Sky Sports Vault

We replay Crystal Palace's only Premier League win over Arsenal with Eagles hero John Salako.

The magical properties of the 40-point mark are often mentioned in the thick of the Premier League relegation scrap, and it's been over 10 years since a team reached that total and still went down. Trevor Brooking's West Ham tumbled out of the top-flight with 42 points in May 2003, while Sunderland and Bolton both dropped to the second tier in the mid 90s despite amassing 40. However, in the first three years of the Premiership, 22 clubs formed the elite of English football - and 40 points was nowhere near enough to guarantee safety. In 1992-93, all three clubs that went down matched or bettered that figure - and Crystal Palace were certainly the unluckiest, relegated on goal difference from Oldham even though they had accrued a whopping 49 points (enough for a top-eight finish last season). A 3-0 defeat at Arsenal on the final day (with former Selhurst Park favourite Ian Wright scoring for the Gunners), coupled with Latics beating Southampton 4-3, confirmed the Eagles' descent, and Steve Coppell stepped aside for Alan Smith to take the reins. It proved to be a wise decision, as Palace swept all before them in Endsleigh League Division One and took the title by seven points from Nottingham Forest. Palace were back - but the opening day of the 1994-95 campaign was a stark reminder of the gap in quality. "We'd actually beaten Arsenal at Highbury in Tony Adams' testimonial the week before the season started," recalls John Salako, talking to SkySports.com this week. "We were flying. Ray Wilkins (then aged 37) had come in as player-coach, we'd had a great pre-season, and then we went into a home game against Liverpool and they took us apart!" The Reds won 6-1, with youngsters Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler doing the damage alongside the more experienced Jan Molby and Ian Rush. "It was an absolute shock! And we were quickly back to reality," adds Salako. It was the end of Wilkins in blue-and-red stripes too - a broken foot ensuring this would be his only first-team appearance for the club. Palace knuckled down, and ground out four draws in their next six games, as well as suffering narrow home defeats to Leeds United and Chelsea. But by the time they returned to Highbury to face Arsenal competitively at the start of October, Smith's side were still winless. "We used to laugh on the coach going to places like Highbury, Old Trafford and Anfield," admits Salako." We'd say stuff like 'we'll take 3-0' and think that as long as we didn't get humiliated, we'd be happy with that. But deep down, we were young lads wanting to make careers and reputations. And for me, I loved going to Arsenal - I'd been a Gunners fan since I was a boy, and it was my favourite ground. "The first game I ever saw was Arsenal against Sunderland at Highbury, a game in which Alan Sunderland scored funnily enough. I've always had a special affiliation with the club, and Highbury in particular - the marble halls, the dressing rooms, the Clock End and particularly the pitch. It was the best surface I ever played on." The stadium was significant to Salako, but so was the date - it was three years to the day since he had suffered a severe cruciate ligament injury, which put his burgeoning career on hiatus. The left winger had won five England caps in the preceding months, but would never get the chance to play international football again.