Tuesday’s quarter-final will be the Eagles’ 29th game of the season and Gabriel Jesus is set to line up against them
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liver Glasner could be forgiven for preferring to enjoy a rest with his family in Austria a few days before Christmas rather than preparing for Crystal Palace’s 29th game of the season – a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Arsenal on Tuesday night. However, any suggestion that Palace may have to prioritise given they remain in four competitions was unsurprisingly dismissed.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Glasner after his team’s 4-1 hammering by Leeds on Saturday. “If somebody tells me that we lose on purpose, the next day I’m not the manager any more.”
There has been a stark contrast in Glasner’s approach to cup competitions compared to his predecessor, Roy Hodgson, something that first became clear in Palace’s run to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup in his first full season in charge. They had been eliminated in that competition as well as the FA Cup by the time he took over at Selhurst Park in February 2024 and picked his strongest team for Palace’s wins over Norwich, QPR and away at Aston Villa – the first of three victories over Unai Emery’s side that season, including the FA Cup semi-final – which set up their meeting with Arsenal in the last-eight. That ended in a 3-2 defeat at the Emirates Stadium in December 2024 thanks to a somewhat controversial hat-trick from Gabriel Jesus after Palace had led at half-time.
