Chelsea pushing for rare double – but history shows it’s a big ask
Published:
It’s been possible to win a League and FA Cup double for 128 years, but you’ll be surprised just how rarely the famed achievement has been won.
Just seven clubs in the history of English football have managed it.
So we doff our hats to Preston, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea.
And of those seven, only Arsenal and Man United have won it more than once.
In total it has been done just 11 times. That’s around once a decade.
It hasn’t become any easier to win it in the 21st century either, with only Arsenal in 2001-2002 and Chelsea in 2009-10 managing the feat.
But the Blues are aiming to add another slice of history this weekend.
And though they may have landed a double just eight years ago, history is littered with those who failed at the final hurdle.
Man United were the most recent side to do so in 2007, when they couldn’t beat Chelsea in the first final at the new Wembley.
Liverpool famously came unstuck in 1988, when Wimbledon and the ‘Crazy Gang’ caused one of the biggest cup shocks of all time.
The Reds also stumbled at the last in 1977, when they lost to Man United in the Final.
Everton know the feeling too, after they lost to the Red Devils in 1985 having cantered to that season’s League title.
So which camp will Chelsea fall into this weekend? Will Antonio Conte’s side become just the 12th Double winners in English history? Or will they sit alongside Everton and the Liverpool squads of ’88 and ’77 as nearly men?
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
