Top four chasing Arsenal welcome Crystal Palace to the Emirates for a huge Premier League clash.
After Tottenham’s defeat at Manchester City, Arsenal can go third with victory here whilst Palace can guarantee safety with three points if Cardiff lose to Liverpool.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesArsenal are without Aaron Ramsey after the Welsh midfielder suffered a hamstring injury during Thursday’s away win at Napoli.
Denis Suarez (muscular) and Granit Xhaka (hip) are both set for late fitness tests whilst Sokratis Papastathopoulos serves the last of a three match ban.
Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding (both knee) and Danny Welbeck (ankle) are still long-term absentees.
Crystal Palace will be without Jeffrey Schlupp for remainder of this season after the Ghana international suffered an ankle issue against Manchester City last weekend.
Schlupp joins James Tomkins (groin) and Mamadou Sakho (knee) on sidelines until next season.
Form
Arsenal arrive here with one defeat in their last eight league games and have taken just three wins from seven away trips in all competitions since start of February.
Crystal Palace have won just three of their last seven but are on a consistent run of LWLWLWL, with two of those three victories coming away at Burnley then Newcastle.
Stat Attack
- Arsenal are unbeaten in 17 of their last 18 meetings with Crystal Palace (W12, D5, L1).
- Palace are winless in five trips to the Emirates (D1, L4) with their last away win in this fixture coming at Highbury in October 1994.
- Alexandre Lacazette has produced 66 shots for Arsenal so far this season, just two less than his 68 shots from last season.
- Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka has made the third highest number of tackles this season, producing 120 tackles with only Leicester’s Wilfred Ndidi and Idrissa Gueye of Everton producing more.
- Wilfried Zaha has been dispossessed 124 times for Palace whereas Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang has only lost the ball on 27 occasions.
Prediction
This should be a good battle because Arsenal have a fantastic home record whilst Palace tend to do well on their travels.
Arsenal however have found some defensive form with three consecutive clean sheets and if continue to play their attacking football, I can see them coming out on top.
Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Crystal Palace
Jake predicts: Arsenal 3-0 Crystal Palace
Result: Arsenal 2-3 Crystal Palace