Why neutrals want anyone but Man City to win the FA Cup ...Middle East

Before their Premier League triumph in 2020, Liverpool riled rivals with their “This Means More” mantra.

Taken one way it came across arrogant and sanctimonious, suggesting silverware meant less to others, and it felt specifically pointed at the all-conquering Manchester City and the steps they had taken to become English football’s dominant force.

“You’re up against a machine that’s built to win. That’s the simplest way to describe City and their organisation,” Trent Alexander-Arnold said last year.

“Looking back on this era, although they’ve won more titles than us and have probably been more successful, our trophies will mean more to us and our fanbase because of the situations at both clubs, financially.”

Alexander-Arnold’s words left a mark, with City responding “THIS MEANS FOUR” across social media – each word surrounded by trophy emojis – after making it a record four straight Premier League titles.

THIS MEANS FOUR

— Manchester City (@ManCity) May 19, 2024

This was the 18th major trophy of the City Football Group era, and the parade that followed can be described as muted at best, this fanbase who have grown accustomed to winning largely avoiding the Manchester rain. Thousands were there, but thousands who could have been weren’t.

Contrast that with the scenes in Newcastle last month and we witnessed less is more in action. A first trophy in 70 years was always going to celebrated in numbers – 300,000 Geordies reportedly taking to the streets – and in this regard even losing finalists Liverpool realised this Carabao Cup really did mean more to the generations of Newcastle supporters who had waited for something, anything, to happen on the big stage.

This weekend the mantra resurfaces once more, not only at Anfield where Liverpool are primed to win a 20th top-flight title, but also at Wembley where every neutral wants City to fail – if not on Sunday, then in the FA Cup final come 17 May.

City are the villains of the FA Cup semi-finals, the only club left for whom this trophy would be a ripple in the ocean, so is it really wrong to suggest it means more to Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest?

“City fans likely won’t agree, but I think it does mean more to the remaining clubs in the competition,” Cole Pettem, host of Villa podcast Holtecast, tells The i Paper.

“When winning becomes a habit over a prolonged period of time, some of the excitement can dissipate. Plus, it’s nice to see some variety once in a while, right?!”

The wait for a major trophy

Aston Villa

Crystal Palace

Manchester City

Nottingham Forest

The variety point is valid. Just three non-Big Six sides have won the FA Cup since 1996, Leicester the last to do so in 2021 and before them Portsmouth (2008) and Wigan (2013).

Leicester are also the only non-Big Six side to make the final in the last five years, with Palace and Villa among the recent “smaller” clubs to have reached previous finals and lost.

That’s why it means more, and for Villa it would taste like vindication. Beating Bayern Munich was incredible, putting Paris Saint-Germain on the ropes was memorable, but this would top all they have achieved under Unai Emery.

In many ways it would cap it off, even though the end isn’t in sight, as tangible proof that life under Emery really is as good as it has been for decades. A first major trophy since 1996, a first FA Cup since 1957, and a memory shared between the generations that remember the early 1980s and those who have only known near-misses and years in the shadows since.

Ditto Nottingham Forest, their fans knowing greater pain than Villa since they reigned the whole of Europe. A return to the Champions League awaits, it is in their hands, and the FA Cup therefore brings promise of a dual-pronged declaration that Forest really are back at the top table – with the foundations in place for further glory to follow.

And for Palace? Truly, this means even more. This club is the beating heart of a community, a point of pride in south London, and after falling just short in the 1990 and 2016 FA Cup finals, this squad know their place in folklore awaits.

A first-ever major trophy would undoubtedly go down as the biggest moment in this club’s history, and while there are murals of Wilfried Zaha and Eberechi Eze already, you can only imagine the side of every house within a stone’s throw of Selhurst Park has plans to immortalise a feat that is once more, enticingly, within their grasp.

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For Villa or Palace, this dream will run onto the final, while Forest have the tougher task of facing Goliath, who are determined to give Kevin De Bruyne a fitting send-off by ending a forgetful season – by their own lofty standards – with a trophy and securing Champions League football.

“Winning the FA Cup would mean a lot, maybe more than usual,” City fan Luke Stanley says.

“It means a lot to City fans, but would it mean more to the other three clubs? Maybe. That is because of the incredible successes of City lately. It would certainly still mean a lot regardless.”

City will not care, therefore, that on three fronts there is a chance for legends to be made and for those beyond even Forest, Palace and Villa to be reminded of why we fell in love with football.

They have a job to do, and while it may not mean more they should take that as a compliment. They are in a position of envy, and in their bid to silence the underdogs they can make a mighty statement, one that few fans want to see, that this machine can churn out trophies during the clunkiest of Pep Guardiola campaigns.

It would dispel the magic of the FA Cup for another season, but it would be very City, who have no regard for the other storylines. And nor should they.

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