Palace and Spurs clash with finals front of mind
Oliver Glasner insists Crystal Palace’s Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur is “business as usual” ahead of the FA Cup final against Manchester City next weekend.
Palace is 12th on the table, four points ahead of Everton and five behind Fulham, with all eyes on next week's showdown at Wembley.
Glasner’s side is, however, on the verge of matching its record best points tally in the Premier League.
It has picked up 46 points this season, just three short of its competition record of 49, which it hit in 1992-1993, 2018-2019, and 2023-2024.
"It's now about being best prepared, and we want to show the best performance that we can show," Glasner said ahead of facing Spurs.
"It's more or less the same situation for both teams. We have this game and our final on Saturday [Sunday AEST]. [Tottenham] have this game and one more in between and their [UEGA Europa League final].
"I always believe at the end of the season you get what you deserve. I think we deserve the final now because of our great performances in the FA Cup.
"I think we deserve the position in the league, which is just average for Crystal Palace, in terms of 12th but yes, the amount of points is good.
"We now want to go for the highest amount of points in Crystal Palace history.
"This game is just business as usual for us. We want to play the final. We want to have this positive stress. The better our performance is at Tottenham, the better our confidence will be for the final."
Tottenham, meanwhile, will still be riding high from its UEFA Europa League semi-final victory in midweek, with an all-English final against Manchester United to come on 22 May (AEST).
Spurs played out a tepid 1-1 draw with West Ham United last time out in the top flight, leaving them in 16th place.
After the UEFA Europa League win over Bodo/Glimt, coach Ange Postecoglou acknowledged that he will have to rest some players.
"It will be a balancing act. [Cristian] Romero and Micky van de Ven do need to get some game time between now and then [the Europa League final]," he said.
"But that's unlikely [against Palace], because the thing about Thursday night [Friday morning AEST], playing on an artificial pitch takes a lot out of the players. It's fair to say they were sore."
