You wouldn’t know it from commentaries in the papers of the day but on 12 April 2014 Arsenal equalled another record – the most semi-final appearances in the FA Cup and the most won. In fact as the chart below shows, Arsenal’s record on that date is exactly the same as Man U.
The nearest challenger is Everton, with two semi-final appearances fewer, but five wins fewer. I’ve included all the way down to 19 appearances because that allows me to drop in that great cup side, Tottenham, with 19 appearances in the semi-final (8 short of Arsenal) and nine victories (9 short of Arsenal).
| Team | Appearances | Won | Lost |
| Arsenal | 27 | 18 | 9 |
| Manchester U | 27 | 18 | 9 |
| Everton | 25 | 13 | 12 |
| Liverpool | 23 | 14 | 9 |
| Chelsea | 21 | 11 | 10 |
| West Brom | 20 | 10 | 10 |
| Aston Villa | 20 | 10 | 10 |
| Tottenham H | 19 | 9 | 10 |
Which leads nicely on to the final. Man U have won the final once more than Arsenal, and both have lost the final seven times. The “17” for Arsenal finals doesn’t include 2014, because to be historically accurate, it hasn’t yet happened so can’t be recorded. So this table will be adjusted in May.
What is interesting is that of these top 12 cup winning teams, only Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City have won it more recently than Arsenal.
Arsenal was a comparative late comer in winning the cup – 1930 under Chapman – only Liverpool (1965) and Chelsea (1970) started winning it later.
Tottenham have the best record in terms of win percentage – having lost only one final, Everton have the worst record in the final, losing 8. Two of these teams have lost more than they have won (Newcastle and Everton).
| Club | Wins | First final won | Last final won | Runners-up | Total finals |
| Manchester U | 11 | 1909 | 2004 | 7 | 18 |
| Arsenal | 10 | 1930 | 2005 | 7 | 17 |
| Tottenham H | 8 | 1901 | 1991 | 1 | 9 |
| Liverpool | 7 | 1965 | 2006 | 7 | 14 |
| Chelsea | 7 | 1970 | 2012 | 4 | 11 |
| Aston Villa | 7 | 1887 | 1957 | 3 | 10 |
| Newcastle U | 6 | 1910 | 1955 | 7 | 13 |
| Blackburn R | 6 | 1884 | 1928 | 2 | 8 |
| Everton | 5 | 1906 | 1995 | 8 | 13 |
| West Brom | 5 | 1888 | 1968 | 5 | 10 |
| Manchester C | 5 | 1904 | 2011 | 5 | 10 |
| Wanderers | 5 | 1872 | 1878 | 0 | 5 |
Of the teams fighting it out for the other place in the final, Hull have never appeared in the final, while Sheffield United have won the cup four times and been beaten finalists twice. Their most recent appearance in the final was 1936 when they lost 1-0 to Arsenal. Ted Drake scored.
Seven teams have won the Double, but only two have done the Double more than once: Arsenal and Man U, each three times.
