MARC Guehi said staying “present” has been key to Crystal Palace’s ideal build-up to Saturday’s FA Cup final against Manchester City at Wembley.
Palace matched their best-ever points total in a Premier League season as they reached 49 with their 2-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.
Eagles boss Oliver Glasner has praised his side for their focus on the league since they defeated Aston Villa 3-0 in the semi-final last month.
“You want to do the best that you can, not thinking too far ahead, because you’ve got time,” Guehi said. “It’s important that you stay present and do the job you have to do. I’m really proud of the team, their performance – and now we can start thinking ahead.
“It was a good performance from the team. Maybe the only thing that we could have had was a few more goals but, to be honest, in life we invest a lot and we might not get a massive return, but the most important thing was the goals we got today, so well done to the team.”
Eberechi Eze scored both goals against Spurs, taking his tally to the season to twelve, with five in his last four games.
“He’s been doing really well. I’m grateful for him – he’s a fantastic player,” Guehi said.
“I mean, you guys can see for yourselves, I don’t need to speak too much about him. He’s a fantastic person, first and foremost. When you’ve got people like that in the building, it spurs the team on and then your quality shines through.
“But I’d mention the whole team, because everyone was really putting a shift in, and we couldn’t do it without every single person. Without the team, these players aren’t able to go and do what they do.”
On reaching 49 points, Guehi said: “The manager mentioned it. I think he said if we beat it, we get a few more days off, so I think everyone’s going to be really excited about that. I think the plan is to make sure that we get those wins and get those few extra days off!
“I think it’s just proof that hard work pays off. At the start of the season we didn’t really start the way that we wanted to. The togetherness of every single person, the hard work, was fantastic. We kept our heads down and now we’ve got an opportunity to try and beat that record.”
Eze is full of confidence heading to Wembley.
Eze said: “I think it means everything.
“We know what it means to the fans, to the club. We’re going to give everything that we’ve got to put ourselves in the best position. I feel like [beating Spurs] was a good step towards that.
“We’re confident. We know that we’ve just got to do what we do and be the best version of ourselves and we’ve got the chance of beating any team.”
