fans another trophy – hopefully not the last one. Since I arrived it’s been 20, so that’s not bad.”

It took a while for the game to get going despite the big occasion, with both sides testing each other out in the first five minutes or so with cautious passes.

City then picked up the pace at around the 10-minute mark when they started pressing Chelsea a bit more, with Antoine Semenyo leading the way from the flank and Erling Haaland being a menace in the box.

Guardiola’s team were clearly more comfortable with the ball in possession, as they dictated play and the tempo of the match as Chelsea held strong and waited for a chance to hit on the counter.

That opportunity came in the 20th minute, when Joao Pedro found himself nearly through on goal but he lost his footing and his tame shot was picked up by City goalkeeper James Trafford.

City then had their first big chance of the game, when four minutes later Haaland fired a shot from a tight angle which flew a whisker wide of the right post.

The big Norwegian striker then thought he had opened the scoring in the 27th minute, but he was offside and his tap-in was ruled out immediately.

Despite City being the team more likely to score at this point, Chelsea did have a couple of threatening runs into their opponents’ box but could not make the most of them.

In the 41st minute, Blues captain Reece James swung in a dangerous cross, but none of his teammates managed to outjump the defence.

Two minutes later, Haaland picked up a defence-splitting pass in the box but Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez pulled off a brilliant save from his drilled shot.

That was the last significant action of the half as both teams pondered how to break the deadlock.

Guardiola made a change at the interval, introducing the dynamic Rayan Cherki, who almost made an instant impact when a move started by him ended with Semenyo heading just over the bar in the 47th minute.

Chelsea did not sit back and they had a penalty appeal turned down in the 58th minute, when the referee deemed that Nico O’Reilly’s arm was tucked into his body when the ball hit him.

It did not seem so much like a relentless back-and-forth game at that stage, but both sides took turns to pose the questions with chances that they just could not convert.

The breakthrough finally came in the 72nd minute after City turned up another gear to pressure Chelsea.

Semenyo latched onto a precise pass from Haaland inside the box and his flick-on found its way into the bottom left corner of the net.

City celebrated, and just two minutes later the Blues could have made it 1-1 when Enzo Fernandez found himself in a promising position but his attempt flew over the bar.

In the 79th minute, Chelsea would once again rue another opportunity missed as Pedro Neto’s shot towards the roof of the net was saved by Trafford.

Matheus Nunes could have sealed City’s win in the 84th minute, but his shot smashed against the post. Moments later, Sanchez saved impressively against Cherki and the score remained 1-0.

There were no more goals during a nervy end to the match and Guardiola could finally breathe at the final whistle as he clinched his 20th trophy for City.

Next up? Back to Premier League action when they travel to Bournemouth on May 19.