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Crystal Palace's miserable couple of weeks continued as they crashed out of the Fa Cup quarter-final, compounding the heartache felt after their loss at the hands of bitter rivals Brighton in the fixture which preceded their trip to Vicarage Road.

Just as they did against the Hornets, the Eagles fought back from one down to level the score before letting it slip in the late stages, with Andre Gray netting in the 79th minute to see the Hornets through to Wembley.

While there was nothing much to be done about the latter strike, Palace will surely feel they should have done better with Gray's winner.

Luka Milivojevic had spotted the speedster's run but, in the second he looked away, the Serb lost his man and Gray was allowed to tap home from seven yards out. It was, admittedly, a great ball from Roberto Pereyra but there was nothing else on for the Argentine and Gray's run should certainly have been followed.

Palace might have been without the influential Wilfried Zaha for this game but it's difficult to speculate if the outcome would have  been any different if the Ivorian was involved.

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The number 11 has been in great form for Palace in recent weeks, scoring five goals in his last seven games, and he was undoubtedly a big loss to Palace in the Watford clash, which he missed due to injury.

In a fantastic string of displays, Zaha's performance against Brighton is a stain - the speedster got little joy down the left flank, with Martin Montoya effectively dealing with the enormous threat posed. The Eagles had a full strength front-line in that game and struggled to break down their deep-sat opposition - their defence, though, was not at full health.

Mamadou Sakho has missed the last four games in all competitions through injury and looks set to see out the rest of the season on the sidelines - the Frenchman has been and will continue to be a massive loss for the Croydon outfit.

His spider-like dribbles out from the back might give the Palace faithful heart attacks now and then but there is no doubt that the 29-year-old galvanises the defence and instils a confidence in his teammates that the deputies cannot.

Scott Dann and Martin Kelly have taken turns to step in alongside James Tomkins since Sakho took to the treatment room but neither have the former Liverpool defender's calming influence.

Palace's attack - of which Zaha is the key man - has long been perceived their saving grace, but the partnership struck up by Tomkins and Sakho, combined with the ever-improving Aaron Wan-Bissaka and bargain buy van Aanholt, means the Eagles surely have one of, if not the, best defences outside of the top six.

The 'pride of south London' kept four clean sheets in a spectacular run of form at the end of last season in which they lost just once in their final eight games and a back line containing Sakho at the core was a huge part of that.

Zaha is widely regarded as Palace's most important player but, in the last 180 minutes alone, Sakho has laid down a strong claim to take that mantle away - the sooner he returns to action the better.