{"id":8999,"date":"2026-05-16T05:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T05:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=8999"},"modified":"2026-05-16T05:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T05:02:16","slug":"chelsea-confirm-triple-boost-for-fa-cup-final-vs-manchester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=8999","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea confirm triple boost for FA Cup final vs Manchester City"},"content":{"rendered":"


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There is no doubt that Chelsea will be the underdogs when they take on Manchester City in the final of the FA Cup. Yes, Pep Guardiola has talked about the fatigue factor already, having played last night. That being said, these teams are used to playing every three days. Also, the Spaniard did not start the likes of Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki and Jeremy Doku against Crystal Palace. So, that might be mind games.<\/p>\n

Chelsea will need to be at their very best if they want to win this weekend against Manchester City. In the past, Calum McFarlane has pulled off an unexpected draw against Guardiola\u2019s team. Now, he will need to go one step further. Is he capable of that? We will find out.<\/p>\n

Chelsea might not have high hopes going into the final. After all, this team has not won any of their last seven Premier League games and lost six of them. That being said, historically, the club do have a habit of rising to the occasion in big games. Let\u2019s hope history repeats itself.<\/p>\n

Chelsea confirm injury boost before FA Cup final vs Man City<\/h2>\n

There is some good news for Chelsea heading into the final. It looks like three of their first-team players will be returning from injury on the day.<\/p>\n

Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garncho have missed the last two games through injury. With the rest of Chelsea\u2019s wingers injured as well, that has left McFarlane scrambling for options. Fortunately, it looks like both could be back to fitness in time for the final against Manchester City. <\/p>\n

McFarlane said when talking about Neto and Garnacho:<\/p>\n

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\u2018Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho have trained well this week, so both looking really good. We\u2019re really hopeful with them as well. So, positive signs.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Robert Sanchez could be back in goal as well<\/h2>\n

It is not just Neto and Garnacho who could be back in the starting XI. It might be the case for Robert Sanchez as well.<\/p>\n

The goalkeeper had suffered a head injury in the game against Nottingham Forest and sat out against Liverpool. But he seems to be back in contention for the Man City match. McFarlane said:<\/p>\n

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\u2018Really positive. He has trained well this week and we\u2019re hopeful going into Saturday.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So, things seem to be looking up on the fitness front for Chelsea. Of course, this does not mean that they will suddenly be favourites against Manchester City, but it does improve their chances.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the last time Chelsea beat Manchester City, it was in a final as well, as they lifted the Champions League for the second time in the club\u2019s history. Fans will be hoping to see more silverware being added to the cabinet this weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Sourav<\/div>\n

Sourav Mahanty has covered teams like Chelsea, Celtic, Real Madrid, Manchester United, PSG and more over a career that has now lasted a decade.
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\nHis work has been featured on Sports Illustrated, Athlon Sports, SB Nation, FanSided, The Sportster and aggregated through Bleacher Report and NewsNow.
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\nOutside of football, he is also interested in basketball, cricket and professional wrestling.<\/p>\n

View all articles \u2192<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no doubt that Chelsea will be the underdogs when they take on Manchester…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}