The FA Cup final wound up making history, while five different teams in the Premier League are fighting for the last three Champions League spots. How does it all look as we head into the last weekend of the season?
FA Cup Winner
Crystal Palace
The year they were founded, the first shots were fired in the U.S. Civil War. Palace hadn’t won a major trophy in all that time, but the 164-year drought is over after Eberechi Eze scored the only goal of the final and Dean Henderson stopped Omar Marmoush’s penalty.
Many hands contributed to the upset of Manchester City: Daniel Muñoz, who assisted on Eze’s goal; Ismaïla Sarr, who scored three goals in Palace’s wins leading up to the game; and the defensive unit of Marc Guéhi, Maxence Lacroix, and Chris Richards. Richards and Matt Turner (who backstopped three of Palace’s early-round wins) join Tim Howard as Americans who’ve won the FA Cup.
After the game, Henderson dedicated the win to his father, who died at the beginning of the season. Also bittersweet was team captain Joel Ward capping off 13 years at the club with this honor, as he’ll be leaving at season’s end. It was Palace’s greatest day in more than a century and a half, and chasing it with a win over Wolves was all gravy.
Premier League Winners
Aston Villa and Chelsea
Easy victories for the chasers, as Villa took care of business against Tottenham Hotspur while Chelsea made Marc Cucurella’s goal suffice against a punchless Manchester United. Next week, Villa faces United while Chelsea have a harder task against Nottingham Forest. If Chelsea wins, they’re playing Champions League football next season. Villa need a win and someone ahead of them to slip up.
Nottingham Forest
Their 2-1 win over West Ham keeps their Champions League hopes alive. They’re now playing for Taiwo Awoniyi, their striker who had to be stretchered off and placed in a medically induced coma after colliding with the goalpost against Leicester last week. I’m happy to report that the Nigerian is now awake and recovering.
Jarred Bowen
What a goal the West Ham forward scored against Nottingham Forest. When Forest’s defensive clearance came down behind him, he backheeled the ball up in front of him so that he could smash it with his left foot into Forest’s net. It wasn’t enough to win the game, but kids all over East London will be trying to duplicate his move this week.
Everton
Their easy 2-0 win over Southampton meant little in itself. More important were the vibes around Goodison Park, which has served as Everton’s home grounds for the past 125 years. The men’s team will be leaving for the new Hill Dickinson Stadium two miles away next season, and their final home game at Goodison gave the fans a sweet farewell. Don’t worry, though. The stadium (separated from Liverpool’s Anfield by a city park) won’t be torn down. It will serve as the home venue for Everton’s women’s team, making the 39,414-seat park Britain’s largest stadium dedicated primarily to women’s soccer.
FA Cup Losers
Josep Guardiola
Too often people accuse the Manchester City coach of overthinking, but I don’t know what else to call his starting lineup, with Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne as defensive midfielders and Nico O’Reilly at left-back. While de Bruyne did make some good plays from his deep-lying spot, City had far too much trouble getting the ball forward. Surely it would have been better starting two of O’Reilly, a diminished İlkay Gündoğan, and Rico Lewis (who didn’t even make the bench) in the middle of the pitch. An FA Cup would only have been a consolation for City, but now they don’t even have that.
Omar Marmoush
Henderson knew where the Egyptian was going with his penalty kick, and the Crystal Palace keeper wasn’t alone. Going back to his time at Eintracht Frankfurt, Marmoush has preferred to go high to his left on penalties, and so Henderson was able to save City’s best chance to equalize.
Phil Foden
Even though Guardiola stacked six attackers into his starting lineup, Foden only saw 14 minutes of action plus stoppage time. If that’s where he stands, he needs a new team in the summer.
Premier League Losers
Alphonse Aréola
West Ham’s goalkeeper made some terrific stops in the early going against Nottingham Forest, but then the French netminder undid his good work by passing the ball straight to Morgan Gibbs-White, who then passed the ball into an empty net for Forest’s opening goal.
Anthony Gordon
His turnover led to Declan Rice’s game-winner for Arsenal. Newcastle are still clinging on to third place via goal difference but they’re level on points with Chelsea and Villa, and one point ahead of Nottingham Forest and Manchester City. It could be worse, since Everton are their final opponent, but the right combination of results could still see them out of the European places entirely.
Jarred Gillett
Spineless officiating at the Brentford vs. Fulham match. He should have given a second yellow card to Yoan Wissa for clipping the legs of Antonee Robinson and taking the American down. Instead, the referee let him go unpunished, and the Congolese striker scored to put Brentford up 2-1. Good thing Fulham came back to win it anyway, or that no-call would have decided the game.
Bryan Mbeumo
Streaks always end. The Brentford wide forward was a 9-for-9 on penalty kicks coming into the game against Fulham, but presented with a 10th one in the first half, he saw his spot kick saved by Bernd Leno.