It’s just 50 hours until kick off. On Saturday afternoon we’ll be at Wembley for the second time this season. This time it’s the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea. It’s no small game.

And yet, I haven’t managed to create the build up I was expecting this week. I’ve changed the background image (which you may need to refresh your cache to see – either hold down Ctrl + F5 or Shift + click on your browser’s Refresh button), but otherwise, I’ve barely mentioned it. It’s almost been the elephant in the room. I wonder why?

Thanks to ant57 (flickr) for the picture from the FA Cup Final 2000 against Chelsea.

There’s a couple of possible reasons I suppose. Firstly, the result from Stamford Bridge has to be a factor. It’s almost a foreboding cloud hanging over our heads – no one wants to see us humiliated like that again on this stage. I wonder if that’s impacted ticket sales since we still have some of our allocation available for sale.

Secondly, it may be the very fact that the game is being held at Wembley that is ironically taking some of the shine off the match for me. I know that I’m far from alone on this one; playing the semi-finals at Wembley just removes the prestige of going there for the final and is clearly more about the FA extracting every last penny from the competition than what is best for the fans. I may be in the minority with my acceptance of most of the sport’s commercialism these days, but this is a step too far.

When you consider that the recent result against Chelsea not only reiterates how big a challenge it will be to win this game, but also introduces the frightening prospect of an absolute drubbing, factor in the cost of going to Wembley so soon after the Carling Cup final and mix in the consideration that we might actually win this and have to go back, it’s no wonder that tickets are still available. Throw in the current economic climate and you can slap the “no-brainer” tag on it.

Quick quiz question (answer at the bottom):- Which stadium has hosted the most FA Cup semi-final matches [hint: it’s not Wembley].

I think the main hope that I hold right now for the match is one of atonement. Not just for the debacle at Stamford Bridge, but also the final from 2000 where we lost 1-0 to Chelsea in an extremely drab affair. I think that we’re more than capable of making this an exciting game and perhaps having the point to prove will spur the boys on. I don’t think that we have to win to achieve this. As long as the boys give it their best, as they did against Man Utd in the Carling Cup, I’ll be proud.

Recent History

This will be only the 3rd FA Cup semi-final we’ve reached in the last 20 years. The 1996 semi-final against Liverpool was staged at Old Trafford and we lost 3-0. It took a penalty shoot out, which we won 4-1, to beat Bolton in the 2000 semi-final after a goalless draw at Wembley.

The final in 2000 was the first we had reached since 1957, where we beat Man Utd 2-1 in somewhat controversial circumstances. It would interesting to speculate what Sir Alex “Typical Germans” Ferguson might have had to say in Sir Matt Busby’s shoes, but I think we’ll leave that for another time.

FA Youth Cup

Incidentally, the youth team will run out in the first leg of their FA Youth Cup semi-final tie against Newcastle at Villa Park tonight. In some of the weirdest scheduling I’ve ever seen, Chelsea have already beaten Blackburn over two legs in the other semi-final, played last month.

Good luck to the young lions for tonight and for the second leg at St James’ Park on the 16th. Should they make it past Newcastle, the final will also be a two-legged affair to be played at Villa Park and Stamford Bridge.

Quiz Answer: Of course, Villa Park has staged the most FA Cup semi-final matches, but you already knew that!