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Home   >   Match   >   Palace vs Arsenal preview | Confirmed team news, Martinelli should start + prediction

Palace vs Arsenal preview | Confirmed team news, Martinelli should start + prediction

By on January 11, 2020

Mikel Arteta Arsenal

Arsenal take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off and we desperately need to come away with all three points.

It’s obviously been a turbulent season at Arsenal but Mikel Arteta has come in to steady the ship and has finally restored some optimism around the club after making a great impression since being announced as Unai Emery’s permanent replacement last month.

We booked our place in the fourth round of the FA Cup with a hard fought 1-0 win over Leeds United last Monday night but it was the 2-0 win over Manchester United on New Years’ Day that really impressed the fans.

Arteta has added structure and organisation to the Arsenal team and we’re seeing signs of free-flowing football again so it’s important we build some momentum by coming away with a positive result from Selhurst Park this afternoon.

Arsenal head into the weekend action sitting 10th in the table and nine points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea. With the Blues expected to beat Burnley at Stamford Bridge today, it’s vital we keep in touch with a win over ninth-placed Palace.

Team news

Arsenal will be without Calum Chambers after he was ruled out for up to nine months with a cruciate knee ligament injury while Kieran Tierney is still recovering from a should injury.

Hector Bellerin is back in full training after recovering from a hamstring injury that’s hampered him for a month but Arteta confirmed at his press conference that he wouldn’t to be risked today so Ainsley Maitland-Niles should start at right-back.

Bernd Leno, Lucas Torreira and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang should also be recalled after being rested for the FA Cup win while Dani Ceballos is back in contention after recovering from a hamstring problem.

As for Palace, they have plenty of injury concerns as Jeffrey Schlupp, Joel Ward, Andros Townsend, Scott Dann and Patrick van Aanholt are all out and Luka Milivojevic is suspended.

However, Cenk Tosun could make his debut after completing his loan move from Everton while Wilfried Zaha has been passed fit after recovering from a minor injury issue.

Preferred line-up

Alexandre Lacazette has been working hard but he’s in a rut in front of goal and I think we’re more balanced with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang up front. So I’d like to see Gabriel Martinelli on the left with Auba through the middle.

football formations

Expected Palace XI: Guaita; Kelly, Tomkins, Cahill, Riedeweld; McCarthy, Kouyate, McArthur; Ayew, Benteke, Zaha

Predicted score

This hasn’t been a good fixture for Arsenal in recent times as we haven’t won any of the last three meetings and lost 3-2 to Palace last time out at the Emirates. I expect another tough game this afternoon as Roy Hodgson is a great manager who knows how to set his teams up to make life difficult for the opposition.

However, we’ve seen enough positive signs from Arsenal in recent games that we’ve started to turn a corner and I hope we manage to grind out a result today. If Arteta gets his tactics right we should have enough quality to clinch all three points. I’m going for a narrow Arsenal win.

Crystal Palace 1-2 Arsenal