Arsenal will head to Selhurst Park this evening with hopes of reclaiming fourth spot in the league, but they will know that Crystal Palace are not to be taken lightly.
The Gunners were lucky to escape with a point the last time the two sides met, with Alexandre Lacazette’s injury time equaliser saving our blushes at the Emirates.
You could argue that we are playing much better football of late however, having won six of our seven matches since the start of February, with Premier League title challengers Liverpool are the only side to have managed to deny us maximum points.
Palace’s form cannot be discounted either. They have also lost just once since the beginning of February in a 1-0 loss to Chelsea, winning five of their 10 fixtures during that time, with them denying Man City the win in a 0-0 draw recently also.
I don’t think anyone will be expecting an easy outing this evening, especially if we aren’t able to name our strongest XI as we take on Patrick Vieira’s side, but I do feel like we will be focused enough to get the right result.
I’m going for a 1-0 win this evening, with both sides likely to cancel each other out in the opening 45 minutes, but I feel like once we begin to turn the screw that we will get our just desserts and get that all-important goal.
How do you expect this to play out? Could an early goal allow us to get a more resounding win?
Patrick
I think with Gabriel and White, we can hope to tackle aerial threats well, wish Tomi was in though. If Zaha plays, Cedric need to be at his best today and his best wouldn’t suffice. Hope Cedric will have good cover from our CBs. They have huge aerial superiority throughout the squad with Benteke, Kouyate, Edouard. Partey needs to be top notch today, and with our attack we might sneak in 3 points. But they won’t go easy on our skillful players though. I expect Viera to drill their midfield to roughen up our not so physical but skillful players. Well he’s Viera for god sake. They won’t let us play the way we play that’s for sure. It’s going to be a physical battle and I hope our players will endure their physicality. And in that physicality, I really hope Xhaka keeps his cool.
I fear for Cedric, I wouldn’t mind Tavares in RB today, he’ll be a handful for Zaha with Ben and Partey as support on the right, I believe Tierney is more than enough for Olise,
Lacazette should be able to cover the midfield, giving Xhaka and odegaard enough room for split passes.
I feel we’ll score early with 3 goals to our name, CP are very physical and once we can cancel out Olise and Gallagher(would love Arsenal to buy) we are good to go.
For the all the talk of Palaces home form it’s the 11 best in the league currently and they’ve played more than 3 teams below them in that table who are within a point. Main thing is they’ve lost just 4 with most the points being dropped in their 7 draws. If we demolish them we set a marker if we win a cagey affair then it’s job done against a stubborn side. A draw would be a bit of worry but hardly top 4 over, a loss would be pretty devastating.
This and Southampton are key if we pick up 9 in the next 3 then we’re in great shape and it will be very difficult for any of the chasing pack to catch us. That’s what we want ideally keeps the pressure on the others and gives us breathing room for chelsea/United/west ham
Also on the last game it’s a nonsense that we were lucky. We were the better side. More possession, more shots, more clear cut chances, better xG etc. The way the game played out made it feel lucky but our late equaliser came after a period of dominance and missed chances, we deserved it and really should of won all said. That’s without mentioning the clear red card at 1-0.