Manchester City are aiming for a cup double in the Women’s FA Cup final on Saturday to make up for losing out to Arsenal in the league.

City beat Arsenal in the League Cup final in February but were unable to catch the north London club in the Super League, despite an unbeaten campaign. Now they have a chance to add the FA Cup to their trophy haul in a Wembley meeting with West Ham, before the season ends with a visit to Arsenal when only pride will be at stake. For a while it looked as if the last league game of the season might be the one to decide the title, but with City drawing five of their matches Arsenal were declared champions last week even though they lost two of their games.

Record attendance for Women’s FA Cup final expected at Wembley Read more

“Congratulations to Arsenal, they deserved to win the league,” the City and England captain, Steph Houghton, said. “We’ve still got the chance to finish on a high with a trophy though, especially if the forecasts of a record crowd are correct.

“There have been some unbelievable crowds watching women’s football in Europe this season, and to get potentially 50,000 at Wembley would underline the interest in the women’s game in this country. This is what we dreamed about when we started playing; you want to be involved in those sort of environments. I think the 2012 Olympics was definitely a turning point – there were some huge crowds at Wembley and people enjoyed the games.”

More than 80,000 were inside Wembley when the USA beat Japan in the Olympic final seven years ago, though the record for modern club football City and West Ham are hoping to surpass is the 45,423 set for Chelsea against Arsenal in last year’s FA Cup final. More than 50,000 tickets have already been sold and distributed, even though the West Ham men’s side have a home game against Southampton on the day of the final. The Premier League club attempted to have their match brought forward to make it easier for more fans to make it to Wembley, but were refused permission by the league.

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Though City are no strangers to Wembley or cup finals, West Ham have made it to the showpiece after only one season in WSL football. League results would suggest they are very much the underdogs – they were beaten 7-1 at Manchester City and lost the return 3-1 – though City’s manager, Nick Cushing, has nothing but respect for what his opposite number, Matt Beard, has achieved.

“The hardest thing to do is form a team from nothing, to bring players in and create something that was not there before,” Cushing said. “Matt has done an exceptional job at West Ham and to be in an FA Cup final at the end of your first season is something everyone can be proud of.”

Play Video 1:59 Nikita Parris and Rosie Kmita's journeys to the Women's FA Cup final – video

Houghton believes league form should be discounted anyway. “Anything can happen in a cup final; that’s what everybody likes about them,” she said. “When we won 3-1 at Rush Green it wasn’t a bad performance – West Ham gave us quite a tough game. We know what its like to be underdogs too – when we played Arsenal in the League Cup final we were not favourites to win – but every finalist has to believe it can all happen on the day.

“West Ham have been on an incredible journey this season and it has ended up at Wembley. You have to respect that, but at the same time we are feeling confident. We have played well this season, we’ve got a good mix of youth and experience in the squad, and we enjoy playing at Wembley. We think we have a chance of winning another trophy.”