FA Cup Winners 2012
Saturday 5th May 2012 – 5.15pm
Special Cup Final Free Bets/Offers
Here are some of the best special offers being offered by the bookies today:
Betfred – Double Delight / Hat-trick Heaven
If your player scores the first goal of the match and then scores another, Betfred will double your first goalscorer price. If your player then goes on to score a hat-trick, Fred will treble your goalscorer price.
Open an account here and get a free £50 bet too!
Paddy Power – Suarez Money-Back Offer
Paddy Power have a money back special on offer for their customers. If Suarez scores, Paddy Power will refund all losing First Goalscorer, Last Goalscorer, Correct Score & Scorecast singles on the match. Well worth considering before you place a bet on any of those markets this weekend.
Open an account here and get a free £50 bet too!
Prediction
The FA Cup Final is an institution that seems to have started to be taken seriously again in recent years thank goodness, and hopefully we will have a good final to match the tradition as it deserves.
I do fear however that this game might not be as entertaining as we’d have hoped. Liverpool have been very poor in the league and have managed to beat some good teams in the cup competitions this year but not in great style.
With Chelsea still looking at a 4th place finish in the league and also having the Champions League Final on their minds I can see the players not putting everything into every tackle – this game could go to extra time and even penalties. With it being the final I’ll put forward a few tips though:
The game being settled on penalties – best odds of 12.0 at Bet365.
Didier Drogba scoring at any time (as he normally does at Wembley) – best odds of 3.2 at Paddy Power.
Over 2.5 goals – best odds of 2.25 at Betfair.
Chelsea Stats
Road to Wembley:
3rd Rnd – Portsmouth (h): 4-0 (Mata, Ramires 2, Lampard)
4th Rnd – QPR (a): 1-0 (Mata)
5th Rnd – Birmingham (h): 1-1 (Sturridge)
5th Rnd Replay – Birmingham (a): 2-0 (Meireles, Torres)
6th Rnd – Leicester (h): 5-2 (Torres 2, Meireles, Cahill, Kalou)
Semi-Final – Tottenham (Wembley): 5-1 (Lampard, Mata, Meireles, Malouda, Drogba)
Liverpool Stats
Road to Wembley:
3rd Rnd – Oldham (h): 5-1 (Bellamy, Gerrard, Downing, Shelvey, Bellamy)
4th Rnd – Man United (h): 2-1 (Agger, Kuyt)
5th Rnd – Brighton (h): 6-1 (Skrtel, Carroll, Downing, 3 own goals)
6th Rnd – Stoke City (h): 2-1 (Suarez, Downing)
Semi-Final – Tottenham (Wembley): 5-1 (Lampard, Drogba)
Early odds:
Extra Stats (Courtesy of Opta Stats)
* On all three occasions Liverpool had beaten Everton in an FA Cup semi-final before this season, the Reds went on to lose the final.
* Only three teams have previously won the League Cup and FA Cup in the same season: Arsenal in 92/93, Liverpool in 00/01 and Chelsea in 06/07.
* Liverpool could become the first team to achieve two FA/League Cup doubles, after they won both cups in 2000/01.
* Chelsea have only lost one of their last 33 FA Cup matches (excluding penalty shootout defeats).
* That one defeat, 0-1 against Barnsley in March 2008, is also the only time the Blues have failed to score in their last 39 FA Cup games (100 goals in total).
* Excluding penalty shoot-out defeats, Chelsea are unbeaten in 22 FA Cup games, only one side has ever gone longer without defeat in the competition: Blackburn Rovers between October 1883 and November 1886 (23 games).
* Since the start of the 2006/07 competition, Frank Lampard has scored more goals than any other player in the FA Cup proper (19).
* This will be the 10th FA Cup meeting between these two sides and the first FA Cup final contested by them.
* There has never been a draw in the nine previous FA Cup meetings between these teams, with Chelsea holding a narrow (5-4) advantage in the head to head record.
* This FA Cup fixture has seen an average of 3.8 goals over the nine previous encounters.
* The Blues have won five of their last six FA Cup final appearances, keeping a clean sheet in four of these victories.
* Conversely, Liverpool have kept just one clean sheet in their last eight FA Cup final appearances (2-0 v Sunderland in 1992).
* The Reds have won four of their last five FA Cup final matches, the last victory coming after a penalty shoot-out against West Ham.
* Liverpool have won their last four games against Chelsea in all competitions, scoring seven goals and conceding just one in the process.
* This will be the 31st meeting between these two sides since 2004/05.
* Only once in their last 29 FA Cup games have Chelsea conceded more than once in a game, keeping 12 clean sheets in this period.
* Excluding the Community Shield, Didier Drogba has scored in all seven of his matches at Wembley.
* Suarez has scored in all three of his FA Cup appearances for the Reds.
* Maxi Rodriguez has scored for Liverpool in both of his appearances against Chelsea this season.
* In only one of the last six clashes between these two teams have both sides managed to get on the scoresheet.
