Why it’s so dangerous to be final favourites
IT ShoULd be a formality, shouldn’t it? Manchester City, with two trophies in the locker, could blitz Watford by three or four goals.
if they did that, it would confirm City as the Premier League’s greatest-ever team. They are on the verge of completing a domestic clean sweep — the first time that has been achieved — but, for some reason, it is not dominating conversations and i can’t understand why.
i know plenty of diehard City supporters who are in raptures over the football they are seeing — most of my mum’s family are Blues — but i get the feeling there are some who are becoming blasé about success.
you can be sure an element of their fans will arrive at Wembley thinking the job has already been done — but being the odds- on favourite in an Fa Cup final is one of the most uncomfortable tags you can have in football and i remember my own experience in 2006.
i had waited all my life to play in an Fa Cup final. i know the competition has changed over the past decade and it isn’t what it used to be but when i got there with Liverpool, it meant the world to me. The Fa Cup final was the game in my childhood so it was an honour to start in Cardiff.
We had a great journey to get there. i’d scored three times on the run, including the one that knocked Manchester United out in the fifth round, and when we beat Chelsea in the semi-final at old Trafford, it was generally assumed we would breeze past West ham.
did that play on our minds? i couldn’t say that. What i would say, though, is i have never been as nervous before or during a match as i was that day, so you can imagine how i felt when West ham went two-up inside the first 30 minutes.
To make matters worse, i had a goal disallowed for offside.
Steven gerrard, fortunately, did things that i had never seen before to save us and defied his physical limits to score two equalisers, one that i am sure you will see replayed today. That Cup final was named after him but it could so easily have been West ham’s day. They were fearless.
We needed Steven’s heroics plus a penalty shootout to get past them after the match finished 3-3.
Watford, i am absolutely certain, will approach things the same way as West ham. Javi gracia’s side have nothing to lose and they are more than capable of capitalising if tension or the effects of a long season suddenly start to hinder City. it really is a game like no other. nobody gave Wigan a prayer of beating City in 2013, but they defied the odds to make themselves heroes and i’m sure Watford will feel there is some element of fate, given how they managed to come from behind to beat Wolves in the semi-finals. at the beginning of the season, i questioned where things were going for Watford as i couldn’t understand how the constant chopping and changing of managers could bring progression but gracia has worked wonders and i would love to see them win.
City give the impression that they will win trophies for ever, but this might be Watford’s moment in time, the day that they just have to grasp. For players such as Troy deeney (above) it could be the last chance and for heurelho gomes it is. That hunger and desire to win makes them extremely dangerous opponents.
given the season we have had, you would be unwise to make assumptions about how this final will go. City’s players are creating history and could be immortal come 7pm, as english football’s first domestic treble winners.
expectation, however, brings tension. Watford will have watched Liverpool, Tottenham and derby come back from seemingly impossible positions in recent weeks and fancy their chances of doing the same. Football never ceases to surprise.