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Could Jason Puncheon be the man to save Crystal Palace's season again?

So strange is this current Premier League season that if Crystal Palace beat Everton on Wednesday, they will go above the Toffees in the table. That's the same Palace who hadn't won a league team for three months before Saturday's win over Norwich, going above an Everton team with John Stones, Ross Barkley, Romelu Lukaku and more top-quality players.

Maybe that should shine more of a light on how disappointing Roberto Martinez's side have been this season than the craziness of the Premier League. Toffees fans are growing increasingly frustrated with their side, and with good reason; a team with that much quality shouldn't have struggled as badly as they have this campaign. But then, neither should a side with Yohan Cabaye, Scott Dann, Jason Puncheon, Wilfried Zaha and Yannick Bolasie.

In many ways, there are a lot of similarities between Palace and Everton this season: both large(ish) clubs with rich traditions and fans who have higher aspirations than the current results would suggest; both still playing in stadiums they've had for most of the last century; both owned by local businessmen who have recently sold stakes to overseas investors; and both sides with a lot of talented individuals, managed by young(ish) managers trying to make names for themselves.

Crucially, they are two sides not doing as well as they should be. But also, they're two teams who are still in the FA Cup despite all of that, and with a very good chance of meeting each other in the final at Wembley in six weeks. They're two teams with a lot to play for yet this season.

Palace will be hoping that Saturday's win over Norwich will act as a springboard for the rest of the season. They probably only need one more league win to be all but mathematically safe from the threat of relegation, and getting that on Wednesday night at Selhurst Park would be the perfect way to go into next Sunday's FA Cup semifinal with Watford.

But it won't be easy. The Eagles haven't beaten Everton at home since 1994, and Martinez's side have actually only lost two away games all season, which goes some way to proving just how frustrating they have been at home. Furthermore, Alan Pardew's men were far from convincing against the Canaries on Saturday, and it took a bit of magic from Puncheon magic to settle it.

There are plenty of questions surrounding this Palace side at the moment, but one of the biggest is how to get the best out of Puncheon, the Red and Blue Army's homegown talent who loves the club as much as the fans. His emotional celebration, tears and all, on Saturday was testimony to that.

He sat out all of February and March through injury and showed just what the Eagles had missed with his winner against Norwich and his excellent display the week before at West Ham. But Prior to February, he really hadn't set the league alight and had been well below his usual standards. Most fans will be hoping that prolonged absence helped kick-start whatever was needed to get him back to his best.

He has the ability to win any game for Palace, and in the past two seasons did just that in the second half of both campaigns. If Pardew can get Puncheon doing the same for the final six weeks of the season, the midfielder could have a huge impact in the league and in the cup. Getting his hometown club to Wembley for the FA Cup final would mean as much to Puncheon as it would to any Palace fan.

But before all that is Everton on Wednesday. A win would leave Pardew's men nine points clear of Norwich in 17th and 13 points ahead of Sunderland (who have a game in hand) in 18th with five games to go. Despite everything that's happened in 2016, that would leave the club in a fairly comfortable position and still in the FA Cup semifinal.

Maybe, just maybe, there is one more twist in Palace's 2015-16 season.