Southampton. Boxing Day. The match itself was generous, open, decided by quality. I rotated: Mandanda, Ward, Digne, Tarkowski, Dann. McArthur and Kirby in the pivot. Townsend and Gnabry wide. Pato and Bojan up front.
Pato scored in the eleventh minute. Gnabry headed the second from a Digne cross in the thirty-eighth. And Bojan completed it in the seventieth with his bow to the Holmesdale. 3-0. Clean sheet. Mandanda barely tested. The rotation squad performing at first-team level. The system working because the identity was bigger than any individual.
Crystal Palace 3-0 Southampton.
After the final whistle, the Holmesdale sang something I had never heard before. Not "Glad All Over." Not the academy chant. Something new, raw, born in the moment, a melody borrowed from an old terrace song and given new words:
"We're Crystal Palace, we're on our way, we're Crystal Palace, we're on our way, to the Champions League, to the Champions League..."
