Crystal Palace: Eberechi Eze hitting top form at perfect moment as FA Cup final approaches | OneFootball

Eagles star shines once more in Nottingham Forest stalemate to offer hope of another Wembley upset against Manchester City

Crystal Palace have one of their biggest games fast approaching, and the 21 days between the FA Cup final and their sensational Wembley win over Aston Villa are about ensuring they peak at the right time.

The Eagles were good without ever being great on Monday night, holding Nottingham Forest to a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park in which the hosts created the better openings and boasted the best player on the pitch in Eberechi Eze.

The England international broke the deadlock from the penalty spot and was brighter than anyone on the night. It was a display that will have given Palace fans and his manager real encouragement that he is clicking into top gear at the critical moment.

Just days after winning the top prize — £15,000 — in a hotly-contested amateur online chess tournament, Eze was unpicking defences once more.

Following just five goals in his first 30 appearances of the season, since opening his account for England by netting against Latvia in March, he has scored five times in his last nine games for Palace and is revving up nicely ahead of the FA Cup final against Manchester City on May 17.

For whatever reason — lack of confidence or, as his manager has suggested many times, lack of luck — Eze was playing somewhat within himself for much of this season. That coincided with the months Palace spent lingering near the relegation zone.

Not the case now. He checked his run-up for the penalty on Monday night before striking powerfully into the corner of the net. Following misses by Eze himself and, in the semi-final, by Jean-Philippe Mateta, finally a converted penalty by Palace at the third time of asking.

Eze opened the scoring for Palace against Nottingham Forest from the penalty spot

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“I have 100 per cent confidence in him,” Oliver Glasner said of Eze afterwards. “99 per cent [of his penalties] he takes like he took it today [with a stutter]. This is Ebs’s style.

“He has such a controlled, hard strike that when he hits it close to the corners, it is really difficult for goalkeepers to save. You could see when he hit the bar, it was so controlled with his finish. Today, he showed that.”

That strike against the crossbar came from a dribble down the left, with Eze cutting in and then firing from distance against the woodwork. It was so close to a magnificent winner against Forest, as was his mazy run, later on, which culminated in Eddie Nketiah firing home but then being flagged offside.

Eze’s thunderous opening goal against Aston Villa in the semi-final, the goal which set Palace on their way to a remarkable and thoroughly deserved 3-0 victory at Wembley, was surely his most important moment in five years at the club.

But having scored in a defeat by City in the league just under a month ago, he and the Palace faithful long for a new greatest moment — for Eze to light up Wembley again by inspiring the Eagles to FA Cup glory.

Glasner has rather shrewdly banned talk of the FA Cup final at Palace’s training ground until it is actually upon them, insistent they might first get through the next 11 days, including Sunday's league trip to Tottenham, with full focus.

That message will have been noted and understood by his players, and so Eze is letting his feet do the talking instead. He is in a good place right now. As Palace's big day draws nearer, that couldn’t be more welcome.