Cup final day is always a fun occasion. If the sun is shining it’s a nice excuse to invite some friends over, fire up the barbecue, crack open some beers and lose an afternoon in front of the TV watching two hopeful teams battle it out.

Never did I think that the day would come where I’d be watching my team competing at Wembley for the honour of winning the oldest cup competition in world football and with the exception of our various lower league rivals, there’s not many teams I’d want us to beat more than Manchester United in order to lift the trophy.

The day I was born, Man United beat Chelsea 4-0 to win the cup. My uncle is a massive Chelsea fan, so luckily my birth wasn’t the only disappointment in the family that day.

Hopefully United aren’t as lucky this time around and we can wipe the smile off Louis Van Gaal’s face.

Not that I’ll be able to take much pleasure from looking at his face.

He looks like Donald Trump if he’d been stung by a wasp and left to dry out in the sun. The only things more unpleasant to look at than Louis Van Gaal are Palace’s kits for next season.

With Alan Pardew leading Palace out in a reconstruction of the 1990 final, the editing team at the BBC are going to have a field day putting together romantic montages to build up excitement prior to kick-off.

We’ve struggled in games against them since promotion but we can beat anyone on our day.

As long as we start with a front three of Ian Wright, Darren Ambrose and Don Rogers, De Gea will be helpless and United will be firmly reduced back into the familiar territory of national laughing stock.

In the coming week leading up to the game, I can’t help but think I’ll have a few sleepless nights.

Not due to excitement, but mainly from fear at the thought of Anthony Martial being let loose upon our full backs.

If we can somehow manage to keep him quiet then we’ve got a real chance.

With most of the squad fit and available it’ll be interesting to see what sort of line up Pardew elects to go with, particularly with Gayle hitting form at the right time.

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McArthur is back fit and playing again so it’s fair to assume he’ll start in the middle with Cabaye, but I’d be tempted to play Jedinak again to nullify the aerial threat of Fellaini and to generally break things up, especially with Rooney playing a deeper role and controlling the midfield.

Whatever happens with the result it will be a great day out to bring an end to the most typical of Palace seasons, which was not without its fair share of highs and lows.

A cup win would make us so much more attractive to potential signings, so hopefully we can use it as a platform to build on and won’t have to wait another 26 years until our next one.

See you at Wembley.

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