please log in to view this image Selhurst Park Sunday 28th October KO time: 1:30 pm Overall Record All: 43 Won: 28 Draws: 11 Lost: 4 Last 6 meetings: Arsenal 4-1 Crystal Palace Crystal Palace 2-3 Arsenal Crystal Palace 3-0 Arsenal Arsenal 2-0 Crystal Palace Arsenal 1-1 Crystal Palace Crystal Palace 1-2 Arsenal Arsenal vs Crystal Palace Facts: Roy Hodgson is looking for his first Premier League win over Arsenal in 10 attempts, having last emerged victorious with Fulham in August 2008. Arsenal's only defeat in their past nine away league visits to Selhurst Park was a 3-0 loss in April 2017. Palace have won 1 and lost 14 of their last 16 league matches against the teams that finished in the top 6 last season. Arsenal could win 12 successive matches in all competitions for the first time since October 2007. Unai Emery's side have scored a league-high 16 second-half goals - 23 of their 33 goals in all competitions this season have been scored in the second half (70%). Arsenal are vying for eight league wins in a row for the first time since February to April 2015 please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Team News: Max Meyer and Alexander Sorloth are available (both illness) for selection, as is Conor Wickham (leg). Christian Benteke (knee) and Joel Ward (strain) will not feature. Arsenal will assess defenders Nacho Monreal and Sead Kolasinac (both hamstring), while Petr Cech (hamstring) has returned to training but is not available.
Starting 11: Leno, Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Xhaka, Torreira, Guendouzi, Iwobi, Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette. Strong side we've fielded, relatively happy but Xhaka at left-back does worry me considering he'll be up against pacy, powerful wingers in Townsend (or Zaha). Can't believe all of Kolasinac, Monreal and Maitland-Niles weren't fit enough to make the squad. Need them to recover soon cos God forbid we have Xhaka starting at left-back for the Liverpool game next week. He'll need a lot of protection on his side.
This says a lot that even when Xhaka has been moved to LB its Guendozi in as a CM and not Aaron Ramsey. It does well seem that the current tactics rules him out as a central midfielder and he only has a place in the side as an AMF,that may be the primary reason behind the contract withdrawal. I hope we can pull off a trade with someone in January or that atleast he leaves to foreign clubs in the summer like PSG or Juventus. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Emery must be some sort of lucky charm, how we have not conceded more goals in the first half of games is a mystery.
FFS. Mustafi looses out in in these situations soo often. He's physically not strong enough to be a Premierleague CB. Fullstop.
It shouldn't have been a corner to begin with, as Holding's shirt was literally ripped apart. No idea how the ref/linesman ignored it. However, once the corner was given, we needed to defend it better and we didn't. Mustafi's challenge was ridiculously poor and it epitomises his impulsive nature as a centre-half. Palace deserve to be winning this, though. They've been more threatening, limited Ozil's influence, doubled down on the flanks to stop our wide players from getting into the game and have played a good counter attacking game. The pace we were playing at suited Palace to a tee. Very little movement. Too much sideways and backwards passing. Xhaka as a left-back has been a problem because he doesn't offer any support going forward (not his fault as he isn't a left back). Aubameyang has been isolated, Iwobi has been poor and Lacazette has struggled to get into the game. We will need to alter our tactics if we want to win this because if Emery chooses to carry on with the same players in the same formation, I can't see the result changing.
The whole left side is wrong. Xhaka isnt a LB, Aubas not a winger so its pulling Guendouzi out left to cover.
A mistake taking Ozil off. He kept Palace honest, and he is always better in the last third of the game when space opens up. First time I have thought Emery was wrong.
2-2. FT. That was by some distance our worst performance of the season. Lots of little errors and misplaced passes which disrupted our fluidity. I think we can count ourselves fortunate to have got a point there. Monreal and Bellerin were big misses today, and you could tell. We had very little width, guile or shape. Litchsteiner did us no favours at all coming on. He was constantly snapping away at Zaha, giving away cheap fouls. Xhaka isn't a full-back, but in that situation, sticking our your leg when Zaha always going to switch onto his right side was just pure stupidity. He probably bought the foul a little, but Xhaka made it easy for the ref to make a decision. Palace found it far too easy to defend against us. Lacazette and Aubameyang, despite the latter scoring, weren't in the game at all. Ozil was anonymous. Guendouzi seemed to be knackered by the 70th minute. Torreira was by far and away our best player, though. Need to give Palace a lot of credit for defending deep, closing down the passing lanes and then playing diagonal balls into their wide players against fullbacks that weren't at the races defensively. Hodgson's tactics worked, and it was made a lot easier by not having our first-choice fullbacks either present or failing to complete the game. Felt Emery made some poor decisions - taking Ozil off, despite him having minimal influence on the game, wasn't a good idea. We needed a 3rd to kill the game off and he's the only player who can create a chance out of nothing. Ramsey slowed our play down when he was on the ball and didn't help us out defensively. Overall, I'm very disappointed with how we played. But we need to see that as a point gained, rather than 2 dropped. Palace were comfortably the better team.
On the plus side, we've had 3 games in 6 days. We got 2 wins and 1 draw from those games, which is pretty decent. Onto Blackpool and then our next tough test of the season v Liverpool...
Blackpool? Is that the league cup? We dont have players for this game,hope the last remaining natural full back doesnt get injured here. Liverpool will get to rest too since they were knocked out by Chelsea in the league cup.
Yeah, League Cup on Wednesday. There's no way we can play any of the starting 11 in that game, they looked knackered after the 60th minute. You could tell that all the travel + congested fixture list was taking its toll on them. They need a break and we have to field the youngsters. Not trying to be disrespectful to Blackpool, but they are 10th in League One. I am sure our youngsters can deal with them. Maybe have one or two of the experienced players on the bench just in case things don't go to plan. But we have to be resting key players for the Liverpool game, it's a no brainer.
I agree, but I am more concerned about the availability of our fullbacks. It was blatantly obvious how badly we missed Monreal today. Even Kola would have provided some extra width and attacking threat. All of our 3 left-back options have been injured for the past week, meaning Xhaka's had to play in a position that he's not suited to. Then Bellerin was injured today and I think he's likely to miss the Liverpool game, which is a hammer blow. Leichsteiner doesn't seem like he's cut out to handle the pace of Premier League wingers. Not his fault that he's in his mid-30s, but it's going to be a problem for us if we don't find a solution.
