Its Arsenal v Man City in the semi final of the FA Cup as the Road to Wembley from Scotland reaches Wembley!

Last night in the last quarter final to be played in the FA Cup season 2016-17 Chelsea beat Manchester United 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. So the four teams who are left in the world’s most famous football competition are Chelsea, Spurs, Manchester City and my new team on the Road to Wembley from Scotland – Arsenal. The draw was made and the pairings are Chelsea v Spurs and Arsenal v Manchester City. So the die is cast and on the weekend of the 22/23 April I will finally arrive at Wembley Stadium for the match between the Gunners and City.

Arch rivals Arsenal and Man City will match up at Wembley in April

After all the controversy in the earlier rounds relating to some of the bigger clubs fielding weakened teams in this iconic football competition it is interesting that now we have reached the business end of the tournament that the four semi finalists are four of the top five teams in the Premier League. The winner of the 2016-17 FA Cup is going to be one of English football’s royalty.

As regular readers will know I always look for links between the competing teams and Bonny Scotland. The links between Arsenal and Bella Caledonia have been previously reported and an early couple of clicks on google confirm that Manchester City also have strong links historically with God’s chosen country. In the Times ‘Top 50 Manchester City players of all time’ we find Scotsmen Dave Ewing, Willie Donnachie, Denis Law and Asa Hartford. The club were also managed by Scottish football icon Billy ‘Ceasar’ McNeil in the 1980s. More about all these famous ‘City Scots’ in a later post.

There are no Scots in the current Man City squad and I was racking my brain to think who was the last Scot to play for City. I am pretty sure that someone from north of the border must have donned the famous sky blue shirt within the last 10 years but the name that sprung to mind was Paul Dickov.

Paul Dickov: Former Scotland international who has played for both Arsenal and Man City

Former Scottish international Paul, from West Lothian, interestingly also played for Arsenal. He had two spells at Manchester City (initially from 1996-2002 and later from 2006-2008). He spent his last few months with City on loan at Blackpool and hence played for Man City for the last time in 2007. His big moment with City was in the Division Two play off final at Wembley in 1999 when his powerful shot in the 6^th minute of stoppage time from just inside the area helped Man City beat Gillingham and hence end their exile in the third tier of English football. The Gillingham goalie, Vince Bartram, on that fateful day in 1999 was later to become the best man at Pul Dickov’s wedding.

Dickov scores at Wembley and Man City escape from Division Two in 1999

That feeling of scoring a big goal at Wembley

This goal was voted City’s greatest ever goal in a 2005 fans survey conducted by Manchester City. I have a feeling that the ‘Aguerro moment’ in 2012 might have relegated Dickov’s achievement into second place!

Over the next few weeks I will be doing some more investigation into the links between Man City and Scotland. Jumping back to the present day I note that I will have an early opportunity to assess Man City’s current form as they play Monaco in the second leg of a ‘round of last 16’ Champions League tie on BT Sport tomorrow night. Meanwhile the Gunners, now out of Europe, have a chance to put their feet up before they take on West Brom at the weekend.

Will the Sky Blues Skelp Monaco? Will there be any more ‘Wenger Out’ nonsense from the Arsenal supporters? Was Paul Dickov really the last Scot to play for Man City? Come back here on Thursday to find out … and … keep reading!