Man City vs Man United LIVE: FA Cup final start time, line-ups and latest updates from Wembley

As Manchester City celebrated their historic fourth successive Premier League title – and sixth in seven years – it is remarkable to think some considered them third favourites just last month.

April began with City having just been held to a goalless draw by Arsenal, a result which not only cost them the chance to leapfrog the Gunners, but left Liverpool standing alone at the top.

Yet as the Merseysiders have learned only too well in recent years, this is not a City side that should ever be doubted.

The lap of honour had reached the Stretford End. Or perhaps it was more of a lap of apology, given the season they were marking. But a chorus broke out as Manchester United’s players neared the tunnel: “Erik ten Hag’s red-and-white army.” It has been heard before but perhaps the timing supported the beleaguered manager’s case that the fans are still on his side. Or maybe it simply reflected the pride of a United fanbase who make a point of sticking by their managers.

Ten Hag hopes he will be back next year though it is harder to say he deserves to be. For many, though, it was a last end-of-season trudge around the Old Trafford pitch. That tendency towards loyalty from the match-going United was shown by the chants of “Tony Martial scores again”. Again? Anthony Martial has two goals this season. He has gone five months without an appearance. He has 90 goals for United but an increasingly mercurial figure has outstayed his welcome.

There is a noble air to Raphael Varane. His farewell felt dignified and sad, the Frenchman sitting in the middle of an empty pitch to take it all in, even if it was typical that the injured Varane had missed the match. The World Cup winner cost £41m, will leave on a free transfer and was paid huge wages. Only one of his three seasons at Old Trafford was a success, either for him or the team, but a serial Champions League winner was unable to replicate his success at Real Madrid in Manchester. Even a player of his distinction was caught up in the chaos.

Johnny Marr was next to Noel Gallagher at the Etihad Stadium but one of the musical throwbacks came to an earlier era. During the pitch invasion at the final whistle, one banner described Manchester City as “the Four Tops”. Motown got its name from the Motor City; if football has become Manchester’s major industry now, City, champions a record four times in a row, are its market leader.

As Manchester United recorded their lowest-ever Premier League finish, City completed an achievement beyond even Sir Alex Ferguson’s finest teams; or, for that matter, anyone else from Preston North End’s 1889 Invincibles to Jurgen Klopp’s barnstorming 21st-century Liverpool side.

City had Paul Dickov present the trophy, a quarter of a century on from his injury-time equaliser in the third-tier play-off final. They know where they came from.

Pep Guardiola is on the brink of history. “One game, destiny in our hands,” he said, relishing the scenario rather than deflecting attention from it. A fourth consecutive English title would be an unparalleled achievement. It would also be a very popular one; within the Manchester City fanbase, anyway.

And in the wider world? “F***, I don’t know,” replied a dismissive Guardiola. “I don’t go knocking on doors asking people what they think. I don’t know, honestly.”

And if he is sufficiently busy that he scarcely had time to double up as a pollster, canvassing opinions, if many people in football are insulated from the outside world, there is a broader question of how City are viewed. As a great team? Definitely, and they will be even if they lose to West Ham on Sunday and Arsenal supplant them at the top of the table. As the best side in Europe? They were last season but, however often they are described as such, that status surely belongs with either the relentless Real Madrid or even Xabi Alonso’s unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen, based on the evidence of the current campaign. As a side whose achievements often come with a caveat? For now, certainly, given that 115 Premier League charges still hang over City. That said, if the eventual verdict is that City breached regulations for years to create the conditions for their current era of dominance, the fundamental fault for that was not committed by Guardiola or his players.

There was a time when the period dramas television executives rushed to commission involved the writings of Jane Austen, not the musings of Phil Neville. Though that time was the 1990s, a decade that has led to a growth industry in Manchester United nostalgia. Which, as the last quarter of a century has taken them from “football, bloody hell” to “football, bloody mess”, may be unsurprising. The past is infinitely preferable to the present for them.

After Netflix’s David Beckham documentary comes Amazon’s ’99; made by the same production company, covering some of the same ground, with many of the same faces; most of the stories are familiar, the footage well-worn but still spine-tingling. United’s greatest season is ripe for revisiting, even if only to distract them from one of their worst campaigns anyone under 40 can remember. It has created various legacies. There was a story last week that the criticisms of the military-industrial complex of high-profile Old Trafford old boys may be deterring prospective candidates from wanting to manage the club.

The 26-year-old has had a troubled season with United, scoring only eight goals and failing to find the net in his last eight appearances and may only be on the bench against Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday.

But Ten Hag is tipping Rashford, who has scored 131 goals in 401 games for United, to return to form in the future, saying: “He looks good and that is the career with ups and downs so a down can also be fuel, that is what I see in training. He will be highly motivated, he is highly talented. He has already a big career. I am sure he will get over this and get even more goals.”

“I have nothing to say. I am just focusing on the job I have to do and that is first win the game on Saturday and then we are in the project. Keep going in the project.”

Pushed on how he wants his time at United to be judged, Ten Hag added: “I came here to win trophies.

“Saturday I have the next opportunity and we earned this opportunity as a team and now we have to go for it.

“At the same time, in the last two years, of course after every season you review it and then we will see where we are in the project and things we have to change.

“We spoke lately about it. Underneath there are very good things – players coming up, players developing, values coming up.

“And, at the same time, we have on Saturday a big opportunity to win the next trophy.”

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Maybe the greatest uncertainty about the game is just how much of an underdog United are. It’s difficult to think of a final between two major clubs where there has felt such an extreme chasm. The gap is such that the dynamic of this game is much more akin to the Arsenal-Hull City final of 2014 than even last year’s meeting between the same two Manchester clubs.

It is a feeling only accentuated by how they have both immediately returned to the final, with the same successive pairing happening for only the second time in history, but the gap has grown since. City have only strengthened their hold over the English game, as they also aim for the country’s first ever double-double. That was a feat that not even Sir Alex Ferguson managed. The closest he went was doubles in 1994 and 1996, albeit with two runners-up in between. Guardiola can go way beyond that, by adding the FA Cup to this season’s Premier League, on top of last season’s treble.

It is already unprecedented dominance, that has provoked bigger questions for the English game.

Miguel Delaney’s FA Cup final preview:

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.