FA Cup semi-final weekend is upon us, with four Premier League sides vying to be back at Wembley for May’s final.
Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Manchester City are the last four standing in the 114th edition of the world’s oldest and greatest cup competition; who will go one step closer to FA Cup glory and who will fall agonisingly short?
Here’s our bumper, stats-packed preview to get you right in the mood for Saturday and Sunday’s pair of huge games!
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Crystal Palace v Aston Villa (Saturday, 5:15pm BST)
FA Cup finalists most recently in 2016 and 2015 respectively, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa meet for the fourth time this season in the first of the semi-finals. And it’s Palace who have bragging rights, having knocked Villa out of the Carabao Cup at Villa Park, before drawing there in the Premier League and, in February, recording a 4-1 home league win over Unai Emery’s side.
In fact, Palace have come out on top three of their last four meetings with Villa – but only once have they gone five games without losing to the seven-time FA Cup winners, between 1993 and 1997. The Eagles’ form has also dipped of late, with Oliver Glasner’s men winning just one of their last six matches in all competitions, having previously won 10 out of 13 since the start of 2025.
Villa, despite Tuesday’s gut-punch of a last-gasp defeat to Manchester City, a big blow in their push for Champions League qualification, have been in fantastic shape for the last couple of months.
They’ve won 10 out of 12 in all competitions since late February, beating fellow FA Cup semi-finalists Nottingham Forest, PSG, and Carabao Cup winners Newcastle. On paper at least, Villa head into this tie as favourites.
This will be Villa’s fourth Wembley semi-final (their third at the new Wembley). They’ve won two of the previous three, coming from behind to beat Liverpool 2-1 in the most recent one in 2015. Perhaps even more encouragingly for them, they’ve never lost to Palace in the FA Cup, winning three and drawing one of their four encounters to date.
As for Palace, they’ve won one and lost one semi-final at Wembley, defeating Watford in 2016 but being beaten by Chelsea in 2022.
Nottingham Forest v Manchester City (Sunday, 4:30pm BST)
Both multiple FA Cup winners, Nottingham Forest and Manchester City will go head-to-head to decide this year’s second finalist. They’ve shared the spoils in their two clashes so far in 2024/25, with City winning December’s Premier League meeting at the Etihad 3-0 and Forest clinching a 1-0 victory in March’s return fixture.
It’s a first semi-final appearance since 1991 for Forest, who have featured in this round of the FA Cup at 12 different grounds over the years – though never Wembley in either of its guises. They thrashed West Ham 4-0 on that occasion, under the great Brian Clough, but have fallen at this hurdle nine times in their history. Current boss Nuno Espirito Santo will be hoping to banish all memories of his previous FA Cup semi in 2019, when his Wolves side blew a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 to Watford after extra time.
Nuno did, however, get one over on another of his former clubs, Tottenham, on Monday night, with Forest’s 2-1 victory in North London reigniting their Champions League charge. The fit-again Chris Wood opened the scoring there, and what an occasion this would be for Forest’s big centre-forward to notch his first FA Cup goal of 2024/25 and reach 20 for the campaign in all competitions.
By contrast, City have made history by being semi-finalists in each of the past six seasons, reaching the final in three of them and going on to lift the trophy in 2019 and 2023. Making it to this stage again sees them become the ninth club to play in 20 FA Cup semis – and seven of those have been under Pep Guardiola. City are aiming to reach their 12th final overall, which would see them either equal or leapfrog Aston Villa.
And, despite losing to Forest at the City Ground only last month, Guardiola’s team have rediscovered their form at the business end of what’s been a tricky season to say the least. They’ve won five of their last six games, including each of the last three, and it will come as little surprise to see that the bookies have them pegged as favourites for this one.
