The Spanish international, drafted into the United team in place of Sergio Romero, who has played previous rounds of the cup, endured a nightmare night in the semifinal.
His first mistake came in the 11th minute of the first half injury time, as he allowed Oliver Giroud’s movie to hit him on his near post to put Chelsea 1-0 ahead.
The worst was almost immediately following the start of the second when the excellent Mason Mount burst forward and fired from long range, watching his effort writhe beneath De Gea’s body and toward the goal.
De Gea made a brilliant save to deny Giroud his second before Harry Maguire deflected him from Marcos Alonso’s cross, struck again at his near post in the 74th minute.
United, who reached the semifinal after an unbeaten streak of 19 games, got late consolation when Bruno Fernandes scored from the penalty spot after Callum Hudson-Odoi’s awkward challenge against Anthony Martial.
But they could have little complaint about the result with Frank Lampard’s Chelsea enjoying the best game from the start with Reece James forcing De Gea to an early save before Alonso squandered a golden edge opportunity.
A horrendous collision between Maguire and fellow defender Eric Bailly led to a long delay in action, with the Ivory Coast defender finally hurt with a head injury.
The incident may have unsettled United, but de Gea would have hoped to have done better with Giroud’s first game, their 16th FA Cup goal in seven years of English football for former club Arsenal and Chelsea and now in their fifth final.
“Well, I told my guys in the locker room that I would love to win another one, it would be the fifth,” Giroud told BBC Sport.
“It is another final, another great match against Arsenal; so it is personally special for me, but we put it aside and we are very happy with the team’s performance today.”
De Gea’s calamitous mistake for Mount’s second knocked out United with manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer turning to substitutes Paul Pogba and teen revelation Mason Greenwood to little effect.
Instead, the third came when Maguire stretched to prevent Alonso’s center from reaching Antonio Rudiger, and the ball entered the net at high speed through De Gea’s knee.
Solksjaer was forced to defend is under fire after the game, not for the first time this season.
“David knows he should have saved the second goal, but that is already done,” he said.
“It is difficult for an archer to make amends, other than that David made two or three fantastic saves later.”
Lampard is now looking forward to his side and gives him his first dish as manager in the final at Wembley on August 1.
“I hope so because we want to win things, and at the beginning of the season we wanted to be there challenging the top four.”
“A lot of people were leaning against us, but in silence they always waited,” he added.
Tottenham sinks Leicester
Previously, Tottenham Hotspur gave Leicester City’s Champions League aspirations a hard blow as two goals from Harry Kane helped José Mourinho’s men win 3-0 at home.
An own goal by James Justin from a hit by Son Heung-min gave Tottenham an early lead before English striker Kane struck twice before halftime with good goals after counterattacks.
There were no more touchdowns in the second half, leaving Leicester still in fourth, but level on points with Manchester United, which has a game on hand before the teams meet in the final game of the season.
Chelsea in third place will also have a double cause for celebration as the pressure eases after a surprise loss to Sheffield United that left doubts about qualifying in the top four spots.
Tottenham, much better with a single loss since the restart, has moved to sixth place in the challenge for a place in the Europa League.
At the other end of the table, Bournemouth’s hopes of survival were compromised by a 2-0 loss at home to Southampton’s south coast neighbor.
He left the Cherries facing the fall, three points adrift of Watford in 17th place, which made the surprising decision to fire manager Nigel Pearson on Sunday, the news was confirmed by a club statement, with Hayden Mullins. assuming the role of interim coach for the past two games. .
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