The second half against Vitoria was a procession managed with the professional calm of a team that knew the job was done and the priority was preserving energy for Saturday.
McArthur, the thirty-year-old Scot who had been at Palace longer than anyone in the squad, controlled the tempo with the quiet intelligence of a man who understood that the best way to win was sometimes to refuse to try to score.
He held the ball in midfield, circulated it from side to side, drew fouls in useful positions, wasted thirty seconds on every throw-in the dark arts of game management that coaches never praised in public and always demanded in private.
Bojan came on for Eze at half-time and added a different kind of control his touch sharper, his vision wider, his experience a stabilising presence that allowed Kirby to push forward more.
