Manchester City are looking to set new Emirates FA Cup history this season

For a ninth time in 10 seasons under Pep Guardiola, Manchester City have reached the FA Cup semi-finals.

With the only exception coming when they lost to Wigan Athletic in the 2017/18 fifth round, this is their eighth consecutive semi-final – an FA Cup record.

Before this, the longest run of semi-finals was five, by Manchester United between 1962 and 1966 and Arsenal from 2001 to 2005.

With their 10-1 win over Exeter in the third round, City became the first top-flight team since Tottenham Hotspur beat Crewe 13-2 in a fourth round replay in February 1960 to notch double figures in an FA Cup game.

While firing in goals and hammering opponents isn’t just reserved for lower division teams – they beat Liverpool 4-0 in the quarter-finals – their recent record against sides from outside the elite serves as a serious warning for Southampton when they meet at Wembley on Saturday evening.

Since the start of 2018/19, City have played 21 FA Cup games against lower league teams and beaten them all by an aggregate score of 84-11, a run which has included five different wins by five or more goals, including one in each of the last four seasons: 6-0 v Burnley in 2022/23, 5-0 v Huddersfield in 2023/24, 8-0 v Salford in 2024/25 and that 10-1 win over Exeter this season.

And they’ll be looking to extend that run and set new history in 2025/26.

Jérémy Doku has a perfect record in Emirates FA Cup semi-finals – with two wins from two last-four clashes since he arrived at Manchester City from Rennes in the summer of 2023.

Now, with Southampton lying in wait at Wembley, he’s looking to make it a hat-trick against a side who have already pulled off one of the shocks of this year’s competition by knocking out Arsenal in the quarter-finals.

“The first one was against Chelsea (in April 2024),” says Doku.

“It was a tight game but we won it in the second half. The second one against Nottingham Forest was also a good match.

“Semi-finals can sometimes be even more stressful than finals but we’ve done well so far.

“Before I came to England I had never been involved in any semi-finals before. That first semi-final against Chelsea was my first experience at that level, so it was something new for me.”

It’s clearly one he enjoyed, playing a full role for a Guardiola side that has turned Wembley into something close to a second home for the club over the past decade.

Despite his semi-final success, Doku has been on the wrong end of defeats in two finals in succession, with City losing to Manchester United in 2024 and Crystal Palace 12 months later.

Doku scored in the former, pulling a goal back for City in the dying minutes after they had fallen two goals behind to their Manchester rivals.

Regardless, the 23-year-old Belgian international is once again relishing the opportunity to run out at Wembley against Southampton.

“Wembley is always special,” he says, smiling. “When you go there, you know it’s for a big game – a semi-final or a final. You can almost smell a trophy when you drive through the gates.

“I love playing in big stadiums with mixed fans; it’s always exciting.

“When I was growing up in Belgium I would always follow the big games. It didn’t matter which competition; it could be in Africa, the Premier League, the FA Cup Final, anything. If it was a big game, I would watch it.”

Taylor Harwood-Bellis is going places. But on Saturday afternoon, he might take time to consider just how far he has already travelled.

Southampton’s 23-year-old centreback will run out for the south coast side against his former club and the team he has supported since he was a boy.

Harwood-Bellis names his favourite FA Cup moment – away from Saints’ incredible run in this year’s tournament – as one that will resonate with everyone in the light blue half of Wembley today.

“Yaya Toure – that goal against Manchester United (in 2011),” he says. “I was at the game that day and it was just incredible, an unbelievable moment.”

That goal helped to seal a final against Stoke City and Manchester City’s first piece of silverware in 35 years.

Now he’ll be doing all he can to ensure that Southampton remain in the hunt for a first Emirates FA Cup Final triumph in half a century.

Harwood-Bellis has been a central figure for Southampton in every sense. His partnership alongside Jack Stephens has been instrumental in Southampton climbing the Championship table and also upsetting the odds in the FA Cup.

There’s certainly an air of confidence around this Southampton side and that has spread from the players to a group of supporters who have been in dreamland almost constantly so far in 2026.

Southampton’s remarkable defeat of Arsenal in the last eight was the embodiment of that, with the St Mary’s Stadium rocking as the Championship side ran out 2-1 winners.

“That was right up there for me, just with the atmosphere the fans created and where Arsenal were at the time,” he says.

“Obviously going 1-0 up and playing the way we did was great but when they scored a lot of people would have expected Arsenal to push on and us to lose, by maybe two or three.

“It would’ve been so easy for our heads to drop but they didn’t. I think the last 10 minutes really showed what we were about.

“I’ve said before, we’ve shown so many different characteristics to win games of football this season.

“I think we’re at a level where we have options to do that regardless of who we’re playing.”