United will aim for the domestic cup in Saturday’s final
Manchester United will chase both major domestic cups in the same season for the first time in our history on Saturday afternoon.
The Reds face Manchester City in the Emirates FA Cup Final (kick-off 3pm BST) at Wembley Stadium, just over three months after our Carabao Cup success against Newcastle United at the same ground.
A derby win would cap off a successful first season for United under Erik ten Hag and accomplish a feat we have never achieved before.
Surprisingly, we have won the two leagues together 18 times (12 FA Cups, six League Cups), but we have never celebrated two of those successes in the same season.
Our past teams have come closest to this on the previous occasions we’ve reached both finals: in the 1982/83 and 1993/94 seasons. In 82/83, United lost the League Cup final to Liverpool in extra time against Ron Atkinson, before – after a replay – beating Brighton at the same stage of the FA Cup.
Just over a decade later, Sir Alex Ferguson’s Reds beat Chelsea 4-0 in the FA Cup Final at Wembley to complete a league and cup double, going some way to explaining the League Cup final defeat by Aston Villa – led by our former manager Atkinson – earlier in the term.
If United win on Saturday, it will be the sixth time a club has won both major English domestic cups in the same season.
Arsenal were the first to do so in 1992/93, while Liverpool are the only team to do so twice, with success last season following their first in 2000/01.
Chelsea (2006/07) and Saturday’s opponents Manchester City (2018/19) have also both lifted trophies in a single season. Of course, having beaten the Magpies 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final in February, the Reds are halfway there.
First-half goals from Casemiro and Marcus Rashford were enough to give us our first title under Ten Hag.
A second could be added at the weekend when we play our 21st men’s FA Cup final (a record shared with Arsenal) as we have a sixth FA in the last seven Manchester derbies played in this cup-winning competition.