You could be forgiven for missing the name. Once you’ve looked through the entire 18-man matchday squad of Metropolitan Police FC, and the entire 18-man matchday squad of Newport County, the 36th and final name on the list is there: Antoine Semenyo.

Seven and a half years before he was the FA Cup final’s winning goalscorer for Manchester City against Chelsea at Wembley, Semenyo made his FA Cup debut at the somewhat unlikely venue of Imber Court, just outside the borders of London, in Surrey.

Met Police FC are perhaps the least glamorous side in the entire footballing pyramid. Once literally the work team of London’s police force, today they’re a generic non-League outfit, although one still part-funded by the workforce’s lottery system. Perhaps the most notable thing about the club is that their all-time record goalscorer is Mario Russo, father of Arsenal Women and England striker Alessia Russo.

This season, Met Police have averaged a crowd of around 70 people, but more than 1,000 packed into Imber Court for that visit of Newport County in 2018, the PA system crackling out I Fought The Law by The Clash as the players came out of the tunnel in pouring rain. Semenyo was only given a seven-minute runout, during a loan at Newport from Bristol City.

And therefore Semenyo, more than anyone else on the pitch at Wembley on Saturday, knows what this competition is all about. It’s not just about Wembley, and it’s not just about what happens at cramped non-League venues in the first few months of the season. It’s about both: the concept that any club, in theory, can progress through the rounds to face Premier League opposition. In reality, clubs don’t progress all the way. But sometimes players do.

Semenyo had to do things the hard way. He was rejected by Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace and Millwall in his teenage years.

“I went to so many clubs and it was the same result every time: ‘Yeah, not good enough. Come back in the next couple of months’,” Semenyo said in an interview with The Athletic in 2024. “It happened with Millwall four or five times and I ended up getting frustrated. They were scouting me every three months but every time I went for a trial, I was told I wasn’t good enough.” After being rejected by Palace, Semenyo spent the following year barely playing sport at all.

It was only after he moved from London to Swindon at 16 that his football career vaguely got back on track, albeit at the somewhat unpromising-sounding South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, at an age when most future top Premier League players are in academies. He owes much to the mentorship of the side’s coach, former Leeds United manager David Hockaday.

“A lot of people don’t bounce back,” Hockaday told The Athletic earlier this year. “Well, Antoine has bounced back to the nth degree… the journey that Antoine had is something of a throwback. I’m sure he’s been playing with groups of friends, experiencing rejection, and been resilient enough to overcome that.”

That Newport FA Cup run was the making of Semenyo. He started in the 4-0 win against fellow Welsh outfit Wrexham before their Hollywood takeover, and was then excellent in a classic giant-killing, when they a defeated a Leicester City side with a defence of four Premier League title winners: Danny Simpson, Wes Morgan, Jonny Evans and Christian Fuchs.

Antoine Semenyo in action for Newport County against Leicester City (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

He returned to Bristol City before Newport’s cup run was over. It was actually the second of three key loan spells: one in the sixth tier with Bath City, one in the fourth tier with Newport, and one in the third tier with Sunderland.

From there, Semenyo has conquered first the Championship with Bristol City, then the Premier League with Bournemouth. Having regularly impressed in matches against Manchester City, his move to Pep Guardiola’s side in January was a reflection that he was now among the most fearsome attackers in the Premier League. Comfortable on either flank, and equally happy shooting with his left or right foot, Guardiola initially deployed Semenyo in a No 10 role, but now uses him mostly from the right flank.

Semenyo’s FA Cup winner was a moment of magic in an otherwise drab match. Meeting Erling Haaland’s driven cut-back with an instinctive touch with the inside of his right foot, behind his left foot and into the ground, he generated extra momentum by pirouetting upon impact. Had he tried something similar on that miserable trip to Met Police, the ball would probably have got stuck in the mud.

Antoine Semenyo’s backheeled finish proved to be the winner against Chelsea (Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images)

After the game, Chelsea’s interim manager Callum McFarlane analysed the goal well.

“We held the line really well,” he said. “Semenyo goes into an offside position, Bernardo (Silva) is trying to slide Semenyo in, Haaland reads it, and gets onto the ball. We make him play an awkward, right-footed cross under pressure, and he finishes from outside the line of the front post, under pressure. So, for me, it’s a one-in-a-hundred goal, a really low-xG goal, so there’s nothing more we could do in that moment.”

“Usually he crosses to Erling,” said Guardiola. “Today, Erling crossed to him.”

An FA Cup final between City and Chelsea may not have captured the imagination of the neutrals — this was the 10th season in a row the final has featured one of these clubs. But Semenyo was a great match-winner.

Up and down the country, and up and down the football pyramid, footballers will be telling their mates that, once upon a time, they played against the man who scored the winner in the FA Cup final.

Jamie Carragher was in no doubt.

“My worry with Liverpool and Arne Slot,” the former defender said on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football last week, “is are we going to be in a situation a bit like (Erik) ten Hag where he had a great first season… but the second season was really poor. Then you get into October and you think, ‘We’ve got to change the manager’.”

Carragher acknowledged that Slot’s achievement in winning the Premier League in his first campaign elevated him to a level above Ten Hag at Manchester United, but the point stood.

On Saturday, Mohamed Salah delivered a stinging criticism of Slot’s approach, calling for Liverpool to return to “being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear”. “It cannot be negotiable and everyone that joins this club should adapt to it,” said Salah, who will leave the club at the end of this season. “Winning some games here and there is not what Liverpool should be about.”

Salah’s comments followed a limp defeat at Aston Villa that increased criticism of Slot and questions about his future in the job.

We asked Manchester United reporter Carl Anka and Liverpool reporter Andy Jones to debate the parallels between the two Dutch coaches and whether Liverpool should be concerned.

What are the similarities between Slot’s second season and Ten Hag’s?

Anka: Ten Hag’s first season in charge of United delivered silverware, Champions League football and the hope that the club were beginning a new dynastic period. Then 2023-24 happened and misfires in the transfer market, a widespread injury crisis and an overambitious tactical gameplan saw everything unravel.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh, but it is fascinating to watch another Dutch manager have a positive first season built on the goals of a wide player (Marcus Rashford/Mohamed Salah), only to watch said player get deprioritised following the summer signing of a new striker (Rasmus Hojlund/Alexander Isak).

Jones: Both came in and steered the ship in the direction of progress. The following seasons saw a wrong turn and regression to the point where many supporters have given up.

In isolation, Liverpool’s summer business was very good, but there are so many mitigating factors to consider. Injuries, new player adaptation and recruitment focusing on technical players while the rest of the league prepared for a fight. There is also the impact of everyone losing a friend and team-mate in Diogo Jota a few days before pre-season. How does a head coach deal with that?

Arne Slot won the Premier League in fine style in his first season (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

That being said, the brand of football has been miserable. All the traits that made Liverpool so good last season – pressing, controlled threat and a compact defensive structure – have been largely non-existent. Slot has struggled to find solutions tactically, with the exception of making matches into low-event games, but personnel have played a part in that too.

Ten Hag’s side couldn’t possibly have been as bad at defending set pieces though, surely?

Do they play similar styles of football?

Anka: Not when things were working for Liverpool, but the team’s current state bears a few similarities to United’s turgid football from Ten Hag’s second season. United in 2023-24 were weak pressers of the ball in the front three and had huge injury problems in their defence. The result was a team that was stretched thin in both boxes, creating a “doughnut midfield” that was underpowered and easily bypassed with quick counter-attacks.

I don’t believe Slot wants Liverpool to play this way. Much like Ten Hag, he’s been dealt a strange set of cards. But like Ten Hag, he’s also playing them in a strange way.

Liverpool fans, I sincerely ask you this question for the comment section: what does Slot want Liverpool to do when they don’t have the ball?

Jones: You’re right, Carl, and Slot has said as much during the campaign. He wants his team to dominate ball possession, but he also wants them to press opponents out of possession. The problem is, either through profile or performance, they have struggled to do that at the required standards.

Slot’s system relies heavily on wingers, but Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo’s ineffectiveness has been a real issue. So, too, has ball progression from their initial build-up phase without Trent Alexander-Arnold, as well as a lack of patterns of play in the final third.

Out of possession, Slot is not a full-on, high-press manager, he likes to set traps. The problem is, when your side lacks intensity, aggression and cohesion, those traps are easy to spot and avoid.

Liverpool have become that soft touch that teams find easy to play against — it was the same feeling I had about Ten Hag’s side.

How about how they present themselves in public to the media?

Anka: Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Manchester United at the start of last season was damaging for Ten Hag, not only for the manner of the defeat, but also for an impressive post-match interview where Slot calmly explained the structural problems at the heart of Ten Hag’s system.

Slot was not only seen as a better tactician but also a better communicator. Ten Hag found it difficult to be funny or charismatic when speaking in English and looked worse in comparison.

Erik ten Hag struggled to communicate effectively at Manchester United (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Slot has lost a lot of that charm across 2025-26, and his repeated references to the Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain from March last season have grown weary. He’s been a little too honest about Liverpool’s problems.

Jones: Not a press conference goes by these days without a section of the fanbase finding a fault with one of Slot’s answers.

He is typically Dutch, straight-talking and honest, but sometimes he can be too honest. Repeatedly talking about PSG or low blocks have rubbed people up the wrong way, but when he kept bringing up the 1-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest in his first season, that didn’t bother people as much because Liverpool were winning.

He is a good communicator who tries to properly answer every question, slipping in the occasional attempt at humour. What has changed is he has spent this season speaking after a lot of defeats and even more poor performances. Liverpool fans thrive off connection: they want their manager to show emotion, motivate them and make them believe. It’s less of an issue if the results are good, but it is when things aren’t going well and people are looking for something to get behind.

United gave Ten Hag a contract extension after the 2024 FA Cup final and regretted it. Should Liverpool stick by Slot?

Anka: Sir Jim Ratcliffe once described Ten Hag’s contract extension as “an error”, saying he wanted to give the Dutchman the “benefit of the doubt” after the FA Cup win. The argument for keeping an underperforming manager tends to centre on whether there were enough mitigating circumstances behind a bad season, and whether the club can use their summer to make the correct changes in player recruitment and wider infrastructure to fix things.

United failed to do either in the summer of 2024, and you could feel fans and players slowly lose faith. Liverpool fans are booing Slot’s tactical decisions.

Andy, it feels like he’s lost buy-in. Once that happens, cut the chord.

Erik ten Hag’s FA Cup win kept him in a job at United (Alex Pantling/Getty Images )

Jones: I’m one of the shrinking minority that would give Slot the benefit of the doubt because I think his job has been made very difficult due to injuries on top of an unbalanced squad – yes, they spent a lot, but too much emphasis was placed on quality, not quantity. Problems have snowballed due to underperformance from key players and a squad-wide loss of confidence.

No doubt, there are big questions for him to answer tactically, which new, more-suited personnel should help with, but there is no doubt it would be a gamble to continue with him. More importantly, it feels like he has lost too much of the fanbase. Estimating it at about 80 per cent of supporters who are ready to move on might be being kind.

The idea of a managerial change in October if Liverpool stick with Slot feels ominous, because a couple of poor results will bring back the negativity currently engulfing the club and his position will become untenable.

Ten Hag has struggled since leaving United. Do we think Slot will do the same post-Liverpool?

Anka: Ten Hag’s post-United career saw a disastrous three-game spell in charge of Bayer Leverkusen, where he fell out with nearly every important player and senior executive at the club. Ten Hag’s team will argue he was set up to fail during a difficult transitional period for the club after Xabi Alonso’s successful spell. German media described him as an odd communicator with unusual training habits.

Next season will see Ten Hag skip management altogether, taking up a new role as sporting director of his boyhood club FC Twente. Slot is unlikely to have a Leverkusen-style bust-up but he, too, might return to the Eredivisie one day.

Jones: Slot is clearly a talented head coach. You do not rock up to the Premier League and ‘fluke’ winning it in your first season. The squad he inherited was strong, but his tweaks improved it.

A lot of what comes next depends on the conditions of the job that you take. After a season like Slot has endured, you can imagine he would take his time to consider his next move.

The Eredivisie may make the most sense, and you would expect him to do well again, but compared to the current stylistic profile of the Premier League, there are other top European leagues which his system and philosophies would probably suit better right now.

Xabi Alonso might have been more interested than most to see Chelsea’s starting formation in the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday.

Chelsea’s incoming manager made his reputation as one of Europe’s most coveted young coaches at Bayer Leverkusen, implementing a sophisticated 3-4-2-1 system that powered one of the most impressive seasons in the modern history of European club football in 2023-24. His dynamic young team claimed the Bundesliga title and DFB Pokal and lost just one of the 53 matches they played across all competitions: the Europa League final against Atalanta.

Interim head coach Calum McFarlane’s pragmatic game plan in a 1-0 defeat to Manchester City did not quite give off Alonso at Leverkusen vibes, but his decision to line up in a 3-4-2-1 formation did at least present an early opportunity for the Spaniard to see how suited various Chelsea players might be to similar roles in his team next season.

Alonso’s football at Leverkusen was built upon the principles that many modern coaches embrace: aggressive pressing and control and creation through possession dominance. But his team distinguished themselves through superior organisation with and without the ball, exploiting space to play to the specific strengths of their personnel.

His three-man Leverkusen defence regularly featured two ball-playing centre-backs either side of a more physical defender, but the team as a whole was asymmetrical.

Alejandro Grimaldo, the left wing-back, functioned as one of the primary playmakers, dropping deep to make a back four if circumstances required and overlapping or underlapping when he attacked. Jeremie Frimpong, the right wing-back, was frequently the furthest man forward. The two men generated a combined 19 goals and 20 assists in the Bundesliga in 2023-24.

Despite being arguably the best long diagonal passer of his generation as a player, Alonso generally discourages these passes as a coach, preferring to keep the distances between his players shorter in order to facilitate passing combinations and ensure his team are always in good position to counter-press if the ball is lost.

Instead of being found by quick switches of play, Grimaldo and Frimpong would often become involved in Leverkusen moves higher up the pitch after the ball had worked its way through Alonso’s midfield box (consisting of the two deeper midfielders and the two No10s). Granit Xhaka was the midfielder primarily tasked with threading progressive passes through opposing lines, while Florian Wirtz would often receive the ball with space to turn and run towards goal.

Xhaka was key to Alonso’s system (Photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Leverkusen’s alignment in possession was essentially a 3-box-3, which will be familiar to Chelsea fans from Enzo Maresca’s tenure. But instead of full backs inverting into midfield and wingers hugging the touchline, his team featured attacking wing-backs carrying a level of threat in the final third much more akin to Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses under Antonio Conte, or (sadly all too briefly due to injuries) Ben Chilwell and Reece James under Thomas Tuchel.

It is unclear whether James’ body will still allow him to perform a role which requires him to cover so much ground at high intensity. Malo Gusto is athletically capable of being the Frimpong at Chelsea, but has not demonstrated the same level of aptitude in front of goal. There is no analogous player in this squad to Grimaldo; Marc Cucurella, the man who displaced him in the Spain team, is positionally smart but a more effective off-ball runner than on-ball playmaker.

Chelsea have lacked a truly elite goalkeeper ever since Thibaut Courtois’ departure in 2018, but encouragingly Alonso succeeded without one at Leverkusen; Lukas Hradecky was widely regarded in Germany as good rather than great at the time, while being prone to the occasional error. Robert Sanchez has a similar reputation, and it is unreasonable to expect that Belgian prospect Mike Penders’ assimilation to English football will be seamless.

Can Cucurella play the Grimaldo role? (Photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

A more physically dominant presence is needed in defence, where Chelsea can be bullied at times. Wesley Fofana’s form this season has been very erratic. Tosin Adarabioyo’s lack of speed makes it hard for him to defend high up the pitch. Jorrel Hato and Josh Acheampong are talented but raw youngsters. Trevoh Chalobah has also made defensive errors, but he has a rounded skill set and could even be re-cast as a Robert Andrich-style midfield destroyer.

Alonso is blessed to inherit a number of excellent progressive passers at Chelsea. As he demonstrated against City at Wembley, the fit-again Levi Colwill is exceptional at breaking opposition lines with passes out of defence. That is Romeo Lavia’s best quality in midfield, while Moises Caicedo, Andrey Santos and Enzo Fernandez can all see and play vertical passes into the final third — though the Argentine may well be better utilised as one of the No 10s.

There are few players in world football better suited to the Wirtz role than Cole Palmer, even if Chelsea’s talisman has struggled to find his best this season. Joao Pedro also seems to be exactly what Alonso looks for in his striker: a No 9 with the skill set to become a No 10 depending on the situation, dropping deep to link play as well as running in behind.

Chelsea’s stable of wingers may be less confident of their future prospects if Alonso implements his Leverkusen system. Estevao regards himself as much a No 10 as a winger, and perhaps Pedro Neto could be effective more centrally, but Alejandro Garnacho and Jamie Gittens look less suitable for such a transition. Could either of them or summer arrival Geovany Quenda be reinvented as wing-backs, a la Moses?

Can Estevao make himself central to Alonso’s team? (Photo: Bradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images)

The caveat to all of the above is that there is no guarantee that Alonso will implement his Leverkusen system at Chelsea.

He is too smart a football mind to be wedded to one formation, and there were times during his ill-fated brief tenure at Real Madrid that he lined up with a four-man defence or a two-man attack — partly in recognition of the differing strengths of his players and partly, one suspects, because he was trying to compensate for the fact that some of them did not buy into his ideas.

Alonso was undone at Real Madrid by politics, not tactics. He thrived at Leverkusen leading a group of pliable, talented young footballers, then struggled to command a dressing room full of international superstars. Chelsea’s squad demographic falls somewhere in between but is probably closer to the former than the latter, and a football legend with his resume should not encounter the authority problems faced by previous BlueCo hires.

Next season, then, should be all about the football at Chelsea. Alonso has plenty of good raw material to work with and, provided he is given the right support and empowered to build a team in his image, there is every reason for fans to be excited about the potential of this appointment.