Crystal Palace won the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday and lifted the first major trophy in the club’s history, ending decades of final-day frustration with a 1-0 victory shaped by Eberechi Eze’s 16th-minute strike and Dean Henderson’s penalty save just after the half-hour.
Daniel Muñoz set up Eze for the only goal, and Henderson then denied Omar Marmoush from the spot as Palace protected the lead through the second half. It was a breakthrough for a club that had lost previous FA Cup finals to Manchester United in 1990 and again in 2016, both times leaving Wembley without silverware.
The win mattered not only because of the trophy itself but because Palace did it at the ground that had delivered so much disappointment before. Wembley has become a place of mixed memory for the club, and this time the afternoon ended with players and supporters celebrating the sort of result that had long seemed out of reach.
Guéhi, who was ineligible for Manchester City’s 2-0 Carabao Cup final win over Arsenal because he had already played for Palace in the competition, said the experience of watching from the side has sharpened his appreciation of winning rather than changed his appetite for it. “I wouldn’t say it made me hungrier – the hunger is always there,” he said. “It just makes me appreciate the art of winning a bit more, understanding what it really takes to maintain that level and keep winning and finding new ways to win.”
The result also landed on a day when Pep Guardiola’s future drew fresh attention. The Manchester City manager said he has one year left on his contract and made plain how much Wembley has meant to him, recalling winning the European Cup there with Barcelona in 1992 and the Champions League final against Manchester United in 2011. “It’s been a special place,” he said, calling it “top” to return. He also lamented that there is no stand or lounge at the stadium marked out for him, adding that maybe he will go there 24 more times.
That reflection came against a wider backdrop of instability elsewhere in the game. Chelsea’s recent upheaval has been severe, with sections of the dressing room in open revolt, Calum McFarlane leading the first team at Wembley in May, and Liam Rosenior leaving 106 days into a six-and-a-half-year deal. The club had also been on a historically bad run in the league, and the contrast with Palace’s composed day at Wembley could hardly have been sharper.
For Palace, though, the story is simpler. After years of near misses and old wounds, they finally walked off Wembley with a major trophy in their hands, and this time there was no asterisk beside it.
