Monday Night Football sees Arsenal welcome Crystal Palace to the Emirates Stadium in a tasty London derby.
Victory would lift Arsenal up to ninth in the table, whereas Palace can leapfrog the Gunners into 13th on goal difference with a win and possibly climb as high as 12th depending on their winning margin.
Team News
Gabriel Martinelli is a doubt for Arsenal after suffering a “minor injury” in training during the international break.
Granit Xhaka remains absent with a knee injury.
Palace have no fresh injury concerns to report as Eberechi Eze and Nathan Ferguson (both Achilles) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- Arsenal have won just one of their last six Premier League meetings against Crystal Palace (W1, D4, L1).
- Palace have won just one of their last five visits to Emirates Stadium (W1, D2, L2).
- Both teams haven’t missed any of their six penalties in total across 24 Premier League meetings, with Arsenal netting their two spot-kicks whilst Palace scored all four of their penalties.
- Only one of Arsenal’s five league goals this season has been scored from outside of the box, courtesy of Martin Odegaard’s free-kick in last month’s away win at Burnley.
- Two of Palace’s eight league goals this season have been scored from the penalty spot.
Prediction
Arsenal will be relieved to have snatched a goalless draw at Brighton two weeks ago in atrocious conditions, although there is work to do to improve their wet-weather performance because the team except Bukayo Saka lacked sharpness on the ball and struggled defensively.
Palace come into this game off the back of a progressive performance against Leicester prior to the international break, which saw them impressively press hard off the ball with neat passing moves and strong team spirit to bounce back from a two goal deficit to snatch a draw.
I am therefore expecting a cracking contest in forecast dry conditions because Arsenal will naturally be favourites but Palace have adapted well under Patrick Viera to become more aggressive on and off the ball, which could well cause issues for Arsenal’s inconsistent defence so expect goals here.
Prediction: Arsenal 1-1 Crystal Palace
Result: Arsenal 2-2 Crystal Palace