Chelsea 11/5 to overcome Man City at Wembley

Chelsea have been all over the FA Cup in recent campaigns, winning four out of the last six tournaments, but their recent record against Manchester City is as poor as their record in this competition is good. Nonetheless with the Sky Blues’ creative fulcrum David Silva an injury doubt for the fixture, Roman Abramovich’s plaything can be backed at 11/5 to reach another final at their even-more-minted-opponents expense.

The last two winners of this venerable competition come together for the fourth time this season and it’s Roberto Mancini’s men who have had the better of their jousts in 2012/13, winning two of three meetings and avoiding defeat in all of them. Despite the Citizens tendency to prevail in recent meetings they’ve been always been tight affairs, decided by a single goal in three of the four occasions when a winner emerged.

The news that City are sweating on the fitness of their joint-leading assist maker David Silva could mean that the already marginal superiority they’ve established over their hosts this term is eroded to the point that Chelsea can prevail. The Citizens lack of cutting edge when the wee man hasn’t started this term is clear, they’ve won just three of the 10 games he’s missed.

Fatigue will play on the minds of Chelsea backers after the Blues’ hard-fought Europa League qualification in deepest Russia on Thursday night, but the two days off before this contest will seem like a holiday in contrast to the 24 hour break that preceded their replay victory over City’s Manchester neighbours in the previous round.

In this de-facto final the sense that the winners will have one hand on the cup is hard to shake and Chelsea can be backed at 6/4 to win the competition for the fifth time in seven years. Given they’ll be odds on to land the silverware against Wigan or Millwall this is a price that won’t be around come they finish of their semi final tie.