CHELSEA WILL probably win the 1997 FA Cup final by a short head. Whether or not that bead belongs to Gianfranco Zola or Dennis Wise remains to be seen, but the opinion polls favour Zola. Alternatively the most decisive contribution may well come from the taller Mark Hughes, who has won Cups before.

Middlesbrough's last hope of redeeming a season which has brought them frustration and relegation lie's largely in the talents of just one little man. If there is a single person capable of denying Chelsea a second Cup triumph by helping to take the trophy to Teesside for the first time it is surely Juninho.

Either way the prospects of Wembley witnessing one of the more absorbing finals this afternoon look good, and will be even better since Fabrizio Ravanelli passed a fitness test on the back injury he suffered at Old Trafford a fortnight ago.

Not so long ago discussing an FA Cup final in terms of what an Italian or a Brazilian might 49, or the effect another Italian's injury might have, would have been unthinkable. For while foreign players have made regular appearances in finals ever since the ban on imports was lifted in 1978, this is the first time that the occasion could be said to have brought a third tower to Wembley Stadium one borrowed from Babel

Italy and Brazil have never before been represented in an FA Cup final but even if Ravanelli has to miss today's game these countries could still be supplying five of the players. Add in a Norwegian, a Frenchman, a Romanian and a Dane, and this becomes the most multinational final yet. Perhaps they should rename it the Bosman Cup.

Ruud Gullit is on the threshold of becoming the first foreigner to manage a Cup winning team. And if the Dutchman does not see Chelsea win today then Arsenal's Arsene Wenger might beat him to it later on. Middlesbrough may be managed by a former England captain, Bryan Robson, but this season's final offers an accurate reflection of the way the English game is becoming increasingly subjected to overseas influences, and it should be a better match as a result.

Wembley is overdue a spectacle worthy of the occasion. The last five FA Cup finals have failed to match the sums of their distinguished parts, and the one before that is largely remembered for Paul Gascoigne's antics.

This afternoon's encounter satisfies an important prerequisite. It is Middlesbrough's first FA Cup final for which their recent Wembley appearance in the League Cup was merely a drab dress rehearsal, and while Chelsea were at Wembley as recently as 1994, it will still only be their fifth in 92 years.

When at least one team finds the experience a novelty the game is often more eventful witness - the plots and subplots which accompanied the visits of Brighton, Coventry City and Crystal Palace to the finals of 1983, 1987 and 1990.

In Middlesbrough's ease the fact that they have already gone down while their leading foreign players are taking to the lifeboats adds a further twist to today's scenario. Juninho, Emerson and, if fit, Ravanelli could all be playing their last games for Boro.

Certainly it looks as if another Italian, Gianluca Vialli, has kicked his last ball in anger for Chelsea. Gullit is unlikely even to have him on the bench this afternoon. Zola and Roberto Di Matteo will bring the spirit of the Azurri back to Wembley.

Brazil would stand a better chance of upstaging Italy today, were Emerson to come out of the trance in which he has been performing for Middlesbrough ever since the clocks went back. A return of the early season Emerson and predictions of a Chelsea victory would not look quite so safe.

As it is, no sensible prognosticator would state unequivocally that the FA Cup is about to find its way to the King's Road for the first time since 1970, when footballers were all sideburns and flares.

Gullit will give Middlesbrough a chance because all his footballing instincts argue against man marking Juninho the way Leicester City did with Pontus Kaamark in the League Cup final.

Yet if one player can be relied upon to win the Cup for Chelsea it is not so much Zola or any of the other overseas players, but a 33 year old Welshman who has been there, done it all and got a drawerful of T shirts.

Mark Hughes gained one of his three winners' medals by helping Manchester United beat Chelsea 4-0 at Wembley in 1994. It will be surprising if today does not bring him a fourth.