For much of it, this has felt like the season where the middle-classes rose up against the Premier League aristocrats. Saturday's FA Cup final between Crystal Palace and Manchester City will go a long way towards deciding whether we can still cling to that narrative or have to laugh at its naivety.
Kevin de Bruyne’s last big game for City, against a Palace team of rising stars led by Eberechi Eze, has an establishment v upstarts feel.
City’s mission is to reminding those yapping at their heels who the big dogs really are, Palace’s to fight the underdogs’ corner.
Victory is more about trophies for trophies’ sake for City at the end of what their Leeds-born striker Erling Haaland calls "a horrific season... boring and not fun".
FAREWELLS? Saturday will be Kevin de Bruyne's last big game for Manchester City - could it be Jack Grealish's too? (Image: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)FAREWELLS? Saturday will be Kevin de Bruyne's last big game for Manchester City - could it be Jack Grealish's too? (Image: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
FAREWELLS? Saturday will be Kevin de Bruyne's last big game for Manchester City - could it be Jack Grealish's too? (Image: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
FA Cups are not the currency mega-clubs measure themselves by any more, but it will say much about English football in 2025 if a “horrific” campaign ends with its most famous trophy back in the cabinet, just as it will when a mediocre giant books their Champions League place by winning the Europa League on Wednesday.
Palace and 80-odd other clubs would kill for a season that boring.
For them it is about the memories made by lifting the trophy for the first time. The middle-classes they represent might just need it too.
On Christmas Day, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth squatted in the VIP area roped off for Champions League qualifiers, Fulham, Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton and Hove Albion lurking.
WALKING WOUNDED: Crystal Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta was badly injured against Millwall (Image: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)WALKING WOUNDED: Crystal Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta was badly injured against Millwall (Image: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
WALKING WOUNDED: Crystal Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta was badly injured against Millwall (Image: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
These are clubs whose bank accounts have been swelled by the Premier League, reassured that most years the Championship will supply three worse teams.
In past years, the elite have been out of reach but in 2024-25, Tottenham Hotspur were crippled by injuries, Arsenal unable to kick on thanks to indiscipline and a pathological fear of centre-forwards, Chelsea's youngsters about to fizzle out, Manchester United just rubbish. Even Liverpool were worn down by endless European football when the big cup games came around.
Too slow to move on from their Treble-winning heroes, City were the poster boys.
PROVING HIS POINT: Pep Guardiola is far from finished at Manchester City (Image: Michael Steele/Getty Images)PROVING HIS POINT: Pep Guardiola is far from finished at Manchester City (Image: Michael Steele/Getty Images)
PROVING HIS POINT: Pep Guardiola is far from finished at Manchester City (Image: Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Wounding City is not enough, you need to finish them off.
Palace learnt that the hard way when they went 2-0 up at Eastlands in April. City won 5-2.
Now they are back in the Premier League’s top five with Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle United and Chelsea. Back in your box, pretenders.
They have won seven and drawn three of their last 10 games. Horrific.
Palace are also coming good after a slow start. Their defeat in Manchester was only their second in the last 14 games.
But to paraphrase one of Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder’s favourite sayings, if City say yes at Wembley and Palace say yes, there will only be one winner.
This, though, is the FA Cup, which can leave even the best tongue-tied, like Guardiola’s men in last year’s all-Manchester affair.
And Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner seems as driven as his opponents by the old-fashioned notion that trophies still matter.
Even at League Two Doncaster Rovers in round four, he fielded a full-strength side. The protective headgear still wrapped around Jean-Philippe Mateta is a very visible reminder of what he put himself through to get to Wembley.
But modern football is insatiable. If red-and-blue ribbons are tied to the trophy, the challenge will be to build on it – literally, with plans to add 8,773 more seats in a new main stand which could put an extra £20m per year in their war chest.
It will not be easy, with Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig both said to be eyeing up Glasner. Selling Marc Guehi would make good business sense with a free transfer a year away but maybe not the young talents he currently calls team-mates.
Sporting director Dougie Freedman, who built this exciting squad, has already been picked off by Saudi Arabia’s Al-Diriyah.
City's rebuild will happen regardless. The toll of fighting on so many fronts for so long has been felt by Haaland, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, Ederson, Mateo Kovacic and Rodri.
Serious injury stopped Oscar Bobb freshening things up, but the FA Cup has been the platform for midfielder Nico O’Reilly to emerge as an exciting left-back.
The competition has been a rage against the light seemingly dying in Jack Grealish since his appetite and thirst were sated by the 2023 treble.
For some City players Saturday will be a last hurrah. Their club will want to show it is anything but as Palace look to kick on too.