The 2022 Emirates FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Liverpool will kick-off at 5.45pm CAT on Saturday at Wembley Stadium.
In a repeat of the 2012 Final, ironically the last time Liverpool reached this stage, both teams will be looking to etch their name on the famous trophy in what is the 150th anniversary year of the world’s original knockout competition.
And ahead of the game, our colleagues at Opta have put together some stats and facts to digest ahead of the Final.
For only the second time, the same two sides (Chelsea and Liverpool) will contest both the League Cup and FA Cup final in the same campaign. The previous occasion was 1992-93, when Arsenal beat Sheffield Wednesday in both finals.
With this match a repeat of the 2021-22 League Cup final, Liverpool will look to win both of England’s domestic cup competitions in the same season for the first time since 2000-01, while the last team to lose both the League and FA Cup final in the same campaign were Middlesbrough in 1996-97.
This will be the fourth meeting of the season between Liverpool and Chelsea, with the other three matches all ending level, despite the Reds lifting the League Cup trophy via penalties in February. The last fixture between two English top-flight sides to see more draws in the same campaign was Arsenal v Chelsea in 2017-18 (4).
Liverpool and Chelsea have met once before in the FA Cup Final, doing so in 2012 which the Blues won 2-1 thanks to goals from Ramires and Didier Drogba. This will be the Blues’ 16th appearance in the competition’s final compared to the Reds’ 15th, the third and fourth most occasions of all sides behind Manchester United (20) and Arsenal (21).
Chelsea are the first side to qualify for three consecutive FA Cup Finals since Arsenal between 2000-01 and 2002-03. However, after losing in both 2019-20 (v Arsenal) and 2020-21 (v Leicester), they are looking to avoid becoming the first side since Newcastle in 1998-99 to lose three final appearances in a row in the competition (also losing in 1973-74 & 1997-98).
Liverpool have lifted the trophy in exactly 50 per cent of their 14 previous FA Cup Final appearances (seven), the joint-third lowest success ratio of the nine sides to have reached the Final at least ten times, ahead of only Everton (5/13 – 38 per cent) and Newcastle (6/13 – 46 per cent).
The last two winners of the FA Cup, Arsenal (2019-20) and Leicester (2020-21) have ended up finishing lower than their opponents (Chelsea) in both seasons. The lower ranked team at the end of the season hasn’t won the FA Cup in three consecutive years since 1976 to 1978 – Southampton (v Man Utd), Manchester United (v Liverpool) and Ipswich Town (v Arsenal).
This match will be both Chelsea and Liverpool’s 41st match at Wembley Stadium as a neutral venue, leaving just Arsenal (42) and Manchester United (52) with more such appearances there. The Blues (55 per cent) are one of just two sides to have played there as neutrals more than ten times with a winning ratio of more than 50 per cent (22/40), alongside Nottingham Forest (7/11 – 64 per cent).
In Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel, the FA Cup Final will see two German managers go head-to-head for the very first time, with the one emerging victorious the first German boss to get their hands on the trophy.
Having been in charge of Chelsea for just one year and 108 days (on the day of this game), Thomas Tuchel is set to take charge of his fourth major domestic/European final at the club (2x FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League), with no manager taking charge of more in the club’s history (José Mourinho also four).
Jurgen Klopp is set to become just the second Liverpool manager to take charge of the club in the final of four major domestic/European competitions (League Cup, Europa League, Champions League and FA Cup), after Bob Paisley (League Cup, FA Cup, Uefa Cup, European Cup).
The 2021-22 FA Cup Final will be the 19th managerial meeting in all competitions between Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel, meaning Klopp will have faced only Dieter Hecking (21) and Pep Guardiola (24) more often as a manager. In the two knockout ties between the men, Klopp has defeated Tuchel on both occasions – the 2015-16 Europa League quarterfinal and the 2021-22 League Cup final.
Sadio Mane has scored six goals against Chelsea since moving to Liverpool in 2016-17, with no other player netting more often v the Blues in this time. Following the Senegalese’s brace in the semifinal v Man City, he is looking to become the first Liverpool player to score in consecutive Wembley appearances (when used as a neutral venue) since Phillipe Coutinho in April 2015 & February 2016.
No player has had a direct hand in more FA Cup goals this season than Chelsea’s Timo Werner (two goals, three assists), which is also the outright most of any player for the two sides in the final. The last players to contribute directly to more Chelsea goals in the same campaign in the competition were both Pedro (six) and Willian (seven) in 2016-17, though they did end up on the losing side to Arsenal in the Final at Wembley that season.
Since his first season within the Chelsea first team ahead of the 2019-20 campaign, no player has made more club appearances at Wembley Stadium than Mason Mount (six), who has now scored twice there – in the semifinal v Crystal Palace last month and against Man Utd in July 2020 in another FA Cup semifinal. However, Mount is yet to get his hands on a trophy following a Wembley final, losing the 2020 and 2021 FA Cup finals, and the 2022 League Cup final.
