LONDON (Reuters) -- Facts and figures relating to Saturday's FA Cup final between Arsenal and Chelsea in Cardiff:
Arsenal will equal Manchester United's record of 15 FA Cup final appearances. They have won seven and lost seven of their previous 14 finals, including last year's final when they lost 2-1 to Liverpool.
If they win on Saturday, Arsenal will join their arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur on eight wins following their previous successes in 1930, 1936, 1950, 1971, 1979, 1993 and 1998. Only Manchester United (10 wins) have more victories.
Chelsea are appearing in the Cup final for the seventh time -- with four of those appearances coming in the last eight years (1994, 1997, 2000 and 2002). They are looking for their fourth victory following successes in 1970, 1997 and 2000.
Arsenal are seeking to become only the second club after Manchester United to win the English FA Cup and League double three times, following their previous doubles in 1971 and 1998.
Arsenal have not lost to Chelsea in the FA Cup for 55 years since Chelsea won a third-round, second replay in 1947. Since then they have played seven times, Arsenal winning four times with three draws.
Between 1946 and 1952, Arsenal and Chelsea played seven matches in the FA Cup including replays. After that, they were not drawn against each other again for 41 years.
They met in both the 1950 and 1952 FA Cup semifinals and Arsenal won both semifinal replays after drawn matches. All four games took place at White Hart Lane. They had also played the second replay of their 1947 tie at White Hart Lane, so unusually played five successive FA Cup matches against each other at Tottenham's ground.
Overall, the two clubs have met each other 14 times in the FA Cup, with Arsenal winning five times and Chelsea four with five matches drawn. Their last meeting was in the fifth round last season when Arsenal won 3-1 at Highbury.
Saturday's final is the first all-London derby for 20 years and is only the fifth following the formation of the Football League in 1888. The only other all-London affairs have been: 1967: Tottenham v Chelsea (2-1); 1975: West Ham v Fulham (2-0); 1980: West Ham v Arsenal (1-0); 1982: Tottenham v Queens Park Rangers (1-0 after a 1-1 draw).
Although both teams are from London, very few players were born there. Of those who might play a part on Saturday only John Terry, Frank Lampard and Jody Morris of Chelsea are from London, while Tony Adams, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole and Ray Parlour of Arsenal hail from the capital.
Arsenal will be desperate not to join a small band of clubs who have lost successive finals. Only seven clubs share this unwanted honour -- Newcastle having done it twice. They are: Old Etonians (1875/1876); Queen's Park (Glasgow) (1884/1885), West Bromwich Albion (1886/1887), Derby County (1898/1899), Newcastle United (1905/1906 and 1998/1999), Manchester United (1957/1958) and Everton (1985/1986).
Chelsea's Roberto Di Matteo holds two FA Cup final scoring records. In 1997 he netted the fastest FA Cup final goal in any of the 72 FA Cup finals staged at Wembley Stadium when he scored Chelsea's first after 43 seconds in their 2-0 win over Middlesbrough. In 2000 he scored the only goal in their 1-0 win over Aston Villa, the last goal in the final before Wembley was closed down. Di Matteo was forced to retire earlier this season and has been invited to lead Chelsea out at Saturday's final.
Fredrik Ljungberg of Arsenal scored the first FA Cup final goal at the Millennium Stadium when he put Arsenal ahead after 72 minutes against Liverpool last year. Michael Owen became the first player to score two Cup final goals there when he replied after 83 and 88 minutes.
Every player who appeared in Arsenal's losing side last year is still at the club and apart from Gilles Grimandi, who is injured, could appear again on Saturday. In contrast only six players who featured in Chelsea's 2000 Cup-winning side are still at Stamford Bridge.
Emmanuel Petit, a member of Arsenal's 1998 double-winning side, is set to join Brian Talbot as the only two players to play for and against Arsenal in the FA Cup Final. Talbot played for Ipswich against Arsenal in 1978 and played for Arsenal in the 1979 and 1980 finals. Petit was a member of Arsenal's double-winning team in 1998 and will line up for Chelsea on Saturday.
The only man to play for and against Chelsea in the final is Mark Hughes who played for Manchester against Chelsea in 1994, scoring the third in United's 4-0 win, and for Chelsea against Middlesbrough in 1997.
For only the second time in the 130-year history of the FA Cup both clubs are being managed by overseas coaches with Frenchman Arsene Wenger leading Arsenal and Italian Claudio Ranieri leading Chelsea. Although it is only the second time, it is continuing a trend started last year, when it happened for the first time: Frenchman Gerard Houllier guided Liverpool to victory against Wenger.
Dutchman Ruud Gullit became the first overseas coach to win the FA Cup, with Chelsea in 1997, while Italian Gianluca Vialli was the winning manager in 2000.
Chelsea will become the first club to win the FA Cup at three different venues since World War Two if they are successful, having won the replayed 1970 final at Old Trafford and the 1997 and 2000 finals at Wembley.
Chelsea's Peter Osgood (1970) was the last player to score in every round of the Cup including the final.
Arsenal have won the toss for the 'lucky' south dressing room at Cardiff. In all nine soccer finals played at Cardiff, including playoffs and the League Cup, the team allocated the north dressing room have lost. Arsenal had the north dressing room last year.
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