England football international wins chess tournament.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

And Leonard (and others) can now start celebrating! Europe next year.

[Mick Norris]

Brilliant

[Matt Mackenzie]

Their two previous FA Cup finals were lost to Man United (the first in a replay, they still had them back in 1990)

Now they are facing the other Manchester club.

Third time lucky?

And indeed it was

[MJMcCready]

It was a great game, Palace deserved it I thought.

[John Saunders]

I share Leonard's joy at Crystal Palace's success against the Etihasbeens, despite being more of a Wycombe Wanderers man myself. As well as scoring the winning goal, and winning the online celeb chess tournament the other week, Eberechi Eze was loaned out to Wycombe a few years ago and helped them gain promotion from the fourth tier.

Mention of CPFC brings to mind my favourite sporting headline of all time - "Queen in Brawl at Palace" - when Gerry Queen was sent off at Selhurst Park, in the early 1970s.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I am very pleased for Lorin and for Leonard (and for Steve Dishman, if we are to add English chess playing Palace supporters to the list). Besides, who did not want Man City to lose? Eze is a wonderful player, and if he decides to join Arsenal over the summer, I think we should all respect his wishes

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Arsenal do need a striker... It was a very good first-time strike by Eze, under pressure from a defender. Worthy winning goal and great example of scoring on the break (Palace only touched the ball about 6 times in total, a good illustration of how a goal can be scored in seconds from one end to the other - you can never switch off against a team that can score on the break like that).

The Palace goalkeeper handball incident was just funny (along with Rooney's overreaction), and Haaland bottling out of taking a penalty even funnier. Classy and moving interviews from the Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson. Dedicating the win to his father who died last year. Henderson also handled well whatever Guardiola said to him afterwards.

[Mick Norris]

I am very pleased for Lorin and for Leonard (and for Steve Dishman, if we are to add English chess playing Palace supporters to the list). Besides, who did not want Man City to lose? Eze is a wonderful player, and if he decides to join Arsenal over the summer, I think we should all respect his wishes

Why would Eze move from a trophy winning team to one that doesn't win trophies? Arsenal released him after all

[Jonathan Rogers]

I am very pleased for Lorin and for Leonard (and for Steve Dishman, if we are to add English chess playing Palace supporters to the list). Besides, who did not want Man City to lose? Eze is a wonderful player, and if he decides to join Arsenal over the summer, I think we should all respect his wishes

Why would Eze move from a trophy winning team to one that doesn't win trophies? Arsenal released him after all

Ah yes, I forgot, history started yesterday, Palace is a trophy winning team and Arsenal is not!

[LawrenceCooper]

I am very pleased for Lorin and for Leonard (and for Steve Dishman, if we are to add English chess playing Palace supporters to the list). Besides, who did not want Man City to lose? Eze is a wonderful player, and if he decides to join Arsenal over the summer, I think we should all respect his wishes

Why would Eze move from a trophy winning team to one that doesn't win trophies? Arsenal released him after all

Well, Declan Rice won a trophy and then moved to Arsenal so you never know.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

They will all move to Tottenham, once they win the Europa League Final, and then go to Bayern Munich, following Harry Kane.

Liverpool are also rebuilding their team. And it is still technically possible for Arsenal to not qualify for the Champions League next year (the 14 draws compared to the 18 wins has been very costly).

But I really want to know, if Tottenham lose their last league game (against Brighton) and still have a positive goal difference (they would need to lose 1-0, or draw and Manchester United get the same result or better), whether a team finishing one place above the relegation zone in any football league, has ever had a positive goal difference.

Tottenham at one stage (courtesy of some high-scoring wins) had a GD of around 11 for a long time, but that has slowly decreased. It is still faintly ridiculous though. If they lose their last league game, they will have won 11, lost 22 and drawn 5. Almost the mirror opposite of Crystal Palace's season (which started badly and has ended well). Whether Tottenham's season ends well depends on the result of the Europa League final on Wednesday. Never has so much rested for two clubs on so little. It would have been even funnier if one of the two had been relegated, but that was expecting too much.

[Alistair Campbell]

But I really want to know, if Tottenham lose their last league game (against Brighton) and still have a positive goal difference (they would need to lose 1-0, or draw and Manchester United get the same result or better), whether a team finishing one place above the relegation zone in any football league, has ever had a positive goal difference.

Well, Man City got relegated in 37/38 with a positive goal difference, so I imagine finishing one place above a relegation zone with a positive GD has happened many times. (City had been the champions in 36/37.)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thank you, Alistair. Good to know. It must still be an outlier, as the GD is normally a good indicator of what half of the table you are in.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I am very pleased for Lorin and for Leonard (and for Steve Dishman, if we are to add English chess playing Palace supporters to the list). Besides, who did not want Man City to lose? Eze is a wonderful player, and if he decides to join Arsenal over the summer, I think we should all respect his wishes

Man City supporters?

Quite possibly some hardcore Brighton fans as well (their beef with Palace is one of the slightly more "curious" football rivalries)

[John Clarke]

But I really want to know, if Tottenham lose their last league game (against Brighton) and still have a positive goal difference (they would need to lose 1-0, or draw and Manchester United get the same result or better), whether a team finishing one place above the relegation zone in any football league, has ever had a positive goal difference.

Well, Man City got relegated in 37/38 with a positive goal difference, so I imagine finishing one place above a relegation zone with a positive GD has happened many times. (City had been the champions in 36/37.)

Not just a positive GD, but the highest number of "goals for" in the division! And only the third-highest "goals against". A very curious set of stats altogether. BTW it was goal average that counted back then (for ÷ against), not that it mattered to City.