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Crystal Palace’s Wembley dreams were destroyed by Watford on Saturday, with the Hornets stinging the Eagles in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and thus booking a semi-final against Wolves.

While there was fairly little that could be done about Andre Gray’s winner, Etienne Capoue’s opener was certainly preventable from a Palace point of view – particularly if you’re Vicente Guaita.

On the chalkboard

Javi Gracia’s side were quick to test the Palace ‘keeper’s ability to deal with crosses and soon found that it was basically non-existent – queue a torrent of balls into the box and corners which eventually paid dividends.

Jose Holebas whipped a decent ball into the box and the former Getafe man Guaita came flying off his line to try and punch it away but just flapped at it, allowing Capoue to eventually fire into an empty net.

It could have been worse but for some fine stops from the Spaniard, although he might not have been forced to make them if his decision making was better, as Watford continued to exploit the number 31’s Achilles heel.

The errors were the latest of parallels to be drawn with Palace flop Steve Mandanda, who endured a torrid time on SE25 in the 16/17 season.

Mandanda 2.0

The Marseille cult hero arrived in summer 2017 carrying the reputation as one of the best in Europe – France’s number two at the time, the goalkeeper had high expectations when he swapped Ligue 1 for the Premier League.

It didn’t quite go to plan, though, and, following a series of errors, an injury and a rumoured spat with then-boss Sam Allardyce, the veteran returned to his home country at the end of the season. Nightmare.

Is the FA Cup distracting Crystal Palace fans from their EPL issues? Pla>yamker FC’s Sam thinks so in the video below…

Considering the parallels to be drawn between Guaita and Mandanda, it appears the Spaniard could be set to follow in the footsteps of the ex-Palace man.