Arsenal vs Crystal Palace: Betting preview with odds and prediction

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Arsenal will be looking to make it five consecutive wins in all competitions when we welcome Crystal Palace to the Emirates on Thursday night [8pm kick-off].

After enduring our worst start to a league campaign in over 60 years, Mikel Arteta has managed to get us back on track after guiding Arsenal to important wins over Chelsea, Brighton and West Brom in recent weeks.

Despite those victories, Arsenal still sit 11th in the Premier League table but it’s extremely tight and we can move to within just three points of fourth-placed Tottenham if we beat Crystal Palace on Thursday night.

With Newcastle United coming to the Emirates next Monday, it’s vital Arsenal secure two home victories over the coming days to get us right back in the mix for the European qualification places.

Arsenal head into this match off the back of a hard fought 2-0 win over the Geordies in the FA Cup but we’ll be up against a Palace side who sit just one point behind us in the table, so we shouldn’t take anything for granted.

Team news

Arsenal are set to be without Gabriel Martinelli after he picked up an ankle injury during the warm-up ahead of the win over Newcastle but Thomas Partey should return to the squad after overcoming a thigh injury.

Gabriel will be assessed after missing the last four games following a positive covid test while the likes of Hector Bellerin, Granit Xhaka, Bukayo Saka and Alexandre Lacazette are all pushing for recalls.

As for Palace, they have plenty of injury concerns as Nathan Ferguson, Wayne Hennessey, Martin Kelly, Mamadou Sakho, Jeffrey Schlupp, Connor Wickham and Scott Dann are all set to miss the game.

Betting odds

Arsenal are priced as the 1/2 favourites with the online bookmakers to win on Thursday. Palace can be backed at odds of 11/2 while the draw is available at 3/1 for those that think the points will be shared at the Emirates.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been struggling in front of goal this season but he was on target against Newcastle at the weekend and he’s the 16/5 favourite to open the scoring against Palace. Emile Smith Rowe broke the deadlock on Saturday and he could be an outside bet for first scorer at odds of 15/2.

Prediction

Arsenal have a good record against Palace and we should be confident of beating them on home soil. Our form has been much-improved in recent games and we played superbly well last time out in the league when we beat West Brom 4-0 so let’s hope for another similar performance on Thursday.

Palace can be a stubborn side at times but I think Arsenal will have too much quality in the end. I’m predicting a 2-0 win with Aubameyang among the scorers. Arsenal 2-0 Palace

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