For Crystal Palace and Watford, the FA Cup can stir the soul in a way the Premier League never will

On weekends like this one, coming after such a gripping Champions League round, it can be a little difficult to muster the energy for the FA Cup. The quaint competition requires a little more effort to be loved, like an elderly relative invited over at Christmas. This is a time when winning the Premier League – or staying in it, or getting to it – is just more important.

Yet the paradox is that for those teams in the Premier League’s safe and often mundane middle ground, the Cup is more significant than ever. For clubs like Watford and Crystal Palace, who meet in the quarter-finals at Vicarage Road on Saturday, it is their whole season, their main motivation, their reason to exist beyond the familiar top-flight churn.

There are several clubs in recent years who happily set up camp between the top six and the bottom five or so, like Stoke and West Brom, but who soon found they were losing something marooned on that island – motivation, perhaps – and slowly began eating themselves. The Cup offers a distraction, a chance to write football folklore, and can stir the soul in a way finishing ninth in the Premier League never will.

Of all the players left in the competition, no one knows this more than James McArthur. McArthur was part of the Wigan team which shocked Manchester City and the world in 2013, when Ben Watson connected with the header of his life to win the FA Cup. Wigan’s relegation three days later dampened the celebrations, something which Wigan players said felt more important at the time, but looking back McArthur would not trade those Wembley memories for anything. Seasons come and go, but it is the Cup finals – the win against City, and his loss with Palace against Manchester United in 2016 – which mark the high and low points of his career.

“We didn’t enjoy the Cup final as much as we should have, or we would have liked to,” says McArthur, sitting in a cosy room at Palace’s training ground as rain beats down on the pitches outside. “Since then I think it has changed – I think that was the last final that was during the [league] season – so we were unfortunate on that point. But we can look back now on all the memories we created for so many people.

“It was an amazing day, and something you can never take away from the guys that were there.”

The 2016 final loss to Louis van Gaal’s United was just as emotive. Palace went ahead in the 78th minute, provoking that dance by Alan Pardew, but their joy was cut short three minutes later by Juan Mata before Jesse Lingard’s extra-time winner ended the dream. Does it still play on his mind?

“It is obviously a low moment in your career,” admits McArthur. “But I don’t think it affects any other game that you play in. I don’t think now: ‘I need to do this, or we need to do that’. [But] it is such a low point, and it’s hard to pick yourself up at the time.”

That Wigan performance should serve as inspiration for clubs like Watford and Palace. Manchester City and United may still be in the draw but they will have one eye on other prizes. There is no reason why the winner of this quarter-final cannot go and repeat the trick.

open image in gallery

So how did Wigan pull off one of the great FA Cup shocks? “A lot of our amazing performances that year came in the FA Cup,” remembers McArthur. “Our players really came alive in it. I think you will remember Callum McManaman. Every single round he was unplayable.

“The final was amazing. We actually played City two weeks before put in one of the best performances we have against them. We played the same tactics in the final where our winger would stay high and our striker would drop back in. We had played really well and lost, just, and the question the manager [Roberto Martinez] asked in the final was: ‘Have we got enough to go and win?’ It was a masterstroke because I think he knew we were going to play well. Did we have that winning mentality go and do it? And on the day we did.”

McArthur’s medal was stolen from his house the following year, but the 31-year-old Scot does not miss it. “A lot of people would see it is a really bad thing, but it didn’t really bother me. The FA replaced it. Having the medal is nice, but for me it sits somewhere safe…in a bank somewhere! The medal is obviously special but knowing that we were there, it is more the memories and the day we created for so many.”

In many ways Palace’s trip to Watford is the perfect Cup tie. A strange kind of rivalry has built up between the two teams in recent years, inflamed by their need to take Premier League points from one another. Wilfried Zaha has been at the heart of it, taking fouls by Watford players on rotation in recent meetings, most notably Etienne Capoue’s rake down his calf in the opening minutes in August, and was later mocked by a diving Harry the Hornet in the same game. Watford won that match, and the return fixture at Selhurst Park, both by a 2-1 scoreline typical of the unyielding nature of their recent battles.

This weekend means more, of course. Like Watford, Palace have never won the FA Cup, but they have a player in their ranks who knows what it’s like to make history against all the odds. “I have been luckily enough to be in three semi-finals, so it would be amazing to have the opportunity to get back to Wembley again and go one further this time with Palace,” says McArthur. “And try and win it.”