The England international put in another superb display at the heart of midfield during the Eagles’ 3-0 win at Wembley, helping to set up what will be just our third-ever FA Cup final, in three weeks’ time against Manchester City.
Around that huge date, Palace will also play four Premier League matches, with the opportunity to break the club’s points record in the competition (49, with the Eagles currently on 45), and to finish as high as eighth in the table.
“Obviously it was a great win,” Wharton told reporters after the game. “We've had five games in two weeks, so it's been a busy period.
“We started that pretty poorly with a couple of bad results, but we knew we had to do everything so that we were coming into this game with momentum. We did that last Wednesday against Arsenal [a 2-2 draw at the Emirates], so we were in a good position and we executed the plan perfectly.
“But the job's not done. We've still got another game against City. We've just got to keep level-headed – there’s still plenty to play for this season and in the league.
“We wanted to go into the Arsenal game to try and win. We weren't trying to save our legs for today, or anything like that. Everyone got minutes in the game, so everyone was ready, whether they started or were coming off the bench – so it was good.
“We take every game trying to win it. We're not going out to draw or lose any game to save legs. We want to play every game to win it – and we know we can do.
“We've just got to stay humble, stay working hard and working for every game, every result, every day in training, and hopefully we can produce something.”
