We kicked the week off on Easter Monday with historian Peter Manning's account of Palace's involvement in the first-ever FA Cup semi-final, way back in 1872.
Today, we hear from Palace legend James McArthur, who made 253 appearances for the club across nine years – including three matches at Wembley in the FA Cup.
His first Wembley appearance for Palace was as a second-half substitute in our 2-1 semi-final win over Watford in 2015/16, before he subsequently played the full 120 minutes of our defeat to Manchester United in the Final.
The midfielder's third and final time playing at Wembley with Palace was when he captained the club in our 2021/22 semi-final defeat to Chelsea...
"Playing at Wembley is unbelievable," McArthur writes, looking ahead to Saturday's semi-final against Aston Villa.
"I think people like Marc [Guéhi], Ebs [Eze] and Dean [Henderson], who’ve played there for England, will need to carry that experience of playing there.
"I don't know if the lads will be doing this, but one thing which probably helped me – and it helped a lot of the players at Wigan [with whom McArthur won the FA Cup in 2012/13] – is we went there the night before. We went onto the pitch and got used to our surroundings, and that did help.
"Obviously, Tottenham played there a couple of years ago, and some of the lads would have played in that game, but I think if you can get used to the surroundings and know what's coming, there'll be a much better chance of winning that football match.
