Chelsea stay top of FA Cup chart

London rivals Chelsea, who won a league and cup double last season, and Arsenal have the best FA Cup record with three triumphs in the last decade.

The chart on right denotes the progress of the current 20 English Premier League teams from round three of the competition for the last 10 seasons (2001 to 2010).

Points were awarded as follows: Three, four and five points for teams finishing in these same rounds (placings) in each of the last 10 tournaments.

A quarter-final berth carries six marks and the losing semi-finalists plus finalists get eight and nine points respectively. The winners of the FA Cup receive a bonus of 10 points.

Only two of the 20 clubs, Chelsea and Arsenal, have successfully advanced past the third round in all past 10 competitions − this season’s results are not included due to ongoing replays and postponed matches.

In addition, the two London teams have lifted the FA Cup three times each and featured as losing finalists once over the past 10 years.

The following is a list of clubs in the English Premier League this season and the number of occasions they have progressed past the third round of the FA Cup competition:

10 − Arsenal, Chelsea.
9 − Manchester United, Wolves.
8 − Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United.
7 − Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland, West Brom-wich Albion.
6 − Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers.
5 − Birmingham City.
4 − Stoke City, Aston Villa.
3 − Wigan Athletic.
1 − Blackpool.

Top Performers

Winners
3 − Arsenal, Chelsea.
2 − Liverpool.
1 − Manchester United.

Finalists
2 − Manchester United.
1 − Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham United, Everton.

Semi-finalists
2 − Blackburn Rovers, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal.
1 − Aston Villa, Chelsea, Fulham, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Sunderland, West Brom-wich Albion.

Key: QF –quarter-final; SF – semi-final; F – final; W – winner; P – participations. In brackets – positions from previous FA Cup classification.