Chelsea will face Manchester City in the Fa Cup Final 2026 at Wembley this Saturday, with Trevoh Chalobah saying plainly: "This final means a lot."
For Chalobah, the game carries a personal arc. He joined Chelsea at eight years old, was added to the match-day squad for the 2018 FA Cup final after Andreas Christensen was injured, and says he "got a medal that day – and it was my first senior trophy."
Chelsea are playing in their 17th FA Cup final. The club has won eight and lost eight of its previous 16 appearances, and — notably — has lost its last three FA Cup finals and failed to score in each of its last four finals at Wembley.
Manchester City arrive as what the record shows: a team on a run. They have won 21 of their last 23 FA Cup matches, beat Manchester United in the 2023 final, lost to Manchester United in 2024 and to Crystal Palace in 2025, and will be the first team to play in four consecutive FA Cup finals.
The numbers underline the stakes. Chelsea have scored 21 goals in the FA Cup this season and reached the final after Enzo Fernández scored the winner against Leeds in the semi-final; Fernández has been involved in six goals in nine FA Cup appearances for Chelsea. Yet City have not lost any of their last 13 games against Chelsea in all competitions since the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League final.
That 13-game stretch is Chelsea’s longest winless run against any opponent since they went 17 games without a victory against Arsenal from January 1999 to March 2004. Chelsea’s current run of eight matches at Wembley has produced just seven goals in total.
There is individual form to watch inside the broader story. Jérémy Doku has been involved in more FA Cup goals than any other player in the last two seasons, with three goals and five assists over that period. Enzo Fernández’s semi-final winner is the kind of contribution Chelsea will need if they are to overturn recent history at Wembley.
Chalobah framed the final as both a team and a personal moment. "We’ve been up and down at Wembley over recent years, and this one means a lot for the players and the fans. We want to win this," he said. He added that despite a season "that has not been the season we wanted, we have the chance to win a trophy" and urged teammates to "grab it with both hands and give it our all."
The tension is clear on the pitch and in the record books. Chelsea have not beaten two top-flight sides in a single FA Cup season since 2020-21, a statistic that points to inconsistency despite their route to the final. Manchester City’s recent dominance in the competition and in head-to-head meetings makes them the form side, but Chelsea’s cup scoring total this season complicates any neat narrative.
Wembley will also stage a repeat of a familiar neutral meeting: Chelsea and Manchester City will meet at the ground for the seventh time as a neutral venue. Both clubs have been prolific in the FA Cup era since 2016-17, leading the competition in wins with City on 45 and Chelsea on 37.
The immediate question after kickoff is simple and consequential: can Chelsea end their Wembley drought in finals and snap a long run without a win against City? Trevoh Chalobah, who remembers walking out for warm-ups at Wembley in 2018 as "like a dream," said he sees echoes of that experience now and a reversed role with younger players watching him.
He refused to downplay what is on offer. "To win three trophies in two years would be an achievement," Chalobah said, returning repeatedly to the moment and the mission. If Chelsea are to seize it, they must score where they have not and do so against a City side that has made the FA Cup a habit in recent seasons.
