Richards: We aspire to make Palace history

First-team

29 Mar 2025

Chris Richards says Crystal Palace are looking to break new ground as a club, as the Eagles enter the final two months of the season.

With 10 league games remaining, the Eagles have accrued more Premier League points (39) at this stage of the season than ever before – and have reached the FA Cup quarter-finals, in which they face Fulham on Saturday afternoon (12:15 GMT).

Speaking to reporters ahead of the tie, defender Chris Richards explained: “It’s been impressive.

“I think regardless of how we started the season, we knew that we were just one millimetre away from making a difference, and I think once we started kind of seeing results in the FA Cup, we started seeing results in the league, and they go hand in hand.

“We worked really hard, and being able to make a run [in the Cup], I think it will also help us playing in the league as well because we're playing in similar competitions, so again, I think it's been really good for us.

“I think also, not just myself, but the club and coach, we really aspire to make history here at Palace.

“I believe the year before [I arrived at Palace, 2021/22] they had a run [to the semi-finals] as well, so it would be fun to have another run and hopefully win it this time.”

Richards did, however, reiterate that with so much to play for over the next two months, Palace were determined to take a level approach heading into Saturday’s tie with Fulham.

“I feel like every game from here-on out is the most important game,” the 25-year-old reasoned. “We try not to overlook it, but hopefully we win [against Fulham]. If we don't, we try to win the next game and just keep pushing.

“We know that we've been in really good form, so who knows where we can finish this season in the league. But like I said, we kind of take every game as ‘this game is the most important one.’

“It's another game. We don't make it bigger than it should be. We've had good results over the last 20-ish games and I understand that, if we play like we have been playing over those games, we should get a good result [today].

“But again, we're trying not to focus too much on the result. We want to focus on how we're playing.

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“Fulham have had a good season. We just played them a few weeks ago, so we kind of have an idea, or at least we have a fresh memory of how the game went, and so hopefully we can just kind of tighten up the loose ends.

“Even though we won 2-0 it wasn't the best game ever, so hopefully we can definitely improve on the first game that we played against them and get a win.”

This season has marked Palace’s first deep foray into the FA Cup since Richards’ arrival three years ago, and the American smiled: “I grew up, I'd say, watching a few games, but didn't quite realise the importance of it until I got here to Palace.

“I'm really looking forward to it. Like I said, I didn't quite know the scale of the FA Cup until I got here, but it's the biggest competition for a reason.”

Match Details

Fulham v Crystal Palace

Saturday, 29th March
12:15 GMT
FA Cup quarter-finals
Craven Cottage
Live audio commentary on Palace TV+.

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