BY ANDREW MCSTEEN
With all eyes on their FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa last Saturday, Crystal Palace faced a rearranged Premier League game against Arsenal on Wednesday night with many observers expecting Eagles boss Oliver Glasner to ring the changes ahead of their Wembley showdown.
In the end, Glasner made four changes as the side from SE25 twice came from behind to draw 2-2 against the Champions League semi-finalists, which had followed a 0-0 draw against Bournemouth and two losses, against Newcastle United and Manchester City, which had seen five goals conceded in each.
For England midfielder Adam Wharton, that performance against the Gunners helped pave the way for the Eagles 3-0 win against Villa which has taken the club to just their third-ever FA Cup Final.
“We wanted to go into that Arsenal game to try and win as well,” explained Wharton. “We weren’t trying to save our legs or anything like that. Everyone got minutes in the game and everyone was ready; whether they were starting or coming off the bench and you’ve seen the impact the players had off the bench.
“We’ve had five games in two weeks, so it’s been a busy period. We started that period pretty poorly, with a couple of bad results, but we knew we had to do everything so that we were coming into this game (Villa) with momentum and we did that on Wednesday against Arsenal. We take every game trying to win it and not trying to draw or lose to save legs. We want to play every game and win it, and we know we can. We’re in a good position – we executed the plan perfectly, but the job is not done. We still got another game and we will just keep level-headed.”
At just 21 years old, Wharton is still learning his craft but has fast become a hot property thanks to his performances this season, with reported interest from Real Madrid and newly-crowned Premier League champions Liverpool.
And the defensive midfielder was quick to praise the work of his attackers on Saturday not only in front of goal, but in their defensive duties too as keys to the win.
“We know how good we are defensively when we stay together, compact as a team,” explained Wharton “(The first goal from Ebere Eze) just gave us a boost, going 1-0 up. It was massive and then we could just kick on from there.
“The win is massive for us as a team. We can see that if we stick to the plan, if everyone’s on it, then we can beat any team that we come up against. We’re really confident and this (win) is going to help us with our confidence. We just had to treat it as a normal game: don’t play the occasion, play the game and that’s what we did and it worked out well.”
PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD
