Man City vs Man United LIVE: FA Cup final start time, updates and line-ups as Marcus Rashford starts at Wembley

Man City: Ortega, Walker, Stones, Ake, Gvardiol, Rodri, Kovacic, De Bruyne, Foden, Silva, Haaland

Man United: Onana, Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Martinez, Dalot, Amrabat, McTominay, Mainoo, Garnacho, Fernandes, Rashford

TEAM NEWS: Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson will miss the final due to a fractured eye socket he suffered against Tottenham earlier this month.

Pep Guardiola has no other fresh injury concerns before the final, with no new injuries picked up during the last week’s win against West Ham.

Conversely, Erik ten Hag is dealing with several injuries, both long-term and short-term, ahead of the game. In his Thursday press conference, the Dutchman confirmed that Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia will all definitely miss the match.

Victor Lindelof, Mason Mount and Anthony Martial have all trained this week and could be part of the 20-man squad, with Marcus Rashford, Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez also looking likely to feature.

Manchester City predicted XI: Ortega; Walker, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol; Rodri, Kovacic, Silva, De Bruyne, Foden; Haaland

Manchester United predicted XI: Onana; Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Martinez, Dalot; Casemiro, Mainoo; Garnacho, Fernandes, Rashford; Hojlund

Confirmed lineups will be available soon…

Latest odds for today on a few markets for the final:

There aren’t too many at Old Trafford who, as it stands, will look back on this season fondly. Yet there is a still smaller group of Manchester United players: those who have been fit for all of it.

It leaves a trio as the last men standing: only goalkeeper Andre Onana, Alejandro Garnacho and Diogo Dalot have not been injured. The full-back has leapfrogged the ubiquitous Fernandes to play the most minutes among outfield players, some 4,274. He has only sat out two of United’s 51 matches: when he was suspended at West Ham in December, following his dismissal for dissent at Anfield, and when he was an unused substitute on the opening night against Wolves. He has started 47 of the last 49, including 25 in a row. He has not missed a minute since January.

How Diogo Dalot became United’s unexpected exception:

Erik ten Hag has insisted he has no concerns about his future and has said he will go on a hard-earned holiday on Sunday – after already holding talks with Manchester United’s owners to review what he admitted was a “horrible” season.

“We already did and on Sunday I will go on holiday,” he said. “I think I deserve it.”

Ten Hag is adamant United have improved considerably on his watch, despite recording their lowest-ever Premier League finish, and is looking forward to a break.

The cliché is that footballers take each game as it comes. Kyle Walker isn’t, even though his next match could see him join the club of FA Cup-winning captains. Instead, a man with his eye on history is also already targeting a far greater achievement. “Why can’t we do five in a row?” asked the Manchester City skipper.

No one had won four consecutive English league titles until Pep Guardiola’s team beat West Ham last week. Now another unique feat beckons: there have been some 13 previous doubles of the top-flight crown and the FA Cup, but none in successive seasons. Walker has been part of two double-winning teams in 2018-19 and 2022-23, but he is fuelled by the chance to do something no previous side had ever accomplished.

“The motivation speaks for itself,” he said. “To be the first team to do the double-double, the first team to win four in a row, the first team since Manchester United to do the treble; we keep knocking down these hurdles and this is another that we need to knock down. But it’s against our rivals who live in the same city and are going to want to rain on our parade.”

The historic achievement motivating Kyle Walker at Manchester City:

Kobbie Mainoo is learning about the trappings of fame. “When I try to go to the corner shop I get a bit more attention,” said the breakout star of Manchester United’s season. And if there was something wonderfully down-to-earth about the image, there is also the probability that Mainoo may not be spending too much time at the corner shop too often in the future. He is more likely to be seen in the United and England midfields.

For now, anyway, he has not experienced the downsides of his sudden celebrity, even though his native Stockport is Manchester City territory. “Growing up, everyone around me was a City fan, there were only a few of us who had to fight as United fans,” Mainoo recalled.

Maybe an FA Cup final will come down to a clash of Stockport’s finest, Phil Foden against Mainoo. If the United man is outnumbered in his home town, perhaps the friendly reception he gets there is because of the heart-warming nature of his rise, the old-fashioned idea of a likeable local breaking through. “People ask for pictures,” he said. “It’s nice. I mean, I grew up here, so to take pictures, is the least I can do. I remember being a kid and wanting pictures with players when I was younger.”

Things appeared on the up for the Red Devils as they won the Carabao Cup, finished third in the Premier League and reached the FA Cup final during a promising first campaign under Erik ten Hag.

Onana was among those brought in over the summer to take United onto another level but things have gone awry in an injury-hit season in which they limped home eighth.

The FA Cup final against Manchester City offers the chance to end a disappointing campaign on a high on Saturday, when their goalkeeper is sure to play a key role at the end of a campaign he started so poorly.

By the time the title was confirmed, none of the other 19 Premier League clubs felt like extending public congratulations to Manchester City. There were no “classy touches” on the social media pages. That points to how that world has changed, but also at a tension in the boardrooms that is far more perceptible than any on the pitch. City won all of their last nine games with relative ease.

The Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters, didn’t even attend the decisive title match. He was instead at Arsenal, ensuring this season didn’t end with the competition’s senior figure handing over the trophy to the club they have been investigating for more than five years. Early suggestions from the broadcasters are meanwhile that one of the most watched events of the day was Jurgen Klopp’s farewell, which certainly had more viewers than that trophy lift.

These are unexpectedly fitting endings for the entire 2023-24 season, since there has never been a campaign where it felt like so many of the most important developments were away from the pitch. That investigation into the champions is ongoing, with the Premier League so conscious of “confidentiality” that Masters wouldn’t even confirm the date of its hearing. This was all as two other clubs were punished for breaches of the competition’s financial rules, in Everton and Nottingham Forest, with points totals changing three times.

That created the farcical precedent of the table not necessarily telling the full story at given moments. It’s a situation that can be poisonous for sport, since the basic social contract here is that supporters trust what they’re seeing on the pitch. There was instead constantly some controversy to divert the eyes.

The 20-time English champions signed off a dismal top-flight campaign with a 2-0 win at Brighton but finished in eighth place – their lowest final position since coming 13th in the old first division under Sir Alex Ferguson in 1990.

Qualification for Europe next season – and potentially the future of under-fire manager Ten Hag – is now reliant on beating rivals Manchester City in next weekend’s Wembley final.