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Confirmed Arsenal team to take on Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace side

The teams are out for tonight’s clash as Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal play host to Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace side.

The Gunners come into the clash in good form, despite dropping two points in their most recent Premier League fixture when playing out a 0-0 stalemate with Brighton, winning the three league outings prior to that.

Crystal Palace have been in fine form since the start of the campaign, with only title challengers Chelsea and Liverpool managing to claim victories against their side.

All of that will count for nothing once kick off commences however, and judging by Arteta’s line-up, our focus is going to be on offense rather than defence.

Does Arteta’s line-up fill you with confidence? What is your scoreline prediction after seeing the teams?

Patrick

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Tags arsenal v crystal palace Crystal Palace

137 Comments

  2. Good line-up, I would have picked Lacazette or Martinelli over Aubameyang though….. Anyways…. COYG!!

    2. Really now? We always have to bash some of our players each time the lineup is released?
      Is Auba going to be the next scapegoat since Xhaka and Leno are both out?

      1. Eddie you can’t miss this kind of comments on match days. Most of us on here will support whichever player is put out there, so, the difference in opinion of the few should bother you less. I hope auba proofs them wrong on the pitch and as sue said he may end up scoring tonight

  4. The line Up looks good, now it’s up to the boys to turn up. I expect no less than 3 points. At some point I’d like to see laca and martineli given a run they are fresh with no international duty on them.

  5. No Zaha and Eze, it means no excuse for being conceded from Palace’s counter-attack

    Vieira seems like he wants to score from set-pieces, by starting the game with Edouard and Benteke. This is why Aubameyang should help in defending set-pieces

    Palace won’t be able to press us high up the pitch for more than twenty minutes, because of their striker types. If they can do constant high pressing, I hope Arteta won’t repeat his mistakes in Brighton

    1. @GAI. I’m optimistic about Arsenal this season.
      Watch out for surprises.
      We will make top 4.

      Man City
      Chelsea
      Liverpool
      Arsenal

      That is my top 4 prediction.

      COYG

  10. No excuses tonight, strong team, i expect a dominant performance against an average to poor Palace. 4-1 or 3-0, these players are good enough to outclass Palace and get us up to i believe 9th. We are in a different league to Palace even though both have inexperienced managers. COYG

  15. Most home Premier League goals for Arsenal since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made his debut:

    ⚽️ 42 – Auba
    ⚽️ 24 – Laca
    ⚽️ 07 – Pepe

    It’s Pierre-Emirates Aubameyang now. ⚡

  16. it’s interestingly quiet on here for a gameday…not sure what that means…great left foot finish by Auba, but quite sloppy since…need to really work on the crispness of our passing when attacking more directly…makes some sense that this aspect of our game is flat at times considering the usual slow buildup that’s on offing…without Zaha on the pitch and Benteke playing through the middle, we should be willing to commit more players in the final third

    1. Can someone tell smith Rowe not to be selfish we miss clear goal only when he needs to pass the ball…

  18. It means that after 10 mins of enthusiastic running around we’ve settled in to artetas brand of general confusion … players don’t really know what they are doing .. allowing an utterly mediocre midfield to dominate … saka and Pepe are toothless … saka has had half a dozen matches of doing nothing but arteta seems to pick regardless … pathetic

    1. have to agree RW1…it’s a timid brand of football, that invites pressure needlessly, puts 11 men behind the ball in the first-half, encourages clearances to nowhere and no one and looks lost for ideas…this is why I’m always talking about the “eye test”

  20. Arteta needs to change this up ,palace coming back into the game ,lokonga needs to come in alongside partey for more protection as the palace midfield are just running through our CMs with ease .
    Odegaard practically offers nothing I don’t think I’ve seen a slower player line up for us ,given the ball away countless times and just ruins any counters that we get .
    Odegaard and saka off ,Martinelli and lokonga on and change to a 4-2-3-1

    1. Odegaard has been our best presser off the ball alongside partey, I don’t know what ESR his doing, he should have passed that ball to Pepe instead of just shooting.

      1. Odegaard been our best presser ! He cannot get close to any palace player ,if chasing after shadows is your thing then great .

        Slows our whole game down and loses the ball needlessly .

    2. @Dan Kit
      Said it would happen as soon as I saw the line up. Auba is tracking back more than Saka, Pepe, ESR or Odegaard. Partey is getting run over.

    1. McArthur is lucky his last name isn’t Xhaka. How was that not a red card? How does Sky pundits not even questioning it?

  22. Can someone tell smith Rowe not to be selfish we miss clear goal only when he needs to pass the ball…

  23. Second best for 35 minutes … no shape … best player the goalkeeper again … have to admit I thought that purchase was wasteful but happy to be proved wrong … Pepe needs to be sold .. partey odegaard doesn’t seem to work … defence more or less ok

  25. Great goal, but Arsenal chose to stop their high pressing afterwards

    They seemed to be instructed to conserve their energy by intentionally letting Palace enter our area

    I know we’ll face Villa four days later, but this very calculative decision could hit us back if Palace manage to make many long crosses to Benteke and Edouard

      1. Waiting behind the ball after scoring is a very conservative decision

        If we have to conserve our energy like this, we might have a big problem with our fitness programme or trainers

  26. Palace are pretty poor and we should really have done better. The goal was down our end and was great. There were times that I felt we could have pressed more and put the wind up the keeper more. Not bad but hardly a classic

  27. Do not understand why we have a good 15mins – score and then let the other team back in the game by terrible passing and lack of effort off the ball. Not good enough – if we are to get anywhere near top 6, we have to be wiping the floor with teams like CP. Let’s hope we’re awake when we come back out for the second half.

  28. The only positive in this match is Auba for me, ESR is starting to get me upset, he should have passed that ball to Pepe, he did the same thing against one team (not sure if it’s Brighton or totheanm) all in all apart from that Auba goal, the first half was a poor half.

  29. Terrible game by all standards for me.
    There are no easy games of course but how do you explain the amateurish decision-making (again) in the final third, passes are either overhit or under-hit, players are sloppy in possession, all these in front of a packed Emirates stadium, terrible selection too!

    I have been furious with Arteta since Brighton, why sideline our most technical forward in Lacazette? Why is Pepe starting on the right? what happened to Sambi? Those forward players are never in sync without Lacazette to link things up, we are lucky to still be ahead imo.

    Too much work for Partey in the middle as well, if we don’t win this, I really hope we don’t draw this one.

  33. Always playing against 12 men when Mike Dean is on the pitch .
    Surprised he didn’t celebrate when they scored ,blokes a kN0b .

  35. Arteta should know the aim is to beat the opponent not to prevent being beaten esp when leading. If he doesn’t change that mindset they we not gonna get anywhere as a team.

  37. We haven’t created a chance in last 50 minutes of football … which sums up artetas management style .. dominated at home by a team beneath us and missing their best player …

  38. disjointed, fragmented and woeful in the final third…Arteta is always looking to play it safe, so much so he was willing to sit behind the ball after a goal inside of 10 minutes

  42. We play exactly the same every week. No variation. I’ve seen better on Hackney Marshes. Snore bore.

  43. I keep saying this…play SAKA at his best position, the right wing and our attack becomes dangerous…
    Why arteta keeps repeating this mistake beats me….
    Klopp wud never play salah on d left or Pep play grealish on the right,

    this issue has happened time and time again with SAKA being sacrificed to accommodate Pepe by arteta and the results don’t really end favorably….

    1. Thought we put both Saka and Pepe on the wing sides. Simply swapping them around would have made a difference imo

      1. Exactly, but our wingers don’t swap …our most influential player should have a permanent position esp. where he plays best….

    1. What are we up to, Kev, 45 minutes of good football this season?? Sheesh, after all this time we still don’t know what we’re gonna get!!

  47. Far too slow with the build up we look frightened going forward and very lightweight in the tackle

  49. Who is responsible. We all know who. It’s obvious. It’s 2 year virtually now. 150 million spent and we are rubbish. We look like amateurs.

    1. You are forgetting the project .. the fans on this site who continue to back him may as well shift their allegiance to Spurs … serious fans called for his removal last Xmas … WE WERE RIGHT

      1. I’ve never been an MA apologist but
        more an Arsenal optimist that hoped
        the Spanish gaffer could take AFC
        back to the heights that this fan base
        so richly deserve.

        I refuse to join the doom and gloom
        club that far to often pollute this
        board BUT after watching Arsenal
        being thoroughly dominated over
        the past two fixtures by Brighton
        and Palace it’s safe to say that
        Artetas days as the manager should
        be numbered.

        It’s time to move on, the fans deserve
        better than this pathetic attempt at
        futbol.

    2. @ Sean. I AM TIRED. HONESTLY.

      I dont even know what the solution is. This club deserves more than this

    3. So now what’s the excuse when we have actually spent way more then others. I bet it’s to do with new players settling in 😂😂. Don’t care about result because we have nothing to play for this season anyways but this football is the most boring and disjointed since Wenger left, reminds me of UE last days.

  51. Someone needs to tell the team you are suppose to pass towards opponent goal not yours. What is worng with Tierney this season, every match I watch he plays literally every single ball back. It’s like you bounce the ball back from wall.

    1. It didn’t start this season but he’s obviously gotten worse. He’s lost all his attacking drive thanks to the clueless manager managing him.

  52. Win two home games in 5 days and go 4th it’s become laughable now. Out played by crystal palace can we sink any lower

  53. I know we are playing terrible but yet another terrible refereeing display, soo many dirty fouls no yellow card, foul on sambi(soft but foul)in the 2nd goal.

  54. The officiating had been really disgusting..
    Palace should have been playing with ten men.
    There was a clear foul on Partey for the 1st goal too..
    There’s hardly much u can do when u have a knob as a manager and the match Officials are out to get you..

    1. I dunno why you’re always on Pepe. At least he did things and created the goal. What did saka, esr, ode combined to do ???

  59. Wenger and Emery didn’t last this long; both had better results and better looking football.

    Arteta just needs time, another 5 years and £300 million more in investment.

    Nevermind getting outplayed last week by Brighton, with a fraction of the squad cost.

    Why do we go so defensive every time after getting a lead? Almost like we’re playing not to lose rather than playing to win.

    I’ll still hold off until end of the season. If weren’t top 6 then Arteta has to go, out of excuses.

    2. But what the point, even if we make it top 6 which I doubt we will, that’s not progress with amount of money we have spent and the brand of football we are playing. Not another season of this miserable football.

  60. Im just not convinced, not antiArteta or whatever but even if we had won this game, I just dont see a team capable of imposing themselves tactically, physically or mentally upon the opponents. Too conservative, no one absolutely no one is scared of us.

    We are not impressed at all.

    1. Just sack Arteta. He’s been here for 2years with no direction or any style of play. Vieira just got employed at palace in less than 5 months and they outplayed Spurs and arsenal at emirate.
      Please sack this quack and get a good coach

    1. @Sean. I agree with you 100%.

      Something is just not right. What does it take for Martinelli to start games?

      Thanks Lacazete.

  63. 45 minutes of decent football so far this season is not a good enough reason to keep preserving with this manager.The team struggles to put three passes together,is too negative and looks completely unbalanced.

  64. I just hope that doesn’t by the clown more time … it’s shocking what he’s turned us in to in 2 years

    1. Papering over the cracks though Kev
      Arteta fan club will be saying what a great point ,when in reality it was the same old
      Palace without their best player as well why we had our strongest 11 well according to Arteta

        1. Not yet Bobby boy but they will be ….
          Heard it here first ,now time for bed buddy I think it’s past your bed time .

  66. Were those guys and their manager trying to end the game 1-0? Poor management we had in the game.

    1. I can’t imagine this papers over the cracks – I just can’t see how you spin this one. No zaha and we had to rescue a point. The cracks are exposed

  69. We were bad and so was officiating. Both goals shouldn’t have stood(Palace). We had corners which were not given, challenge on Saka was supposed to be red card not yellow. Palace were taking advantage of the referee wanting game to flow. Now on MA when we have the upper hand the team relax and sit back/lose pace inviting unwanted pressure. Were supposed to bang them after fist goal but MA made them all of a sudden cautious. What is this!! If anyone is happy with the draw then that person is not an Arsenal fan IMHO.

  70. So best result we should hope for now is not to get embarrassed by teams and celebrate draws, I guess this is the new Arsenal that ppl keep saying to support without question.

  71. There is no maturity, good ball control and direction in our play as pepe is still playing as if he is playing street football, lacazette and martinelli should be a starter in this arsenal team they are the only 2 aggressive forward we have

  72. Please don’t put this result on the ref, just look at how we’ve played for the better part of 80 minutes…no one can honestly say we deserved better, based on this timid and toothless performance…the only time we even controlled possession, after scoring early, was when Palace conceded possession to us once they parked the bus…what we saw on the pitch today is clearly what’s being preached on the training ground, which is why we saw a glaring lack of instinctive movement and a plethora of senseless backwards passes

  73. Palace let go of 12 players and brought 9 for 60M,Viera had just come through the door,surely the argument that MA needs more time should now be out of the window no??

  75. Our young players are just so inconsistent…. Take a look at odegard, smith Rowe, and saka….and that’s where we are still weak….I think they need to be rested some games for lacazette, martinelli to play at least…but pepe can’t play 90 minutes too so much poor display though a threat in the face of the goal…the manager needs to know how to bring the best out of him….

  76. I predicted a 2-2 draw here

    Why am I the only one who isn’t surprised, few days ago Henry made a comment about not being impressed by the team’s style of play and openly Criticized MA.. And he got alot of stick for that.. Those that back Mikel Arteta I really don’t know which Arsenal games they watch sometimes? If we are poor against the top teams Should we also be poorer against mid table and relegation teams?
    The only positive tonight is welcoming back our last real football general in Patrick Viera
    welcome back Patrick.. Greater heights♥️

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