In the build-up to this game, Stoke City manager Tony Pulis has said that his team are the biggest underdogs in an FA Cup final since the Crazy Gang of Wimbledon beat Liverpool in 1988. Although everyone knows that Millwall against Manchester United seven years ago was a more one-sided affair, it’s not hard to see where Pulis is coming from.

In their bid to reach Champions League football, Stoke’s opponents Manchester City splashed out £320 million on international superstars like Robinho and David Silva. The blue half of Manchester has undergone a revolution. Sir Alex Ferguson’s so-called noisy neighbours have cranked up the volume and given him a few sleepless nights. In midweek they reached the promised land of the Champions League, and not only do they have the wherewithal to stay there, but to turn some heads in the process.

Stoke meanwhile have spent a ‘paltry’ £43m on players such as Jermaine Pennant and Jon Walters, who this time last season was playing against the likes Peterborough United and Plymouth Argyle.

Indeed, though Stoke’s pockets are lined with gold, they have gone about dispensing their wealth over time. Each year they have invested a little more and progressed on the field accordingly, a lesson Man City would do well to learn.

Although Stoke are finally getting a little of the credit they deserve, it seems nobody thinks they have any hope of lifting the FA Cup. ‘Experts’ think Man City will have too much for them, and the bookies are offering Stoke at 7/2.

A done deal, then. Put a tenner on Man City to win comfortably and wait for the winnings to roll in. Maybe so, they’re not the favourites for nothing. However, there is a case – decide for yourself how convincing it is – for saying it is not the Potters, but the Blues who are the underdogs.

It is no stroke of luck that Stoke currently lie eighth in the Premier League. In their first season amongst the elite, Pulis has revealed that his mentality was to ignore what everybody had to say about his team, and win matches any way they could. Since then, Stoke have started playing a ‘purer’ brand of football, but their combative, no-nonsense approach is still their deadliest weapon.

While they may not have made many friends using this tactic, they have won plenty of football matches, and claimed the scalps of many of the top sides. Only last weekend they beat Arsenal and on the two occasions Man City have met Stoke this season, it’s ended 1-1.

These impressive results are proof of Pulis’s man-managing abilities. He has built a squad of players who were playing in the Championship three years ago, but who are willing to put their bodies on the line for the cause. Mancini, meanwhile, has surrounded himself with a formidable squad, but not much of a team.

There is talk that his captain and leading goalscorer, Carlos Tevez, will start on the bench due to a rift with the manager. In his place will start Mario Balotelli, a man with whom Mancini reportedly fell out only two months ago. All, it would seem, is not well in the blue corner.

Obviously it would be foolish to write City off completely. Even if they lack team spirit, they are undeniably a very talented group of individuals. David Silva has danced round many a Premier League defence this season, while Yaya Toure has been a tower of strength. Nevertheless, Stoke have faced bigger foes than those and lived to tell the tale. One only need think back to last Saturday against to see that Stoke’s defence is as hard to breach as the best of them.

Should Robert Huth be fit for the final, he and Ryan Shawcross will form a central defensive partnership that City will find tough to break down, particularly if Balotelli starts as a lone striker. Referee Martin Atkinson will have to tread very carefully if he is to keep Huth and Balotelli from hospitalising one another and still win the praise of the managers after the final whistle.

Likewise going forward, Stoke have a great many strengths. Lazy punditry has labelled them ‘hoofball’ merchants reliant solely on Rory Delap’s long throws, but this season Stoke have adopted a style of play that accommodates two out-and-out wingers.

Jermaine Pennant is playing the best football of his career, as is Matthew Etherington, who looks likely to start following a hamstring injury sustained against Wolves. This new style of play means City mustn’t give them any room to play in at all if they wish to give Joe Hart an easy afternoon.

Although they are playing better attacking football, their main threat is still from set-plays. City will have to defend like they did in the semi final against United, and not as they did in the 3^rd round against Leicester, to name one of a host of City’s weak defensive displays. That day saw them concede a horrendous goal in the first minute, thanks to some remarkably inattentive defending. Should Stoke manage a similar feat, they are unlikely to relinquish the lead so readily.

Obviously, there’s a reason City are the favourites, but this final is not nearly as cut and dried as some would have you believe.