The FA Cup, officially named the Football Association Challenge Cup, has been around a long time, since the 1871/72 season in fact. That makes it the oldest national football competition anywhere on the planet. In the final of that inaugural tournament, Wanders FC beat Royal Engineers 1-0 at the Kennington Oval. Since then, numerous sides have tasted FA Cup glory, but in this article we’ll be focusing on those sides that have won the prized competition five times or more.
Football Teams with Five or More FA Cups
| Team | FA Cup Wins | Runners-up | First FA Cup Win | Last FA Cup Win |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 14 | 7 | 1930 | 2020 |
| Manchester United | 12 | 9 | 1909 | 2016 |
| Chelsea | 8 | 8 | 1970 | 2018 |
| Liverpool | 8 | 7 | 1965 | 2022 |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 8 | 1 | 1901 | 1991 |
| Manchester City | 7 | 5 | 1904 | 2023 |
| Aston Villa | 7 | 4 | 1887 | 1957 |
| Newcastle United | 6 | 7 | 1910 | 1955 |
| Blackburn Rovers | 6 | 2 | 1884 | 1928 |
| Everton | 5 | 8 | 1906 | 1995 |
| West Bromwich Albion | 5 | 5 | 1888 | 1968 |
| Wanderers | 5 | 0 | 1872 | 1878 |
First Club to Win Five FA Cups
As you can see from the table above, there have been 12 teams to have won five or more FA Cups in the history of the tournament. The first club to achieve that impressive milestone was the now-defunct Wanderers FC (no relation to either Bolton Wanderers or Wolverhampton Wanderers). Indeed, they achieved their fifth FA Cup triumph before any other team mentioned above even won their first.
Wanderers are also the only side to have won five FA Cups without ever tasting defeat in the final. Alas, Wanderers were dissolved sometime around 1887 and thus were never able to build on the impressive record they posted in the early years of the tournament.
Team with the Most FA Cups
As things stand, the team that is ahead of the rest when it comes to the number of FA Cups in their trophy cabinet is Arsenal. They have won the tournament a whopping 14 times over the years, from their first triumph in 1930 to their most recent in 2020. They’ve also been losing finalists on seven occasions, giving them the joint record for the number of FA Cup final appearances (with Manchester United).
Speaking of Man United, they are second in the list with 12 wins to their name, though with nine defeats in the final they are the side who’ve ended up as the runners-up more than any other. Let’s leave United aside for now though and take a closer look at Arsenal’s 14 FA Cup triumphs.
Arsenal’s 14 FA Cups
- 1930: Arsenal 2-0 Huddersfield Town
- 1936: Arsenal 1-0 Sheffield United
- 1950: Arsenal 2-0 Liverpool
- 1971: Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool
- 1979: Arsenal 3-2 Manchester United
- 1993: Arsenal 2-1 Sheffield Wednesday (Replay after 1-1 draw in the initial match)
- 1998: Arsenal 2-0 Newcastle United
- 2002: Arsenal 2-0 Chelsea
- 2003: Arsenal 1-0 Southampton
- 2005: Arsenal 0-0 (AET) Manchester United (Arsenal won 5-4 on penalties)
- 2014: Arsenal 3-2 Hull City
- 2015: Arsenal 4-0 Aston Villa
- 2017: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea
- 2020: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea
Arsenal’s FA Cup victories were relatively infrequent until the 1990s, but they certainly made up for lost time. George Graham was in charge of the Gunners in 1993 as his side got the better of Sheffield Wednesday. But it was Frenchman and club legend Arsene Wenger who guided the side to the next seven FA Cups, with Mikel Arteta having taken the reins for the Gunners’ most recent FA Cup victory in 2020.
Best Win Percentage in FA Cup Finals
Based on the sides that have won five or more FA Cup tournaments, we have already mentioned that the only side to have won all the finals in which they appeared was Wanderers FC. But given that they are no longer a going concern, let’s focus instead on the sides that are still going strong.
With that in mind, it is certainly worth highlighting Tottenham Hotspur’s exceptional record in FA Cup finals. They have appeared in nine finals and won all but one of them, and hence have a win percentage of 88.9%. That one defeat in the final came in 1987 when Spurs, who were managed by David Pleat at the time, went down 3-2 after extra time to massive underdogs Coventry City. To date, that is the only time Coventry have won the FA Cup… and indeed the only time they’ve made it to the final so, like Wanderers FC, they too have a 100% record in the final.
An interesting quirk of the 1987 FA Cup final was that Spurs defender Gary Mabbutt scored for both teams; he got Tottenham’s second goal after 41 minutes to put the favourites 2-1 up but then, after Keith Houchen had equalised and sent the match to extra time, Mabbutt scored an own goal in the 96th minute that proved decisive as Coventry took the cup!
Which Teams Have Lost More FA Cup Finals Than They’ve Won?
Of the sides to have won five or more FA Cups, only two have lost more finals than they’ve won: Newcastle United and Everton. Newcastle have been unlucky (or just bad at finals, if you prefer!) and have lost seven of their 13 FA Cup finals having only won six of them. Everton, meanwhile, have faired even worse in the showpiece game having won it five times but been on the losing end a very disappointing eight times, most recently in 2009 when they lost 2-1 to Chelsea.
A further two sides (with five or more FA Cups in the bag) have won exactly as many finals as they’ve lost: West Brom (with five wins and five defeats) and Chelsea (who have won it eight times but lost in the final just as many times).