Andros Townsend barely even blinked. The ball dropped and he struck the perfect volley from 30 yards, rifling it into the back of the Manchester City net. Crystal Palace were well on the way to causing an upset at the Etihad Stadium.

The home of the Premier League champions had a 100 per cent success ratio up until that cold afternoon last December but Christmas came early for Palace and Kevin de Bruyne’s late goal wasn’t enough to stop them becoming the only team to take points off City at home all season.

It was a remarkable result. A “bonanza” as boss Roy Hodgson put it.

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Fast-forward eight months and Palace would topple Manchester United at Old Trafford with a dramatic late goal from Patrick van Aanholt.

In the space of less than a year, they had won twice in the league in Manchester, having previously failed to do so in the previous 28 years. Darren Ambrose, of course, had helped them on the way to victory at United in the League Cup in 2011 with a stunning strike from distance.

With Liverpool the visitors to Selhurst Park when the Premier League season resumes next weekend following the international break, Palace will be keen to replicate their recent success in upsetting the odds against the big teams in the top flight.

Jurgen Klopp’s side do, however, sit eight points clear at the summit, and Palace have just one win in five games, falling to defeat against Manchester City, Leicester and Chelsea, and taking a point off Arsenal. The chances of winning are slim, but not impossible. After all, they have history at denying Liverpool a shot at winning the title.

It was the penultimate game of the season in May 2014, and Liverpool came to Selhurst Park in buoyant mood. Palace had nothing to play for. Brendan Rodgers’ side were chasing down City’s goal difference. A win felt almost certain when they took a 3-0 lead, but an astonishing comeback led to one of the most electrifying atmospheres at Selhurst in recent years — and there had been a few of those.

“They were going for goals to win the title but the boys were confident,” Mile Jedinak tells The Athletic.

“Joe Ledley got blocked, Joe Allen scored a header. They scored two quick second-half goals and I remember running over to the bench and the manager (Tony Pulis) said ‘No more. It doesn’t go to any more. That’s it.’

“Then Damo (Damien Delaney) scored, it was a slight deflection but went into the top corner. You had a sense that something with them was like… OK.

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“I just had a feeling we were going to score again. They didn’t know how to deal with it. They had a few chances and we rode our luck a little bit. Their frontline was frightening but I thought if we get five minutes here we are going to score. It was an incredible game and atmosphere.

“We knew what it meant to them and their prospects of winning the title. It was just a really strange game of football.”

As Delaney’s 79th minute shot nestled into the back of the net, nobody expected what was to come. But a masterclass in counter-attacking football from Pulis’s side aided by the pace of Yannick Bolasie and Dwight Gayle would wreck Liverpool’s title hopes in the space of just nine minutes as Palace came back to draw 3-3.

The game would earn the moniker of ‘Crystanbul’ in reference to Liverpool coming from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 with AC Milan and then win the 2005 Champions League final on penalties in Istanbul.

“We were 3-0 down and it was on Monday Night Football, but everybody stayed,” Delaney tells The Athletic. “So few people left that stadium, and they were still singing, not because they thought we could do anything but two years ago we were nearly going out of business, now we are playing Liverpool so I don’t care if we lose 10-0. That’s my abiding memory of how good that was — a carefree, hippy summer love fest is how it felt. ‘It doesn’t matter, we’re here (in the Premier League) and that’s all that counts.’”

The lack of expectation and that sense of a comeback which could end the hopes of a title challenger, to give meaning to an otherwise fairly meaningless game, was crucial in bringing that atmosphere to life. But while it may be one of the most memorable upsets — even though this was a draw — there are others.

Indeed, when Palace and Liverpool face each other on Saturday it will be five years to the day since the Londoners emerged as 3-1 winners at Selhurst in November 2014, with a memorable free-kick from Jedinak capping a fine display.

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“It was probably not expected by many people,” recalls the Australian. “I felt at the time, ‘This one is for me.’ I pushed Dwight (Gayle) out of the way, the ball goes in and they all ran towards me. I had this sense of scoring and I couldn’t have hit it any better. We needed that win more than most.”

The victory was just Palace’s third of the season, with Neil Warnock in charge, and pulled them out of the relegation zone. Although Warnock would be sacked just over a month later.

There are no such concerns at the moment with Hodgson having guided his team to mid-table with four wins and three draws to date, but a victory would be a huge boost after a tough run of fixtures.

While that win came against a side in poor form and looking unlikely to challenge for the title, a 2-1 win against Manchester City in April 2015 certainly did enough to put a huge dent in their opponents’ title chances, with Manuel Pellegrini’s side falling nine points behind eventual champions Chelsea. This time it was Alan Pardew in charge of Palace. Glenn Murray scored from close range and Jason Puncheon’s excellent free-kick sealed the win.

A month later they would ruin Steven Gerrard’s Anfield farewell with another win over Liverpool, this time Puncheon, Wilfried Zaha and Murray scoring to make it 3-1 to Palace.

But it was a victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in August 2015 that stands out as one of the best wins since promotion six-and-a-half years ago. Chelsea had won the league the previous season, but with three games of the 2015-16 campaign played, they were struggling to kick-start their title defence, only for Palace to make it worse.

The travelling support would play on Jose Mourinho’s repeated praise for their club with chants of “Jose’s a Palace fan”, to which the Portuguese applauded.

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Bakary Sako beat Thibaut Courtois with an effort from inside the area, and, bizarrely, Joel Ward was in the right place to head home a late winner just two minutes after Radamel Falcao had equalised. It would be Palace’s first win at Stamford Bridge in 33 years.

November that year would see them beat Liverpool at Anfield again with Bolasie and Scott Dann netting. “You must be sick of us,” was the mocking taunt from the away end.

Most recently, they dashed Arsenal’s hopes of a top-four finish with a 3-2 win at the Emirates in April, but a 1-0 win at home to Chelsea in March 2014 is another which ranks as a great day for Palace.

An own goal by John Terry meant Palace came away with a win that dealt Chelsea’s hopes of winning the league a major blow.

Delaney remembers it fondly.

“We kind of expect those things now,” he says. “But winning at Stamford Bridge with Jose Mourinho and at Anfield against a Jurgen Klopp team, or getting a draw with the Liverpool team going for the league title, they are massive things for us. Now, there is probably a bit more expectancy.

“It was a huge step for the club to win at Chelsea. That’s why to be part of those first wins at Anfield, when Dannsy scored, was so great.

“Jose had a soft spot for Palace and you always knew that. He came into our changing room after we beat them at Selhurst when JT scored the own goal and he was so gracious. When we beat them away he came in and the whole changing room went quiet.

“He always applauded and saluted the fans, they’d sing ‘Jose is a Palace fan’ and he would agree. You’ll never recreate those days. Now if they win at Chelsea people just go ‘Oh, OK.’  There was something more than football in that you could never recreate the first year after promotion, and in the second year when we started winning at big teams.”

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With Liverpool having won the last four games against Palace, and flying high in the league this season, it will certainly be difficult to recreate an upset on Saturday.

But history tells us it wouldn’t be wise to write off Palace completely.

(Photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)