I got "hip" to ChickenDinner when Who Ate All the Pies gave them a name check a couple months back. I'm not a betting person, but their daily wager email has a broad appeal, is almost always interesting, and hillarious. Today's featured the following about the FA Cup:
* Old wounds alert: This match is a repeat of the 1994 final in which United won 4-0, a game best remembered for David Elleray awarding two soft penalties against the Londoners. How many iffy penalties has Steve Bennett got in him?
* Only twice before have the top two met in the FA Cup Final. In 1913, runners-up Aston Villa exacted revenge on Sunderland. In 1986, Liverpool did the double and in both competitions Everton were runners-up.
* On ten occasions, the runners-up have won the FA Cup, and in all but one of those finals they scored first. The exception was Blackpool taking the lead against Manchester United in 1948. On a further eight occasions, the runners-up in the league have also finished runner-up in the cup.
* The league champions have competed in the FA Cup Final on fifteen occasions and won ten, including their last five appearances.
* United have won three doubles (1994,1996 and 1999) and been denied just once, by Aston Villa a spooky fifty years ago.
* chickendinner superfact: Only twice in the past hundred years has the top scorer in the league netted in the FA Cup Final. Gary Lineker scored for Everton in 1986 and Clive Allen did the same for Spurs a year later. Both were the first goals of the game and both men ended up on the losing team.
* A British manager has only beaten Johnny Foreigner once in FA Cup finals - that was Sir Alex Ferguson himself, dispatching Ruud Gullit's Newcastle on the way to a treble in 1999.
* In the last twenty years, nine PFA Players of the Year have played in the final. Only one has lost: John Barnes in 1988.
* John Terry becomes the sixth post-war England captain to lead a team out in an FA Cup Final. Alan Shearer was the last man to do so, and ominously, his team lost 2-0 to Manchester United.
* The South currently lead the North 13-11 in North-South Wembley clashes. (ed Because I'm a northern burd at heart does that mean I have to chear on scum??)
* chickendinner superfact: Drogba has never scored against United, Ronaldo has never scored against Chelsea.
* Chelsea and United have met ten times in FA Cup games. Chelsea have only won once and that was back in 1950. Chelsea have only scored in four of those matches.
* In all cup competitions, United have scored 26 goals in matches between them, compared to Chelsea's 13.
The superfacts are really friggin interesting but the rest are cool, as well. This is great fucking pub talk!
