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Morning all.
Sunderland pulled off a shock 2-1 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge yesterday which is great for every club bar the home one whilst Newcastle United scored a very late winner against Fulham. In the two evening kickoffs, Utd beat Brighton 4-2 before Brentford defeated Liverpool 3-2. Not a bad Saturday…
It’s been a good week for Arsenal. A hard fought 1-0 win at Craven Cottage over Fulham followed by a 4-0 thumping of Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. Two scrappy goals from Viktor Gyokeres against Atletico was just what he needed. A wonderful run through midfield from Myles Lewis-Skelly followed by a fine strike from Gabriel Martinelli and a bullet header from Gabriel secured three precious European points.
Crystal Palace have not had such a good week though, drawing 3-3 at home against Bournemouth last weekend before losing 1-0 in the Europa Conference League to AEK Larnaca at Selhurst Park. In the draw with Bournemouth, Jean-Philippe Mateta scored all three goals including one from the penalty spot.
Our starting 11 last in the fixture season was: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly, Odegaard, Partey, Rice, Sterling, Trossard and Martinelli.
Four of the substitute options were under 21 players, the others were Zinchenko, Saka, Tierney and Nwaneri. Two of whom have gone.
The game ended in a draw. Jakub Kiwior gave us an early lead before Eze equalised with a lucky strike. (lol) Leandro Trossard restored our lead before Mateta equalised on 83 minutes. Conceding two goals in one game is very unlike Arsenal but then we did have an injury hit small squad. Our virtually fully fit squad battered them 5-1 at Selhurst Park.
This afternoon there will be no Sterling (thank gawd), no Partey, no Kiwior.
No Odegaard, Madueke, Havertz or Jesus either and if Gabriel hasn’t recovered, he will miss out too with either Piero Hincapie or Christian Mosquera starting instead. One of whom we know is very very good, the other, well we’re yet to fully see what he brings to the team.
Mikel Arteta:
It’s a big game for us, because last season we dropped some points and it’s the fourth game in a row that we’re going to play against opponents that we drop points against, and this season we’ve been able to beat them, so our focus is on that.
If we want a very different outcome, we’d better do very different things than we did last year, especially in these fixtures. So we know what Palace are doing, what Oliver [Glasner] is doing for the football club, and the way they are getting results. So it’s going to be a really tough match, but we’re going to play again in front of our crowd, and we are confident that if we hit our level, we have a big chance to win it.
If xG is your thing then Crystal Palace are ahead of the rest in that department according to the stats and that’s after selling two of their so called better players in Eze and Olise.
From the BBC
Palace are very strong with Mateta, Pino, Sarr, Guehi and Wharton to mention just a few. Plus they have an intelligent manager in Oliver Glasner who only good things get written about. Yes they’ve had a couple of blips but I’m sure Glasner will have them well drilled for this match today. Their tactics:
Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme:
Glasner is wedded to a 3-4-2-1 formation. They are a relatively low-possession outfit, averaging the third-lowest share of the ball (41%) in the division, but once the Eagles win it back, they come alive in a flash to hurt opponents on transitions. They do not press high, but in the middle third and wide areas they are superb at applying pressure. Glasner’s men currently rank second for the most tackles, third for high-intensity pressures, and third for interceptions. No Premier League side can match the direct speed of their attacks, at 2.13 metres/sec.
Glasner deploys his wing-backs high and wide to supply width, but also to stretch play in a bid to create room on the inside for his twin No. 10s. Those two players often lure centre-backs into midfield, with the aim of isolating powerful striker Jean-Philippe Mateta in a one v one. He and Ismaila Sarr are both in outstanding form, and have pace to burn. But while Palace lead the league for shots on target (43), xG (17.4) and big chances (33) this season, they are underperforming their xG by the biggest margin (-5.4) and have missed the most big chances (22). Glasner’s men have also conceded the most high turnovers, so closing down with aggression may be part of Mikel Arteta’s gameplan.
I doubt anyone expects anything but a hard game for Arsenal today but it’s the kind of game we need to be winning, especially in front of our own fans.
Just go out there, take our game to them and do what it takes to get three more points on the Premier League board.
Catch up in the comments.