There haven’t been many times in recent years that we can say that we will still be in the FA Cup come February. Saturday’s win at Southampton was a largely impressive result and continues to amplify the significance of the impact that Alan Pardew has on the squad.

It was a perfect time to play Southampton. Palace are on a role and the Saints were missing a handful of key midfielders, an area of the pitch where we excel. Yet another 90 minutes of exciting counter-attacking football with warrior-like defending earned an attractive home draw against Liverpool or Bolton. Even ignoring the result, the performance gave the supporters more than enough to smile about: we saw the return of Marouane Chamakh, Joel Ward back to his very best and the birth of a new cult hero in Yaya Sanogo.

Chamakh and Sanogo have been two of the most victimised Premier League scapegoats in recent seasons. The shear fickleness of football fans never ceases to amaze me. Many struggle to comprehend the fact that players who can’t perform at the world’s very best clubs still have the potential to be more than useful at others.

Chamakh is the perfect example of this. From Day One the Palace faithful have loved him and his appreciation is clear every time he scores a goal. He saluted the fans away at Stoke for his first, and shaped a love heart to us for his most recent. Sanogo will be desperate to emulate this relationship, knowing that just like Chamakh, admiration isn’t earned just by scoring, but for the shift you put in for the team. Sanogo has already started well in that respect and although it’s clear he is isn’t as technically gifted as Chamakh, his monstrous presence and work-rate will see him become a cult hero at Selhurst. And who can’t love aomeone who plays with such a smile on his face?

The club is making a bit of a habit of having to come from behind to win having done so in our previous three games. Although there is no better way to win, this won’t go on forever. We next welcome a struggling Everton side to Selhurst and there may not be a better time to do so given their recent run of form and the ever growing pressure that Roberto Martinez is under following a run of one win in 10.

Despite the turmoil they're in, there is no doubt about the quality they possess. You only have to look at the fact they shelled out £28million on one player in the summer to know that. Kevin Mirallas is in the form of his life and I am personally astounded that he hasn’t been the number one target of a number of clubs in the January window: he has been unplayable of late. Throw Leighton Baines into the mix and there is already more than enough quality to know that Everton are a club who are catastrophically underachieving.

I doubt that there will be any Palace fans going into the game with total confidence that we will come out with a result. After all, all form has to come to an end at some point, whether that’ll be our good run or Everton’s bad.

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