Tottenham Pegged to Win FA Cup, End Wembley Jinx
Wembley Stadium has not been too kind to Tottenham over the years, but former club captain, Gary Mabbutt, believes that’s about to change.
For close to a decade now there’s been a thorn on Tottenham’s side. And that’s playing at Wembley Stadium. A ground that has been unkind to the north London club.
Throughout different tenured managers and different squads, the results were always the same. A loss at the national team stadium.
Under Mauricio Pochettino, it was the same for two straight occasions until he broke the streak of seven straight losses in all competitions by seeing his side beat CSKA Moscow early in the season.
It’s a very small sample size (three games in the Champions League), but coupled with Tottenham’s history at Wembley in cup competitions — the League Cup and FA Cup — there’s cause for concern.
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Dating back to Wembley’s re-opening in 2007, Spurs have won once and loss the rest.
A 2-1 League Cup win over Chelsea in 2008 saw the north London club lift up another trophy to add to their collection. This would be Spurs’ last silverware claimed however.
Since then Spurs missed out on a League Cup finals repeat by losing to Manchester United in 2009 on penalties 4-1 after a goalless draw following 120 minutes of play.
They got beaten by Portsmouth 2-0 after extra time in the 2010 FA Cup semi-finals and got bounced out once more two years later at the hands of Chelsea in a 5-1 drubbing during the 2012 FA Cup semi-finals.
In 2015, during Mauricio Pochettino’s first year on the job as Tottenham manager, he led his side to the League Cup final against José Mourinho’s Chelsea team and lost 2-1.
Two League Cup final defeats, two FA Cup semi-final defeats and now, two Champions League defeats from earlier in the season. The woes at Wembley continue.
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That of course has not stopped former Spurs captain Gary Mabbutt from exuding confidence in his former club to go the distance this year and lift up the prestigious FA Cup while also ending a so-called “Wembley jinx”.
"“I’ve been frustrated this season with people talking about a Wembley jinx,” Mabbutt told the Daily Mail (quotes provided by the Evening Standard).“There were two poor performances at the start of the Champions League and that was it – it was nothing to do with a Wembley jinx.”“People building up the hoodoo of playing at Wembley, it’s absolute nonsense.”“I think that will be proven this season because I’m quietly confident Tottenham will go on to win the FA Cup this year.”"
If we’re strictly isolating Mauricio Pochettino’s team from all the other Spurs teams that took the pitch at Wembley, the Argentine manager’s official record at Wembley stands at two wins and two losses in all competitions.
Though, his squad during the 2014-15 season and League Cup final compared to this year is night and day. There’s much more quality and depth than two years ago.
So by looking at what Pochettino’s side did earlier in the year during the Champions League, which Gary Mabbutt referred to above, Mabbutt’s correct in that Spurs did not play well in those two fixtures.
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It’s unknown what the cause was. Whether it was nerves, whether it was the spacious pitch or a formation that has not done well against certain teams (the 4-2-3-1), but it could be argued that Spurs are one of the favorites to lift up the FA Cup this year.
A change in tactics to utilize a back three and assuming that Danny Rose is fit in time for the FA Cup semi-finals, could very well see Tottenham reach the finals.