FA Cup final: Man United hope to end Man City's treble dreams, but adjustments are needed to do so

The Red Devils face an uphill battle to knock off their in-form rivals, who have reinvented themselves

There is a particular class of achievements in English football that matter so profoundly because there is no other club that they have to be shared with, at least not in living memory. One can debate for years on end whether Manchester City's Centurions were superior to Arsenal's Invincibles, consensus will never emerge. Each fanbase clutches this particular team so tightly to its heart and understandably so. They are not for sharing.

That is the grim fear or the great opportunity that hangs over Manchester United going into Saturday's FA Cup final. They might always be the first treble (by which we mean the leading three trophies: Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League) winners in English football, how much sweeter would it be to be the only ones? Many of those who take to the Wembley field will have no memories of Teddy Sheringham's heroics and Peter Schmeichel cartwheels in the Camp Nou 24 years ago but they will surely comprehend the importance for their club of being the ones who stop City in their path. After all, their supporters wouldn't let them forget it.

Ten Hag might publicly claim that it is about what United can win, not what they can stop City getting -- but how could he say anything else? He must know the truth. Losing on Saturday would constitute an existential blow for his club if, as expected, Pep Guardiola overcomes Inter Milan a week later. It wouldn't just be that City have staked a claim to the treble that they own. It would be that United couldn't stop them from doing so.