The FA Cup: City's all-time stats and facts | OneFootball

City will be attempting to win the FA Cup trophy for the eighth time when we face Crystal Palace  this Saturday.

Pep Guardiola’s men face Oliver Glasner’s side at Wembley with a 16:30 (UK) kick-off, hoping to banish last year’s 2-1 loss to Manchester United at the same stage.

Guardiola has overseen two FA Cup triumphs so far – the first against Watford in the 2019 final and the 2023 success against Manchester United on the way to an historic Treble.

Those wins saw him follow in the footsteps of Roberto Mancini, Joe Mercer, Les McDowall, Wilf Wild and Tom Maley as bosses who led City to FA Cup glory.

Our first triumph, in 1904, was the Club’s maiden major honour as we became the first team from Manchester to win the competition.

Manchester United (1909), Arsenal (1930), Chelsea (1970), Liverpool (1965), Newcastle United (1910) and Everton (1906) would all have to wait several years for their first FA Cup final wins.

Here we’ll take a look at some of the stats that define our relationship with the famous old competition…

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Long history

The success of Pep Guardiola’s side in 2023 means that we boast the longest period between our first FA Cup success and our most recent – that 119 year gap could be extended to 121 with a victory over Palace.

Aston Villa are the only side who can claim a longer association with the showpiece occasion, with 128 years between their 1887 and 2015 finals.

Win ratio

We have won 208 of our 389 FA Cup matches in our long, illustrious history. This is a win percentage of 53%, better than one win every two matches played.

We have drawn 70 and lost 111 of the remaining matches, with the nature of the competition meaning a defeat signals the end of your participation for that season.

Goals scored and conceded

We have scored 754 goals in our 389 matches, at an average of 1.94 per match – an incredible record of almost two goals per FA Cup tie played.

Fred Tilson’s 22 goals makes him our leading scorer in the competition, with Sergio Aguero the next best on 20.

The 460 goals we have conceded equals out at 1.18 per match, with the Blues having a positive goal difference of 294 across our FA Cup’s history.

Biggest wins

City’s three biggest wins in the FA Cup all came in the inter-war period of the 20th century.

We beat Swindon 10-1 in January 1930 for our most comprehensive victory, with the 9-0 defeat of Gateshead in 1933 and 11-4 win over Crystal Palace in 1926 the next best.

The Blues came within a whisker of equalling our biggest winning margin when beating Salford City in this year’s FA Cup third round.

We have also won 7-0 three times in the FA Cup; against Swindon in 1953, Reading in 1968 and Rotherham in 2019.

Our 2019 final victory, a 6-0 win over Watford, is the joint-biggest win in an FA Cup final in the competition’s history. It’s tied with Bury’s 1903 win over Derby County, the year before City lifted the trophy for the first time.

WATCH: City 8-0 Salford: Extended highlights

Most trophies

Our seven successes puts us joint-sixth for the most FA Cup trophies, alongside Aston Villa - Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur are equal third with eight triumphs each while Manchester United (13) and Arsenal (14) are still some way ahead.

Managers with most wins

Pep Guardiola is the Club’s most successful manager in the FA Cup in terms of matches won, having already tasted victory 40 times in his stint at the Etihad Stadium.

The next best City managers in this tournament are Wilf Wild (22), Les McDowall (17) and Joe Mercer (16) with Ernest Mangnall and Roberto Mancini (both 13) rounding out the top six.

2025 FA Cup final stats

City and Palace have never met in the FA Cup final, but there have been four previous ties in earlier rounds.

Saturday’s FA Cup final will be the fifth FA Cup meeting between the sides, with the first two encounters played in this competition back in the 1920s.

Having lost 2-0 at Palace in 1921, we hosted the Eagles at Maine Road in February 1926 for a game that still sets the standards for entertainment.

The 15 strikes in our 11-4 fifth round victory means that meeting remains the most goal-laden Manchester City game of all time.

Just two FA Cup ties between City and Palace have followed in the years since, with the Blues winning 4-0 on the way to the 1981 FA Cup final and 3-0 in 2017.

City have returned to win the FA Cup having lost the season before on two occasions.

After a 3-0 FA Cup final defeat to Everton, we were back at Wembley in 1934 to beat Portsmouth 2-1.

And after a 3-1 loss to Newcastle United in 1955, the Blues were back 12 months later to beat Birmingham City 3-1.

Kevin De Bruyne will be hoping to create a new FA Cup final assists record if he plays against Palace.

The Belgian has assisted three goals in FA Cup finals to date, setting up Gabriel Jesus in 2019 and both of Ilkay Gündogan’s strikes in the 2023 final against United.

No player on record (since 1962) has provided more assists in FA Cup finals than our skipper, though Olivier Giroud also three.

WATCH: Nottingham Forest 0-2 City: Extended FA Cup highlights

O’Reilly leads the way

Four players have played in every round of this season’s competition.

Nico O’Reilly, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Ilkay Gundogan all have five appearances each.

But O’Reilly is also our top scorer with three goals to date – plus two assists!

The 20-year-old’s impact has been stunning in this competition, with his brace against Plymouth turning around a 0-1 score-line and his magnificent cameo against Bournemouth resulting in two assists. A third win from a losing position in this run to Wembley also came against Leyton Orient.

And nobody has played more minutes than O’Reilly, who has 386 under his belt to date – 14 more than Gundogan on 372.