Fulham sit one place above them but five points ahead, whilst Wolves are one place below them and five points behind.
An FA Cup final against Manchester City notwithstanding, the Eagles have to play Tottenham, Wolves and Liverpool in the Premier League, and unless they were to lose two of the three and Wolves win two of their games, 12th place will most likely be where the South London outfit will finish the 2024/25 campaign.
Whilst that might be a disappointment for some, one only needs to recall how things began at the beginning of the campaign to understand what a brilliant job Oliver Glasner has done in turning things around.
It wasn't until their ninth game of the season, against Tottenham, that they won their first match, and it would be another five games until they won their second against Ipswich Town.
By that point, they were 16th in the table on just 12 points, only three above Ipswich, who were then second from bottom.
No one would've been surprised if Parish had axed Glasner
Clearly, no one would've been surprised if Palace owner Steve Parish had decided to look elsewhere, though that never appeared to be on his mind.
“Oliver is such an important part of it all. Some people say positive things, but they don’t live them. Oliver lives those things. What he articulates is genuinely how he is. He’s made all of us think differently - that’s what he’s brought to the club," Parish noted back in February as Palace were recovering from their awful start.
"He’s brought a positivity and a mentality in football matches that’s made all of us think differently about football and about this club.
"Even with all the tactics in the world, the players have got to execute, and that’s what he gets. He gets them to execute his ideas. He’s very tactically astute and a very good manager. The players and the staff take all the credit. They’ve done an unbelievable job."
Two heavy defeats to Arsenal within the space of three days in December, one in the Premier League and the other in the Carabao Cup, could've knocked the stuffing out of a side that had been struggling, but those results appeared to be the catalyst for a turnaround in Palace's fortunes.
Glasner himself suggested the away win at Brighton - a fifth game without defeat before the Arsenal games - was the turning point, citing the form of defenders Maxence Lacroix, Trevoh Chalobah and Marc Guehi as crucial.
Keeping hold of England international Guehi has certainly been a masterstroke on the club's part because accepting Newcastle's bid of around £65m would clearly have gone a long, long way, so it speaks volumes as to Palace's own ambitions that they were able to rebuff the Magpies.
Decent record in the Premier League after a poor start
The South Londoners have gone on to record a reasonably healthy record of 16 wins, 13 draws and 11 losses from 40 games in all competitions to date in 2024/25 and, put into context, six of those defeats came before mid-November.
Eight wins at Selhurst Park and eight wins away are a decent enough return, and show that opposition teams need to really work hard if they want to get the three points against this emerging squad.
Of the 56 goals Palace have scored, Unai Emery's Aston Villa would appear to be the most accommodating of opponents. Not content with scoring four against the Villans back at the end of February, the Eagles plundered three more in their FA Cup semi-final.
Given how lauded Emery and his team have become, Glasner's total dominion over that opponent can't be understated.
Palace have also not lost against Andoni Iraola's Bournemouth this season, nor Enzo Maresca's Chelsea, Fabian Hurzeler's Brighton or Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham side.
Given that all four of those managers have been talked up over the past year or so for being forward-thinking, tactically astute and, for all intents and purposes, a breath of fresh air in the Premier League, it's about time that Glasner was included in that conversation.
Within touching distance of their highest-ever Premier League points total
Considering the squad that he has along with a budget that wouldn't trouble those teams in the upper echelons of the English top flight, the fact that Palace have made it to the quarter-finals of the League Cup, have an FA Cup final appearance to come as well as still having the option of getting European football should they win the FA Cup, is nothing short of incredible.
Not to mention that the club are within touching distance of their record Premier League points total too. At the time of writing, Palace are on 46 points with three games left, and the 49 points that they ended each of the 1992/93, 2018/19 and 2023/24 seasons with remains an achievable target.
Eagles fans will be thanking their lucky stars that Steve Parish didn't give Oliver Glasner the heave-ho when, frankly, that would've been the easiest thing in the world to do.
His patience has been a virtue and now the club are reaping the rewards of the Austrian's footballing acumen.
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