Chelsea vs Manchester United: Five FA Cup classics

Chelsea, the champions of Europe and FA Cup holders, were enduring one of their curious periods under Roman Abramovich when he had appointed a manager the supporters disliked but remained immune from criticism for it for understandable if craven reasons. Rafael Benítez organised a lopsided, misfiring squad in the interim role he had been given with typical tactical flair, tried to cope with powerful veterans on annual contracts, about whose futures the club continued to prevaricate, and was heckled by fans who were unwilling to forget or forgive his confrontations with Chelsea during his Liverpool years.

For much of the match both sets of supporters goaded Benítez in song, insinuating that he was cracking up and reached a vociferous peak when United went 2-0 ahead after only 11 minutes. Javier Hernández scored the first with a cushioned header, steering the ball over Petr Cech, who had isolated himself with a wrongheaded charge, and in at the far post before Rooney whipped in the second from a free-kick on the left that masqueraded as a cross, parted David Luiz’s hair and crept in while Chelsea’s defenders played ‘After you, Claud’.

When Benítez brought on Eden Hazard and John Mikel Obi for Frank Lampard and Victor Moses seven minutes into the second half, he was subjected to ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ and ‘We want our Chelsea back’ from the travelling fans but it was a masterstroke, using Mikel to help Ramires shield a jittery defence and employing Hazard’s pace in the inside-forward channels against Ferdinand and Jonny Evans. It also freed Juan Mata to push right up on Carrick and disrupted United’s rhythm. The Chelsea No10 cut in from the right for their first goal, swept a pass to Hazard who had tacked in from the left and he lined up Rafael Da Silva and bent a right-foot shot around him and in at the far post in the manner of Thierry Henry.

Ramires scored the second, quick passes from Demba Ba and Oscar caught Evra out of position and encouraged the midfielder into the gap. Jonny Evans backed off and Ramires scuffed a bobbling shot into the bottom left corner from 15 yards. They should have won it in the final minute when David Luiz pinched the ball off a dawdling Van Persie and sprayed it up Mata who stunned it and arrowed a shot round Evans but was thwarted by De Gea’s foot.

At the end of the match Benítez and Ferguson, who had not spoken since 2009, avoided each other and the hypocrisy of a handshake. But they did finally break the ice during the replay three weeks later after Demba Ba’s sweet volley earned Chelsea a 1-0 victory. The reason for such a long delay between the matches? Chelsea’s exploits in the Europa League, a competition they would win, unlike the FA Cup that year, not that it brought Benítez much gratitude.

Chelsea 3-5 Manchester United, third round 1998

Nicky Butt did not score in the match but he dominated it with a performance of such relentless running and tackling that Chelsea were overrun. Pressing is not a modern innovation but in 1998 it was not routinely described as such. Yet what Butt managed at Stamford Bridge in taking the lead to hound Chelsea’s midfield and defence, with David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs in support to take the ball on once he had won it would qualify for the term today. A tackler and aggressive interceptor such as Butt takes the passiveness out of counter-attacking and it was his deployment on a search and destroy mission that caught Chelsea out of position repeatedly and unable to recover.

Ruud Gullit, the manager of the Cup holders, sent out an idiosyncratic selection to take on the Champions. In much the same fashion as he did when Newcastle manager and brought his sacking on his own head by picking Paul Robinson and Silvio Maric for the derby in preference to Alan Shearer or Duncan Ferguson, Gullit put Mark Hughes in midfield and sent out Mark Nicholls instead of Gianluca Vialli as centre-forward. It backfired spectacularly.

David Beckham, who was abused throughout and cupped his ear to the Shed in celebration twice, scored two as did Andy Cole, who ran Frank Leboeuf ragged, before Teddy Sheringham made it 0-5 with 16 minutes to play. Cole, the most seriously underrated elite player of the past 20 years, stormed 30 yards into the box from the left, used Sheringham by not using him, and chipped a cute shot into the top of the net for his first then bullocked through the middle, haring away from Michael Duberry, veered left and clipped a precise shot on the angle past Ed de Goey.

Chelsea’s fortunes changed once Gullit at last sent Vialli on, though many Chelsea supporters had long since left and missed the late rally. Graeme Le Saux diddled Peter Schmeichel with a deft chip and Vialli bagged two more at the death, allowing Gullit afterwards to justify the scale of defeat as the equivalent of losing 2-0. It fooled no one and Gullit was sacked 40 days later over a contractual dispute rather than the wilful eccentricity of his team selection.

Chelsea 2-0 Manchester United, quarter-final 1950

Matt Busby took Manchester United to Stamford Bridge for their quarter-final as First Division leaders and with a decent recent Cup pedigree as winners in 1948 and semi-finalists in 1949. Billy Birrell’s Chelsea were 10th but their only defeat for three months had come at Old Trafford in the league in January when Charlie Mitten had come in off the left wing to score the game’s only goal.

Stamford Bridge locked the turnstiles an hour before kick-off with an official crowd of 70,362 inside but anecdotal accounts claim many more were rammed in, with a few hundred red and white scarves breaking up the tide of blue. Ken Armstrong and Frank Mitchell seized control of midfield from the beginning of the match, cutting out the passes to  Jimmy Delaney on the right and Mitten on the opposite wing which stymied Busby’s normal attacking strategy. John Harris, the tall centre-half, shadowed Jack Rowley, United’s England centre-forward throughout and spent most of the last 15 minutes, when his side had tired and United’s crosses laid siege to the Chelsea penalty area, heading balls clear.

By that point, though, Chelsea were 2-0 up, having taken the lead through Bobby Campbell who received the return in a one-two with Hugh Billington and flayed a hopeful ball into the box that kicked up off the turf and squirted past Jack Crompton. If there was a hint of good fortune in that, Chelsea’s second was, according to the unnamed Telegraph correspondent “a picture goal to remember”. Danny Winter’s long pass was trapped by the winger Billy Gray and backheeled to Roy Bentley who lengthened his stride to advance 10 yards and rifled a rising 20-yard screamer with his left foot past Crompton.

Long-standing Chelsea fans had come closest to winning the Cup in 1915 when they were beaten by in the final by Sheffield United and were cagey about asserting that this was their year. Some, though, including the bloke in the queue for semi-final tickets who was adamant he would stick his head in the oven should they lose to Arsenal (as recounted by John Moynihan in his great book the Soccer Syndrome), were more confident. After a 2-2 draw at White Hart Lane, Arsenal won the replay in extra time at the same venue but Moynihan was unable to verify if the randy man in the greasy macintosh had fulfilled the morbid side of his bargain.

Manchester United 2-1 Chelsea, fifth round 1963

Chelsea were a team on the up in March 1963 when they arrived at Old Trafford in the thick of fixture congestion following the thaw that had eventually ended the Big Freeze. ‘Docherty’s Diamonds’ were top of Division Two, a vibrant, youthful side with Terry Venables at inside-left and Graham Moore at inside-right playing off Bobby Tambling, the industrious centre-forward with a marvellous left foot.

United were struggling badly in the First Division, caught between two phases with some wonderful players plus the remnants of the team quickly assembled after the Munich Disaster. They were 14th in mid-March and would end up in 19th, three points off relegation, but they had the consolation of winning the FA Cup, a vital staging post for the emergence of Busby’s third and final great United side.  

They got there flukily against Chelsea and although Peter Bonetti would make half a dozen smart saves, the goalkeeper was at fault for both goals. The first, scored by Denis Law, was the result of Bonetti misjudging a cross he came out to claim but could only deflect on and the United forward rolled it into the net. At the start of a second half, Albert Quixall surprised him with a rasping shot on the run before he had time to set himself. Again he reached it, but  only with his fingertips, and pushed it on to the post from where it squirmed underneath him and over the line.

Bobby Charlton swept forward elegantly and fired three thunderous shots at goal that were stopped by robust blocks from Ken Shellito and saves from Bonetti and then Chelsea rattled United’s nerves and woodwork. Dennis Sorrel turned in a rebound off the post, Moore skimmed the bar and Tambling and the left-winger Frank Blunstone were thwarted  by Harry Gregg’s agility. In spite of demonstrating how suited they were to playing at a higher level, Chelsea had to survive a sustained wobble in the league to be promoted as runners-up only on goal average while United went on to win their first trophy of the post-Munich era and start their third peak under Busby.

Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United, final 2007

Not a classic in the conventional sense but triumphantly turgid for Jose Mourinho who completed a sweep of English trophies by winning the FA Cup final on its return to Wembley after six seasons in Wales.

Manchester United, who had won the Premier League for the first time in four years after Chelsea's back-to-back titles, were going for the double against the league runners-up. It was a stultifyingly game, gruelling and tight, ruined by caution and congestion, some cast-iron defending including the effective shackling of Cristiano Ronaldo, plenty of the action an embodiment of the ‘s--- on a stick’ football we have been bedevilled by for years.

It was enlivened by a couple of Rooney slaloms, the controversy over whether Ryan Giggs' shot had crossed the line (it probably did but wasn't given) and Didier Drogba's one-two with Lampard that created his 116th-minute winner.

But who among supporters of either side cares about the spectacle? Yes, the Football Association tried to hook us with a parade of former winners to inaugurate the new Wembley but the FA Cup is not for neutrals any more and Chelsea did what they had to do to win. "It means a lot, it's the FA Cup and it's the first one for me," said Mourinho. "It means we have won every title in English football in the three years I have been at the club.” All about him? What ever gave you that idea?