Premier League and FA Cup semi-finals: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

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If Chelsea are to win the FA Cup then they will probably need their No 1 to have another good day on 16 May. “I learned in this country: take a day off and the team plays better,” Guardiola said after Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final defeat of Southampton.

The Arsenal manager brought the subject up himself when he faced the press after his team’s 1-0 win and, while he was at it, he railed against the decision not to dismiss Manchester City’s Abdukodir Khusanov for a last-man foul on Kai Havertz the previous weekend. They faced their crowd for the first time on Saturday since relegation from the Premier League was confirmed.

That will come in time, but against Palace they witnessed his ability to turn a game regardless. It was the first time Sunderland had lost by five or more goals at home in a league game since 1958 but Regis Le Bris’s team had no answers to either Forest’s intelligent press from that formidable frontline or their innovative set-piece execution.