Could history be made on Saturday, May 17?
It will be if Crystal Palace can beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final.
Doing so will mean the Eagles will have lifted the trophy for the first time in their history.
This will be only their third appearance in an FA Cup final.
That’s compared to their opponents, who are playing in their 14th, and only four other clubs have played in more finals than City.
The statistics don’t support a shock win at Wembley, and neither do UK online betting websites, as per offersbet.co.uk.
They have City as the 1.66 favourites to win the FA Cup without the need of extra time.
At least we haven’t got a third successive Manchester derby in this Wembley showpiece.
Although the top Premier League clubs regularly make many team changes, we rarely see a surprise winner.
The usual suspects—the two Manchester clubs, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool—have dominated the FA Cup in the past decade or so.
The only surprise winners have been Wigan Athletic in 2013 and Leicester City four years ago.
It just shows the depth of the squads that the very top Premier League clubs have today.
It’s nine years since the last time Crystal Palace reached the FA Cup final.
That came 26 years after their only other previous appearance.
Both those cup finals were played against Manchester United.
The Eagles have played in three Wembley finals, though.
That’s because back in 1990, the cup final went to a replay after a 3-3 draw in which Palace led at one stage.
It was a close affair in 2016 as well.
Palace again led against United but lost 2-1 after extra time.
After a ten-year wait, they are back in the final again, but this time, they will face City rather than United.
UK online sportsbooks have them at 4.2 to win the cup in 90 minutes.
Winning the FA Cup will see Palace qualify for European competition next season.
They could end up in a situation where they have already qualified, even if only finishing ninth in the Premier League.
Losing to CIty in the final (it’s only 1.36 Guardiola’s team lifts the trophy) would mean ninth in the table would qualify a side for some midweek European action next season.
Palace are in the bottom half of the table at present, so this cup final may be their best chance to qualify.
Palace hadn’t won a match in the FA Cup since 2022 before this season.
They had failed to score in three of their last four cup games, but that’s all changed this year.
Not until the quarter-finals did they get drawn against a Premier League club.
Wins came against Stockport County, Doncaster Rovers and Millwall in the early rounds.
It got tougher for them in the last eight, but they won 2-0 at Fulham.
Then came the surprise 3-0 win over Aston Villa in the semi-finals.
Only Millwall have been able to score against them in this season’s FA Cup.
The odds of a clean sheet against City in 90 minutes are 5.5.
It’s not been the best of seasons for Manchester City.
Well, not by their extremely high standards, anyway.
The Community Shield was wo,n but a disastrous run of form wrecked their hopes of a fourth successive Premier League title.
It was disappointing in the Champions League, too, as they exited in the last 16 after struggling to qualify for the knockout stages.
Winning the cup at Wembley would be a great send-off for Kevin De Bruyne.
City have only lost one of their last 17 FA Cup ties.
That was in last season’s final when losing 2-1 to Manchester United.
That was the second successive year in which the final had ended 2-1.
You can get odds of 6.5 on City winning by that scoreline this month, and it’s 13.00 on Palace winning 2-1.
It’s been a high-scoring run to the final for City.
17 goals have been scored, and just three conceded.
However, each of those three goals put past them actually saw their opponents (Orient, Plymouth and Bournemouth) take a 1-0 lead.
Palace are 2.75 at online sportsbooks to score the first goal in this match.
Goals look guaranteed, and only one of the last 19 FA Cup finals has finished goalless after 90 minutes.
You can get odds of 15.00 on that being the score and extra time being required.
The FA Cup is all about upsets and many would love to see the Eagles soaring high at Wembley.
It will be a tough task against a City side that seems to be finding some consistency just at the right time.
An eighth FA Cup victory looks likely.
