2002 FA Cup Final Arsenal were appearing in the final of the FA Cup for the fifteenth time, and for the second consecutive year. They had won the cup seven times previously (in 1930, 1936, 1950, 1971, 1979, 1993 and 1998) and were beaten in the final seven times, the most recent in last season's showpiece event. By comparison, Chelsea were making their seventh appearance in a FA Cup final. The club won the cup three times (1970, 1997 and 2000) and lost the same number of finals (1915, 1967 and 1994). Arsenal and Chelsea had previously met fourteen times in the FA Cup,
2000–01 FA Cup qualifying rounds 2000–01 FA Cup qualifying rounds The 2000–01 FA Cup Qualifying Rounds opened the 120th season of competition in England for 'The Football Association Challenge Cup' (FA Cup), the world's oldest association football single knockout competition. This season saw invites extended to some teams from Level 10 in the English football pyramid. With the larger number of clubs entering the tournament from non-League teams (Levels 5 through 10), a new Extra Preliminary Round was added to the tournament. As a result, the competition started with six rounds of preliminary (2) and qualifying (4) knockouts for these non-League teams. The 32 winning