After our closing out the FA Cup 3rd round weekend in a tricky fixture at home to Leeds, it's back to business in the league with our first away outing of 2020, though only a short hop across the city to Selhurst Park.
Whilst our record on paper against Palace looks rather impressive (Only 1 defeat their since 1979), make no mistake that this is a notoriously tricky fixture to navigate and tomorrow will likely be no different. Arteta will therefore be thankful that our the injury list looks significantly lighter than it has been in recent weeks with onyl 3 absentees: Bellerin (Doubt), Tierney, and Chambers. That means the likes of Ceballos, Holding, and Kolasinac are all fit enough to be in contention having previously been doubts recently.
Ceballos in particular might be one to watch with Arteta now at the helm, will he be used as a press resistor in the double pivot or as a number 10? If the former, would it be Torreira or Xhaka who makes way? And what will he bring to the game and the team?
Looking at what Palace might have to offer, it's easy to look immediately at a certain Mr Zaha even if they did have a fully fit squad. Usually dangerous anyway and ups his game for any match vs the 'big 6', he could feel as though he has a point to prove after the well documented reportings of our chase for him in the summer.
Aside from Zaha though they have today signed Cenk Tosun from Everton on loan and he is available for selection tomorrow. His time at Everton certainly didn't pan out, but previously he was best known for being a handful in the box as an aerial threat. Whilst recently we've not enjoyed defending of any sort, it was defending of the aerial variety that had us most nervous in recent seasons (Think of any time we've ever had to play against Andy Carroll or Marouane Fellaini for example). This season we've been the set piece team of the league though, and last season we didn't concede from a corner until April (Ironically against Palace if I'm not mistaken) so this could be one to watch.
As I alluded to earlier, on paper it's Arsenal who tend to come out with the favourable result. In the last 7 years since Palace's most recent promotion to the Premier League, Arsenal have won 8 from 13 encounters and have only lost twice. At Selhurst Park, Arsenal have won 4/6, losing just once. Hopefully the positive pattern of results continues tomorrow with 3 more points, not that a performance to match wouldn't go amiss either!
Expected line up:
GK: Bernd Leno
RB: Ainsley Maitland-Niles
CB: David Luiz
CB: Sokratis
LB: Bakayo Saka
CDM: Granit Xhaka
CDM: Lucas Torreira
RW: Reiss Nelson
CAM: Mesut Ozil
LW: Aubameyang
ST: Alex Lacazette
Prediction: Palace 1-1 Arteta's army
@groningooner
Whilst our record on paper against Palace looks rather impressive (Only 1 defeat their since 1979), make no mistake that this is a notoriously tricky fixture to navigate and tomorrow will likely be no different. Arteta will therefore be thankful that our the injury list looks significantly lighter than it has been in recent weeks with onyl 3 absentees: Bellerin (Doubt), Tierney, and Chambers. That means the likes of Ceballos, Holding, and Kolasinac are all fit enough to be in contention having previously been doubts recently.
Ceballos in particular might be one to watch with Arteta now at the helm, will he be used as a press resistor in the double pivot or as a number 10? If the former, would it be Torreira or Xhaka who makes way? And what will he bring to the game and the team?
Looking at what Palace might have to offer, it's easy to look immediately at a certain Mr Zaha even if they did have a fully fit squad. Usually dangerous anyway and ups his game for any match vs the 'big 6', he could feel as though he has a point to prove after the well documented reportings of our chase for him in the summer.
Aside from Zaha though they have today signed Cenk Tosun from Everton on loan and he is available for selection tomorrow. His time at Everton certainly didn't pan out, but previously he was best known for being a handful in the box as an aerial threat. Whilst recently we've not enjoyed defending of any sort, it was defending of the aerial variety that had us most nervous in recent seasons (Think of any time we've ever had to play against Andy Carroll or Marouane Fellaini for example). This season we've been the set piece team of the league though, and last season we didn't concede from a corner until April (Ironically against Palace if I'm not mistaken) so this could be one to watch.
As I alluded to earlier, on paper it's Arsenal who tend to come out with the favourable result. In the last 7 years since Palace's most recent promotion to the Premier League, Arsenal have won 8 from 13 encounters and have only lost twice. At Selhurst Park, Arsenal have won 4/6, losing just once. Hopefully the positive pattern of results continues tomorrow with 3 more points, not that a performance to match wouldn't go amiss either!
Expected line up:
GK: Bernd Leno
RB: Ainsley Maitland-Niles
CB: David Luiz
CB: Sokratis
LB: Bakayo Saka
CDM: Granit Xhaka
CDM: Lucas Torreira
RW: Reiss Nelson
CAM: Mesut Ozil
LW: Aubameyang
ST: Alex Lacazette
Prediction: Palace 1-1 Arteta's army
@groningooner
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