Manchester City F.C. have been crowned 2025/2026 FA Cup champions after a tightly contested 1–0 victory over Chelsea F.C. at Wembley Stadium.
Antoine Semenyo, only four months into his Manchester City career after a January move from Bournemouth, decided the Cup final with a 72nd-minute backheel that gave Pep Guardiola’s side a second trophy in a season that had looked like it might slip away.
The goal came against the grain of a final that had settled into a tense, tactical stalemate. Chelsea, under interim head coach Calum McFarlane, had set up to frustrate. A back three of Chalobah, Colwill and Chalobah sat deep, with Reece James and Malo Gusto offering width but rarely pushing high. City had 68% possession and 14 shots, but for 70 minutes the final ball kept breaking down. Erling Haaland had already seen a goal ruled out for offside in the 33rd minute after a VAR check that lasted nearly three minutes, and Chelsea’s block looked like it might hold until the end.
The breakthrough came from a sequence that started on the left. Rayan Cherki, brought on at halftime for Omar Marmoush, drove at Malo Gusto and cut the ball back to Haaland near the edge of the box. The Norwegian’s first touch took him away from goal, but his second was a low, hard cross aimed at the near post. Semenyo, who had drifted into the space between Colwill and Chalobah, met it with the outside of his right foot, flicking it backwards across Sanchez and into the far corner. Sanchez got a hand to it but couldn’t keep it out. The Wembley end behind the goal erupted, and Guardiola punched the air on the touchline like he had in Istanbul two years earlier.
For City, the win completes a domestic cup double after they beat Arsenal 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley in March. It’s only the sixth time in English football history a club has won both domestic cups in the same season, and the second time Guardiola has done it at City. The FA Cup is the eighth in the club’s history. More importantly, it keeps alive the chance of a treble in all but name. City are two points behind Arsenal in the Premier League with two games left, and a win at Bournemouth on Tuesday would cut the gap before Arsenal host Burnley on Thursday.
Guardiola called it “a victory of patience and courage” in his post-match interview. “Chelsea defended well, they made it hard for us. But we kept trying, we kept moving the ball, and in the end one moment of quality was enough.” That quality came from a player who wasn’t even at the club when the season started. Semenyo was signed to add depth after Julian Alvarez left for Atletico Madrid, and he’s repaid that fee with crucial goals against Tottenham in the quarter-final and now the winner in the final. His backheel was the first of its kind in an FA Cup final since Ricky Villa’s in 1981, and it will be replayed on loops for years.
Chelsea’s pain was evident from the final whistle. This was their last chance to salvage a season that unravelled after Christmas. The FA Cup was meant to be the reset button, a trophy to give the BlueCo ownership something to point to and a route back into Europe. Instead, it’s another Wembley defeat to add to a list that now includes four losses in the last five FA Cup finals.
They started well enough. Cole Palmer, back from a hamstring strain, had City’s defence backpedalling in the opening 20 minutes, and Joao Pedro forced a save from Stefan Ortega with a header from a James cross. But as the game wore on, Chelsea retreated deeper. The plan was clear: absorb pressure, hit City on the counter, and wait for a set piece. It almost worked. In the 58th minute, a corner from Palmer found Chalobah unmarked at the back post, but his header was cleared off the line by Josko Gvardiol. That was as close as they came.
The defeat raises questions about what comes next at Stamford Bridge. McFarlane was only meant to take charge until the end of the season after Rosenior’s sacking in April, and the board has been linked with Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna, Sporting’s Ruben Amorim and Xabi Alonso. Whoever comes in inherits a squad with talent but no identity, and a fanbase that marched down Wembley Way before kickoff demanding change in the boardroom. Even a win might not have calmed that mood. A loss makes it harder.
The final itself was watched by 83,337 people, the highest attendance for an FA Cup final since 2019. Darren England refereed, and VAR took centre stage twice: once for Haaland’s disallowed goal, and again in the 81st minute when Chelsea appealed for a penalty after Nico O’Reilly’s arm blocked a Palmer cross. VAR checked and decided the arm was in a natural position, a decision that drew boos from the Chelsea end and praise from City’s bench.
What stands out about this City side is how they keep finding ways to win when they’re not at their fluent best. They didn’t dominate Chelsea the way they dominated Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final last month. They didn’t create 25 chances. But they stayed patient, waited for the opening, and took it. That’s the mark of a team that has been here before. Guardiola has now reached four successive FA Cup finals and eight consecutive semi-finals, a record in English football. No other manager in the competition’s 153-year history has done that.
