Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud determined to beat Manchester United on return to his Wembley ‘garden’ in FA Cup final

There are not many other players who could playfully nickname Wembley “my garden”, but then there are not many players with a history at the iconic stadium comparable to Olivier Giroud’s.

Giroud’s memorable goal in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final win over Southampton preserved his unbeaten competitive record at Wembley, and he is now determined to clinch his fourth FA Cup when Chelsea meet Manchester United in the final on 19 May. The France forward played a part in Arsenal’s run of 10 successes at the stadium which brought three FA Cup triumphs, something the 32-year-old has kindly reminded his new team-mates.

“I was joking and I told them ‘It’s my garden’,” said Giroud. “I really want to keep up the good luck and success at Wembley and I want to win it with Chelsea. I told them [my team-mates], look guys, I’ve been unbeaten here and I want this moment to carry on. What a great feeling it is to win the FA Cup, I want them to know this. It has been a tough season but I want to finish strong.”

Since scoring his first Premier League goals for Chelsea in last weekend’s comeback win against Southampton, Giroud has started two games in succession and says he is now establishing himself as a leading player in Antonio Conte’s squad.

“I said when I signed here that I needed adaptation time, a quick one because I wanted to be efficient quickly for the team. I think I’ve now got a good understanding with the boys on the pitch, good team cohesion.”

At Wembley Giroud led the line with Eden Hazard and Willian flitting around him, having partnered his fellow striker Alvaro Morata against Burnley in midweek, and he believes the competition with the Spaniard is benefiting the team.

“Competition is always good, especially for strikers,” he said. “It helps to step up and help the team win the games. It’s a fair competition. We’ve done well with Alvaro when we played Burnley, we’ve done well with Eden, with Willy, with Pedro. Whoever is playing, we always try to combine to do the work the boss is expecting us to do.”

The Cup final will see Giroud go up against Alexis Sanchez, the Manchester United forward whose fine form at Arsenal contributed to Giroud spending more time on the bench than he would have liked, but the striker says he is looking forward to facing his old team-mate.

“I will be happy to see him. It’s always special to play against old players, especially when we have good memories.”