Guéhi’s dramatic Cup story continues against club where it all began

Manchester City defender led Crystal Palace to victory last season. Now he is hungry for more silverware at Wembley

‘I feel like my football life is crazy. 

There is no consistency to it. 

And it’s fun, interesting’

16 May 2026 - THE GUARDIAN/ Sport

Jamie Jackson

Marc Guéhi’s whirlwind 12 months in the FA Cup: captaining Crystal Palace to glory at Wembley last season, experiencing the competition’s greatest shock via the holders’ third-round elimination at sixth-tier Macclesfield and, today, aiming to claim the trophy again when Manchester City face Chelsea.

In a story-rich competition the defender’s is one of the more intriguing, particularly as Palace’s triumph was their first trophy and City, who he joined nine days after the Macclesfield reverse, were their scalps in the final, beaten 1-0 by Eberechi Eze’s 16th-minute strike.

He says: “I feel like my football life is crazy. There’s no consistency to it. It’s very unpredictable. And it’s fun, interesting. I’m glad to be given the opportunity to play in such a prestigious final again. And for this club, I know how much it means to them to win trophies.”

On 10 January, Palace were dumped out 2-1 by Macclesfield. Afterwards, despite bitter disappointment, Guéhi went to the supporters who had journeyed from south London to Cheshire for the tie.

The 25-year-old says: “I felt like I owed the fans for their voices to be heard because they’re such a big part of football. In that moment, it was low for them, but that’s just another part of life.”

Guéhi moved to City for a bargain £20m, Pep Guardiola strengthening his squad with one of England’s first-choice centre-backs. There were quips from his new colleagues regarding Palace’s Cup win. “I’m not going to share what they were, but yeah, there were a couple,” he says.

Fast forward to 4 May, and Guéhi’s mood was far darker at Hill Dickinson Stadium. With City beating Everton 1-0 after 68 minutes, Guéhi’s intended backpass for Gianluigi Donnarumma went to Thierno Barry, who equalised.

This presaged a 15-minute collapse that featured Everton moving 3-1 ahead. By the end, City had salvaged a 3-3 draw, but it was firmly advantage Arsenal in the title race. If Arsenal become champions Guéhi will have to steel himself for endless repeats of his mistake being billed (however unfairly) as the moment that turned the championship.

Regarding the error, Guéhi is grateful for Guardiola’s and his teammates’ support. He says: “It’s inevitable that someone’s going to make a mistake. So, I think having that togetherness manifesting is really important in any situation – it’s a really good trait of the group. You get to see people’s real characters and relationships when times are most difficult.”

Guéhi’s character, alongside his stellar talent, has driven his rise, after rejection at Chelsea. After progressing through the west London club’s ranks, Guéhi made two League Cup starts in the autumn of 2019 – against Grimsby and Manchester United – before being loaned to Swansea in January 2020 and the following season. An £18m transfer to Palace followed in July 2021.

Guéhi is asked whether the Cup final is a chance to show Chelsea they were wrong about him. He says: “That’s not my mentality. I completely understand people that have that thought process but I’ve got nothing but gratitude towards Chelsea. Going there from such a young age, I am super grateful to the coaches, and the players I played with. And, to have been given the opportunity to play for the club, a couple of times.”

Guéhi was ineligible for City’s 2-0 Carabao Cup final win over Arsenal because he had played for Palace in the competition, a rule that no longer applies in the FA Cup. Witnessing the triumph gave him a greater understanding of the culture Guardiola has created.

He says: “I wouldn’t say it made me hungrier – the hunger is always there. It just makes me appreciate the art of winning a bit more, understanding what it really takes to maintain that level and keep winning. It was great to see what the guys were able to achieve against such a formidable opponent in Arsenal. When you’re not in those moments often, it’s hard to understand. So, taking a back seat was probably the best thing for me.”

Guardiola may depart in the summer and the captain, Bernardo Silva, and John Stones are leaving. Guéhi, in his modest way, is reluctant to say whether he will become one of the leaders.

He says: “You’d have to ask the other guys. It’s always important to, I’d say, have that understanding of how other people see you as well, which then helps you step into different roles.”

He is far surer of a bright future for City owing to the wave of players who have joined or emerged (in Nico O’reilly’s case) since January 2025, the others being Donnarumma, Omar Marmoush, Antoine Semenyo, Rayan Cherki, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nico González, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Aït-nouri.

He says: “There’s so much we can all improve on. We’re all, I think, trying to learn from the older guys, from the guys that have been there and done it again and again. Whether we go on and do it, it’s up to us. We’ve got to make that decision every day we come into training.”

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Chelsea size up last shot at glory after season of turmoil

Despite losing two managers, players can finish on a high and have previous at raising their game on big occasions

Their knack of lifting it against tougher opposition is why it would be folly to give Chelsea no chance

16 May 2026 - THE GUARDIAN / Sport

Jacob Steinberg

Chelsea fared well as underdogs in their most recent outing in a final. They surprised Paris Saint-germain in last summer’s Club World Cup, racing into an unassailable 3-0 lead by half-time and disrupting the European champions thanks to a clever tactical approach from Enzo Maresca.

Perhaps there will be more of the same at Wembley. Chelsea have form when it comes to upsetting the odds in a big game, although the one problem with bringing up the PSG win before this afternoon’s FA Cup final against Manchester City is that the challenge of coming up with a plan smart enough to beat Pep Guardiola is no longer Maresca’s responsibility.

The subplot is that it is quite possibly a clash between Maresca’s past and his future. For Chelsea, the moment when a season of promise began its descent into chaos is, from their perspective, when their former head coach began to act like a man who wanted to leave. The infamous comment from Maresca about his “worst 48 hours” at the club after the win over Everton in December still clouds the air at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea’s reaction will be interesting if Guardiola steps down at the end of the season and Maresca, the leading candidate to replace his former boss, joins City.

It bears repeating that Chelsea never wanted to make a mid-season managerial change. When they mapped out the season and set Champions League qualification as the baseline target nobody envisaged that Calum Mcfarlane, the under-21s manager, would be leading out the first team at Wembley in May. Yet everything fell apart when Maresca walked away on New Year’s Day.

Liam Rosenior – remember him? – left 106 days into a six-and-half-year deal. Chelsea were on a historically bad run in the league, sections of the dressing room were in open revolt and the speed of Rosenior’s demise had inevitably brought questions around the wisdom of the Blueco project back to the surface.

Mcfarlane’s return for a second stint as caretaker has brought little improvement. Chelsea are weighed down by players who turn the tap on and off too readily. The defiance flowed when they beat Leeds in their FA Cup semi-final. There was barely a trickle when they faced Nottingham Forest reserves in their next game and all but destroyed their hopes of European qualification via the league by losing 3-1 at home.

That shocker of a performance made it almost impossible to feel any admiration for Chelsea when they decided to turn up at Anfield last weekend and played the better football in a 1-1 draw with Liverpool. Then again, that knack of lifting it against tougher opposition is why it would be folly to give them no chance of upsetting City. It would be very Chelsea, even though they were thumped by City at Stamford Bridge last month and have not beaten Guardiola’s side since the 2021 Champions League final, a year before the Roman Abramovich era came to an enforced end.

Mcfarlane, who drew with City during his initial caretaker stint in January, could be the unlikely hero. Ending a run of six straight defeats in Wembley finals by winning the FA Cup for the first time since 2018 would salvage a modicum of respect at the end of a needlessly embarrassing season. But it would also show how Chelsea’s players have let themselves down. Some miss Maresca and many did not take to Rosenior, but the way they have tuned out since the turn of the year cannot continue if anything substantial is to be achieved in the long run.

“It’s tough to hear because you know the work that you put in every single day,” the Belgian midfielder Roméo Lavia said this week, but sometimes the truth hurts. Fixing the culture in the dressing room will be a key aim for whoever becomes Chelsea’s next manager. Xabi Alonso, the standout candidate, seems ideally placed to push the squad into line. Alonso, who had a glittering playing career, would have the support of the players and it is understood that talks over the former Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid manager are moving in the right direction.

The situation is expected to accelerate after the final. Chelsea have other names on the list and also like Andoni Iraola, who is wanted by Crystal Palace, but they

have been tracking Alonso since 2023. Convincing the 44-year-old to move to Stamford Bridge would be a big boost for the project. Chelsea, after all, are not as far off as it may seem to their many critics. Reece James and Moisés Caicedo have signed new deals. Levi Colwill is back from injury and Cole Palmer is one of the league’s stars. Chelsea are in a period of “self-reflection”. They know they need to help the array of young talent at their disposal by bringing in some experience, and they will be listening to the new manager’s recommendations.

“The day I lose belief, I will probably be the first one to leave this place,” Lavia said. “If you want to succeed, you have to be 100% into it. When you’re in the building, never at any point do you see there’s a loss of belief. I believe that we will turn it around and get back to the Chelsea everyone knows.”

The Chelsea everyone knows were a winning machine. The odd cup here and there was never enough for Abramovich. Yet the Chelsea of today have turned into something different. Beating City would be cause for celebration but the concern is it would be a flash in the pan. Chelsea must not lose sight of the bigger picture if they want to put the past six months behind them.