The Premier League took a brief pause on Saturday as the FA Cup final took centre stage.
Crystal Palace upset the odds to beat Manchester City, in doing so securing UEFA Europa League football for themselves in 2025/26 and likely rendering the race for eighth meaningless.
As for the other main Fantasy talking points at Wembley, our Scout Notes article covers them here.
PEP ON CITY’S PENALTY TAKERS
The signs were there when Manchester City missed a 37th-minute penalty that this was maybe going to be Palace’s day.
The taker of City’s spot-kick was as much of a talking point as the outcome.
Erling Haaland (£14.9m) had the ball under his arm while VAR checked the foul on Bernardo Silva (£6.1m) but it was Omar Marmoush (£7.4m) who eventually stepped up to the spot, seeing his effort saved by an inspired Dean Henderson (£4.6m).
Did Haaland lose his bottle after missing three penalties already in 2024/25? Or is there a change in the penalty-taking pecking order at City?
With regards to the latter, it doesn’t sound like Pep Guardiola had much of a say.
“They decide on the pitch, so I don’t know. I didn’t speak with them, I don’t know.
“For the free-kicks or penalties, especially, it’s how you are feeling, how you feel. They decide, they saw that Omar was ready to take it.
“I think Omar took a lot of time with the ball stopped… he should be out to take the ball and after kick to don’t put more pressure on himself.” – Pep Guardiola on why Omar Marmoush took City’s penalty
DE BRUYNE DEEP AS KOVACIC MISSES OUT
Kevin De Bruyne (£9.6m), Marmoush and Haaland were used in a City starting XI together for the first time on Saturday.
Whether that would have been the case had Mateo Kovacic (£5.4m) been fit is a different question, as the Croatian was earmarked for a start.
“Yeah, otherwise Kova would play but he was injured. Not injured, he doesn’t feel good.
“I wanted Kevin in those positions to deliver some balls, unfortunately we could not find him in the positions that we wanted.” – Pep Guardiola on whether Kevin De Bruyne pairing Bernardo Silva in the engine room was because of Mateo Kovacic being out
De Bruyne operated in a deeper role alongside Bernardo, with Marmoush supporting Haaland up top. Guardiola opted for out-and-out wingers in Jeremy Doku (£6.2m) and Savinho (£6.0m), too.
“I thought the game would be quite similar… to Southampton and that’s why I put more players in the box, with proper wingers for the one against ones. Savinho, the first 10 minutes of the second half was brilliant. Jeremy, all the game, was brilliant as always. Omar and Erling in the box, for the second balls, some clever actions from behind from Nico [O’Reilly] arriving or Kevin.” – Pep Guardiola
A different approach to another deeper block but the same goal count as Gameweek 36: zero.
In fairness to City, they did create chances amid a lot of huffing and puffing. There were 26 shots in all and, unlike at St Mary’s, some decent chances. Henderson repelled an early close-range Haaland opportunity from a De Bruyne cross, Josko Gvardiol (£6.5m) had a free header from a corner saved and Marmoush, of course, missed his penalty.
Henderson then brilliantly parried a Doku effort, with De Bruyne skying the rebound.
Would Haaland also have had a clear goalscoring opportunity had Henderson not handled outside his area? The VAR, contentiously, thought not.
A completely different type of opposition awaits on Tuesday in the form of prolific pressers Bournemouth and, most likely, a different starting XI, system and game. You wouldn’t, for example, imagine that De Bruyne is one of just two holding midfielders against that opposition.
ECHEVERRI DEBUT
The best City chances of the second fell to Claudio Echeverri (£5.8m). Who?
After 12 months on loan at old club River Plate, the January 2024 signing returned to Manchester to little fanfare at the turn of this year. He hadn’t kicked a ball for the Cityzens, indeed, until Saturday.
Surprisingly included in the squad and brought on for Marmoush in the 75th minute, the young Argentine attacker was bright on his debut and racked up five shots (more than Haaland and Marmoush) in what little pitch-time he had. Having mostly played as a ’10’ in his motherland, that’s exactly where he operated at Wembley.
Another name to add to the rotation mix, then.
“It was not a bad decision to the way he played, the chances that he had. He had three chances in small spaces. I thought that because I saw him in the training sessions… he’s moving really, really well in small, small spaces, so creative in that.” – Pep Guardiola, when challenged on why he brought on Claudio Echeverri
MUNOZ + EZE DELIVER YET AGAIN
The usual suspects did it once more at Wembley. Henderson was inspired between the posts, Daniel Munoz (£5.2m) was a menace down the right and Eberechi Eze (£7.0m) scored yet again.
Munoz and Eze combined for Palace’s breakaway winner, with the right-back nearly grabbing another assist with a cross for Ismaila Sarr (£5.6m).
The Colombian defender thought he was on the scoresheet himself in the second half. After his initial effort deflected off Sarr, Munoz prodded in the loose ball – but the VAR spotted that the Senegal international was offside when inadvertently touching it.
Most of the afternoon was spent out of possession and defending but that was pretty much by design.
“They just want you to jump and then find the pocket and go in behind us, that’s how they created their penalty. We wanted to be more patient. This was our learning: when we are too impatient and they find the space, even if there is no space, but they find it.
“I was surprised that he played with two strikers and two wingers, so very many attacking players, but it was so hard to defend. You could see Doku, Savinho, so great in 1v1s, we always doubled up, so hard work with Ismaïla Sarr, with Eberechi Eze. If you don’t double up there, then they find the pocket. They did it a few times and then we had the goalkeeper, we had three, four sliding tackles when we blocked the ball and it was such an effort of the team and now we have the reward lifting the trophy.
“Also scoring, being very efficient, scoring an amazing goal.” – Oliver Glasner
WHAT WILL PALACE DO ON TUESDAY?
Speaking of rotation, that’s not something Oliver Glasner has done much of in his time at Palace. Even in the Gameweek 33 match against Arsenal, amid a hectic period and three days before an FA Cup semi-final, he only really rested Sarr and Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.5m).
Saturday’s backs-to-the-wall display may be a factor this time, while there’s Joel Ward (£4.3m) to bid farewell to.
Post-match interviews failed to elicit any real clues as to what Glasner has planned for Palace’s final home match of the season, Tuesday’s visit of Wolverhampton Wanderers. We should have a pre-match press conference to come on Monday, at least.
There may not be much training before midweek, however…
“Tomorrow’s training is already cancelled. The players want to cancel Monday, too!” – Oliver Glasner
