Patrick Vieira Conor Gallagher replacement list shortens ahead of Chelsea FA Cup showdown

With Crystal Palace’s FA Cup semi-final showdown with Chelsea now just days away, manager Patrick Vieira will be thinking long and hard about who to replace Conor Gallagher within the midfield.

The 22-year-old has featured in every round of the FA Cup but will be unable to participate in Sunday’s semi-final at Wembley after the Blues rejected a request from Palace to give him a special dispensation to feature. Instead, Gallagher will have to watch from the sidelines as his current teammates battle against his parent club in the Eagles’ biggest game of the season.

His absence will be a big blow for Vieira but one that he has had time to prepare for, though there aren’t too many players available for him to replace Gallagher with. Finding someone who can replicate the loanee’s work rate is nigh-on impossible, while with eight goals to his name, there isn’t another midfielder in the squad who has contributed to more goals than he has.

It’s likely then that Vieira will have to change his tactics - something he did to good effect when the Blues visited Selhurst Park back in February. Gallagher was unavailable for that game, too, with Palace setting up in a more compact 4-2-3-1 formation that saw Michael Olise provide the creative spark as a number ten. A late Hakim Ziyech goal in that game denied the Eagles what would’ve been a hard-fought point, though it proved to Vieira his side were disciplined enough to match their opponents across the 90 minutes.

Suppose he is to implement the same tactics on Sunday. Though, in that case, it might have to be with different personnel, with Olise missing Palace’s last two league games with a foot injury. Even if the France Under-21 international is fit enough to feature, Vieira might