Chelsea tempt Alonso but Man City moment settles FA Cup final | OneFootball

A classic final, this was not. But Antoine Semenyo’s flicker of genius to win Manchester City their eighth FA Cup deserves to be remembered long after the 95 minutes around it have been forgotten.

The longer an edgy affair went on, the more evident it became that only a mistake or an isolated moment of inspiration would settle it. Semenyo showed his quality when Chelsea could not.

At least, not in attacking areas. Through two-thirds of the pitch, Callum McFarlane’s Blues were actually very impressive, especially in denying City their rhythm and flow. So hard they worked – not something we can often say of Chelsea this season – that weariness won out around the box.

It was a similar story for City, largely shackled by McFarlane’s shape and his players’ graft. If Xabi Alonso was watching on, he will have seen plenty to work with next season should Liverpool fail to recognise the bleeding obvious.

It won’t have escaped Alonso the difference made by McFarlane being able to field both his inspirational skipper and best defender.

Reece James may be best used at right-back but McFarlane’s back three had no use for one. So into midfield he stepped, proving that Chelsea are a better team with James somewhere, anywhere in the side.

James and Moises Caicedo were pivotal in helping to nullify City’s wide threat from Semenyo and Jeremy Doku; Cole Palmer also doing most of his best work running back towards his own goal to lend Malo Gusto a hand with Doku.

Palmer’s heat map at Wembley was hottest in the areas Chelsea needed him but not where he could hurt City. Still, Thomas Tuchel must have been impressed with his willingness to carry out instructions, even at the cost of his own creativity.

Catching Tuchel’s eye the most, however, must have been Levi Colwill.

Playing only his second game since returning from an ACL injury, the Chelsea centre-back showed again how the Blues have missed him this season. Colwill stepped into a back four at Anfield last week to shackle a woefully-meek Liverpool attack. But he looked no less comfortable at Wembley in the face of Erling Haaland.

The one time Haaland escaped Colwill, it turned the game. The City striker had to leave the centre-back’s zone to get a sniff of decent possession around the box, Haaland exchanging places with Semenyo.

Which put Colwill closest to the action when Semenyo settled it. Not that the Chelsea defender was culpable. Colwill put himself goal-side to shut the front door on Semenyo. So the winger went around the back instead.

There is little unique about the type of finish – the flick with the instep around the standing foot. But not many pull it off with a ball off at shin height. Not only was the contact clean, the placement was perfect, inside the far post beyond the reach of Robert Sanchez.

It was the first moment to get anyone out of their seat, drawing Chelsea out to keep everyone perched on the edge for the remaining 20 minutes.

It took the Blues three minutes to answer with an opening of their own, with Enzo Fernandez first to a flick-on from a long throw. But with the clearest sight of the City goal, Fernandez’s touch lacked the subtlety of Semenyo’s and the ball found the roof of the net rather than the back of it.

Chelsea huffed and McFarlane threw on attackers in Pedro Neto, Liam Delap and Alejandro Garnacho, who were all exactly as effective as you might have guessed. Neto buzzed; Delap plodded; Garnacho played with his hair.

As ever this season, Joao Pedro appeared Chelsea’s biggest danger, but whenever the City door seemed open for the Brazilian, Marc Guehi and Abdukodir Khusanov were swift in shutting it. That’s successive FA Cup triumphs for Guehi, despite being on the wrong end of the biggest-ever giant-killing in between.

That this was no classic final should be credited to the three central defenders rather than a failure of the flair players. Colwill, Guehi and Khusanov made it a final not even of moments, just one.