The Eagles have never won a major trophy, but have a chance to end that drought at Wembley against Manchester City
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This Saturday, Crystal Palace will partake in only their third-ever FA Cup final. Unlike those two previous losing occasions in 1990 and 2016, they will not be facing Manchester United, but rather the noisy neighbours of City instead.
Oliver Glasner's men are chasing down history. The Eagles have never won a major trophy going all the way back to 1861 when the first remnants of the modern-day club were founded. Their vocal, passionate and colourful fanbase south of the River Thames have waited generation upon generation to see their team lift silverware, and their time could finally be now.
Leading the red-and-blue offensive has been Eberechi Eze. It was his magic that got Palace to Wembley for the semi-finals with a stunning brace against Fulham, and then put Aston Villa to the sword in order to set up this tie with City.
In the sky-blue corner, the Cityzen's own wizard of dribble has lost his majesty. Nothing seems to have gone right for Phil Foden ever since he led his boyhood team to their record fourth-successive Premier League title last season, and now his England status is at risk.
Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱Getty Images SportStepping up
Palace took a while to kick into gear this season. In fact, they didn't win a Premier League game until matchday nine, when they defeated Tottenham 1-0 to climb out of the relegation zone. At the time, there were questions over Glasner's future and whether the club would be sucked into another cycle of Roy Hodgson (or at least Roy Hodgson-esque) firefighting.
But since beating Spurs in October, the Eagles have lost only seven times in all competitions, and only twice to teams outside the top-flight's top half. They have survived the departure of Michael Olise to Bayern Munich and are a formidable team from back to front once more. Ismaila Sarr has filled the gap left by Olise in a different sense with his defence-stretching pace, allowing Eze to take the car keys and drive Palace's attacks with more manipulative precision.
It's only been over the last couple of months that this has turned into consistent scoring. Eze heads into the FA Cup final in red-hot form, with five goals in his last four games, and 10 goal contributions in total since the end of the March international window.
"It's been a weird season, but I have gradually got there," Eze said last Sunday. "[I'm] gradually getting some rhythm and playing how I want to be playing, helping the team as much as I can. It's a good time right now."
AdvertisementGetty Images SportEnglish core maturing at perfect time
For most of their most recent stint as a Premier League club, Palace have largely relied on the dependability of wily veterans to keep afloat. But while there are still a few old heads knocking about the place, they now they have a spine of English talents who are only now entering their prime.
Eze, who signed from Queens Park Rangers in 2020, is the longest-serving member of that core, and he was joined at Selhurst Park a year later by Chelsea centre-back Marc Guehi, now the captain of the men's team. Between them in central midfield is Adam Wharton, a revelation in the playmaking department since arriving from Blackburn Rovers, while ex-Manchester United goalkeeper Dean Henderson is one of the most trustworthy in the country. All four are members of the England senior setup and were part of their Euro 2024 run to the final last summer.
In this sense, Palace bear some resemblance to a former version of Tottenham from the mid-noughties, one which bristled with homegrown talent like Ledley King, Michael Carrick, Aaron Lennon, Jermain Defoe, Jermaine Jenas and others. They would go on to win the club's last trophy to date – the 2008 League Cup – before propelling into the Champions League two years later. It's a path which may be difficult for Palace to follow, but in the age where the Premier League's 'Big Six' has collapsed, not an impossible one to tread, particularly if they take home the FA Cup and head into next season's Europa League.
Getty Images SportCompetition for places
While Eze is working his way into Thomas Tuchel's England plans for the 2026 World Cup – he even scored his first international goal in their 3-0 win against Latvia in March – one player surely dropping down the pecking order is Foden.
The 24-year-old has had to endure quite the comedown this term. A disappointing Euros campaign on a personal level was followed by a disrupted and short pre-season, with injuries and illness plaguing Foden's beginning to the new campaign. By the point he was fully fit again, City were already well out of the title race, but he did little to stop the team's collective bleeding.
There was a four-game stretch through January that saw Foden register six goals, helping City to 10 points from a possible 12, that looked likely to kick his season into gear. But instead, he has not scored or assisted since and has shrunk into a shadow of himself. After City's 0-0 draw at 20th-place Southampton, Pep Guardiola said of Foden: "It's not easy. Of course, it's a type of game like Phil last season is breaking down for his talents, small spaces for the shots, for the assists, for the intuition right to the box."
The plummet from the league's best player to one of the least impactful will not come without further consequence. Two flat England performances in March during Tuchel's first matches at the helm will have done nothing to boost Foden's stock in the eyes of the new Three Lions manager. Eze's, on the other hand, is on the rise, and he could land another hefty blow to his positional rival on Saturday. How fitting, then, that this showdown comes at the national stadium.
Getty Images SportMake-or-break finale?
When recently asked if winning the FA Cup and securing Champions League qualification would save City's season, Guardiola sternly retorted: "No. This season has not been good. We are a thousand-million points behind Liverpool. It's not good. Look at the Champions League. We won one game? Two games? We were not good. The club has to take the right decisions [this summer] so next season will be better."
Perhaps this is the perfect opportunity for Foden to reignite that internal fire, though, providing a neat parallel for City's campaign as a whole. Triumphing at Wembley won't make everything better, but it would give the dethroned champions some needed momentum heading to the Club World Cup and into 2025-26. With the club in talks with Bayer Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz over a potential €150 million (£126m/$168m) move from Bayer Leverkusen, Foden should also be wary of losing his spot as the team's primary creator moving forward.
Take away that aforementioned four-match stretch in January and Foden has only provided goal contributions in two other Premier League games all season – as many as on this FA Cup run altogether, though he at least scored or assisted in four Champions League encounters. The stats back up the eye test and he is in sore need of a to remind the world of his true quality.