New dynamics in the battle.for the game's oldest prize

A disruptive quartet of FA Cup semi-finalists raises plenty of questions about the game’s future

- writes Miguel Delaney

At Crystal Palace over the last few days, Oliver Glasner has been finalising hard work on Aston Villa’s midfield with a light touch. The Austrian is appealing to his players’ childhood love for the game, telling them to listen to the schoolyard near the training ground. The point is to remind them that occasions like an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley are to be savoured, rather than feel intimidated by. This, in short, is why you got into football.

You could forgive Palace feeling some pressure this weekend, mind. They are the only one of the four clubs left to have never won a major trophy. It is no exaggeration to say it means more to them.

That is not to dismiss the long waits for silverware that Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest have themselves endured, since either getting to the final would be an immense occasion, too. Their runs have nevertheless been part of greater surges. Both are aiming for the Champions League, with qualification likely to embolden two upwardly mobile clubs. Clearly, more is coming.

There’s then Manchester City, who have gone... 12 months without a trophy. This isn’t the normal case of the repeat champions just routinely lifting silverware, though, given how unprecedented the autumn crisis was for Pep Guardiola. The FA Cup can save the season.

It would still feel such an inevitability if even that kind of campaign ended with the Catalan winning the trophy. And that in a season being sold on a sense of unpredictability, in a competition that is still ultimately about the nostalgic thrill of how anything can happen on the day. Guardiola has instead managed a seventh successive semi-final.