ARSENAL V CRYSTAL PALACE PREVIEW
The Biggest Question is: Who Does NOT Start!
Aubamayang and Mkhitaryan will not start. As at the time of writing, they still belong to Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United respectively. Their transfer saga drags on and nobody dare put money on their move.
Sanchez is most unlikely to start even though he is still an Arsenal player. It is rumoured he would be earning £500,00 per week at Manchester United. A broken limb at the Emirates against Crystal Palace would scupper that. Put money on him not even sitting on the bench, especially, with the story circulating that he has bid his Arsenal colleagues farewell at their hotel lodge yesterday.
Coquelin and Walcott will not even as much as sit on the bench: they now belong to other clubs.
Giroud is still out injured. He is expected back in a week. However, there is some speculations that he might make a move away as well, possibly to Dortmund. Don’t put your money on it, though. Apparently, Welbeck hurt some muscles in training and Maitland-Niles has fallen sick. This trio won’t be starting.
Ozil is back from injury. He has been training this week, just as Koschienly and Monreal. They join Ramsey and Kolasinac who came back last week. Will Wenger risk the five returnees as starters? Folly to second guess Wenger, but I’d start the five. The times are desperate. The fact that Crystal Palace has six of their players out injured wouldn’t slow me down. Zaha, Cabaye, Tomkins are fit. Townsend is expected back. They will give us a fight.
My predicted line up:
SUBS: Ospina, Chambers, Debuchy, Elneny, Iwobi, Nelson, Nketiah.
I can’t get myself to pray for goals galore in our favour. It might get Wenger stepping off the gas with only 11 days left in this transfer window. Two early goals to calm the nerves while they pull one back in the 88th minute would give five minutes of nail biting, enough to keep us on course. COYG!!!
By Pony Eye.
Bergkampesque 
Short and fab preview, PE. Cheers buddie! 🙂
Love the line-up and if all are fit enough to play, I would go for it. Would not surprise me at all if Alexis starts…. just Wenger rubbing the self-adoring one’s nose in it. The ‘condition’ of replacing ALexis with a player first before he goes was a clever chess move by Wenger. JM is fuming about Wenger’s openness apparently. What a saga!
COYGs!
Yes, I’m with you McTotal, I like that line up and in particular the subs bench, a good mixture of youth and experience.
Not sure about Debuchy though PE, he could be leaving this window, so maybe Holding?
Interesting selection. Does Elbeny play in the middle with a back 4 behind him or is he a makeshift right wingback? I’m ok with not risking 5 players back from injury. Both to avoid further injury and to manage levels of rust. This is unlikely to prove easy. Early goal for Laca with an Oz assist would help settle the team. I’d like a clean sheet given this is our strongest back line.
9/11, PE. Elneny for Kola and Iwobi for Rambo. Latter not even on bench. Ozil starts! ⚔️
Could be 4-2-1-3, AB, Elneny and Xhaka in the two, Jack in hole… or 4-5-1?
Just clocked that Rambo isn’t even on the bench. Presume we have an injury recurrence there. As tends to happen with him. Our attacking options look very thin today, given injuries and sales combined. We need the new intake quick smart.
I’m hearing that Alexis is a straight sale, £41m.
So no Mkhitaryan
Left wing back I meant of course. TA, the 4 at the back with Elneny in part of the pivot seems most likely. Not my favoured shape. It will be odd if we revert to 4 at the back having just sold Walcott. I took his sale as part of a longer term switch to a back 3 plus wing backs. Maybe we just need to work with what we have given we are mid TW transition.
Wouldn’t surprise me, Kev. Glad when the TW is over but, as AB just said, our bench lacks attacking power and we need to strengthen ASAP.
Am hoping for an Iwobi revival today.
I hope you are wrong Kev. Unless we are pushing for one of their younger players. We need 2 in to replace Theo and Sanchez. I say ‘need’! Sanchez really needs to go. But it would be very risky to let Theo go as well and gamble on a single replacement for the two. At least we will know all soon.
Let’s hear from you, Seventeenho. We know you are reading! 🤪
Li kept 4:2:3:1 or 4:3:3
Cech
Bel Must Kosh Monr
Eln Xhak
Wilsh Ozil Iwobi
Lacaz
*** likely
Balanced team.
Good backline.
Eln and Xhak .. roles in tandem.
Jack, Ozil Iwobi … a creative force
Lacaz to bang in goals today.
Joined late. Now open mouthed. Real statement from the team. Great to have Laca score. Outstanding.
4-0 inside 20 minutes played. We missed Ozil and Nacho badly and there they showed their brilliance today.
We ARE rocking and rolling. Just coincidence or relief at the departure of Alexis and Walcott?
Yeah AB– me too!
Up late, here -6:00GMT, and took the dog out first thing.
Walked back to the PC– without turning on the TV– hit the EPL search to see we gad scored 4x as many goals in 20′ than the rest of the teams combined. (Bien venue Alexis!)
jw1
Hope nothing too serious for Nacho. His return has had a massive impact. No need to take any chances with him given the score line. Fingers crossed. Come on boys. Pile it on. Sitting back and shipping a goal or two would be a disappointing way to end. Clean sheet and a couple more goals please
Yeah AB, lets give Cech that clean sheet he is after!
Monreal off, slight hamstring, probably out of Weds.
Maitland-Niles on for him.
Much improved performance from a finishing perspective from what I’m hearing on the radio, very much needed.
Leading 4-0 to me gives an opportunity to give Nketiah and Nelson 25minutes in the 2nd45
How weird does this sound: “Everton’s Theo Walcott, picked out by a lovely Gylfi Siguyrdsson pass, delivers an outswinging cross in the direction of Cenk Tosun, who is not anticipating it and sees the ball fly past him like a seagull heading for the cliffs.”
He is playing but the Toffees are trailing at home…
Finally caught up to the goalscoring (22′) on the DVR.
Buildup and flourish on Laca’s goal was artistic.
Seen things those first 25′– not seen all season.
jw1
Reiss Nelson on at 72′.
jw1
Given the 11 corners for CP– you would suspect they might score on one of them– 4-1.
jw1
Kola on at 82′.
jw1
Good win for the boys. No doubt Arsene told the players to take it easy in the second half as he has respect for Hodgson and he needs his players to stay fit. Looking fwd to seeing the first half.
Stats here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=epl&cad=h#sie=m;/x/3clj_hz_jyy2v;2;/m/02_tc;dt;fp;1
jw1
(Mom said I shoulda’ been a headline writer…)
‘Arsenal blitz Palace 4-1 after Alexit.’
jw1
JW, you are my guest! Why don’t you do a quick match review with that title?
TA–
I’ll give it a go later today. Lunching with my much-better-half, than outside to enjoy the first nice weather here in 5 weeks (72°F/22°C and sunny!).
jw1
Great JW 🤪
Great to see Arsenal Youth beating Liverpool Youth 3-2 at their place in the 4th Round of the FAYC…
10 years since we won the Youth Cup. Maybe this year?
Kwame Ampadu has done a great job coaching these lads.
Just catching up with ‘proceedings’ on here, though I did see the game outside of my comfort zone. Good to win while playing Wengerball. The only dampener was Cech conceding late to leave him still waiting for his 200th PL clean sheet. Of course, the boys stepped it down a bit in the 2nd half, with the semi final 2nd leg of the league cup to come, midweek. Besides, no need to disrespect the old sage that is Hodgson; a manager I like as a person.
Going to be arduous waiting for those above us to drop points, as we also strive to keep winning.
Top notch headline, jw1. Hahaha! Let’s hope it’s not been plagiarized before your proposed review. 😉
**fro = from and :roil: = 🙄
jw1, that’s lovely.
Can you give us another on “Mkhit Alexit”?
A double joy!!
A back 4 and a middle 3 (i.e. 4:3:3) should be it for us with Xhaka not being the default deepest mid. Xhaka is a very creative passer and does thrive better in the more advanced CM role. In other words (as Wenger said in early last season he can be a B2B). Visions of his long range passing has unduly dominated our perception of him.
His weak point is his slowness. The deeper down the field the more damaging slowness can be because defending is a more reactive activity.
Against Palace, with Elneny mostly behind him and Jack adding to the MF numbers (extra defensive contributions) Xhaka flowered. The criticism he has been getting all along are because he has been on a role that highlighted his only weakness.
PE–
Actually flirted with– ‘Alexorcism’– but thought better of it.
jw1
Well. This is both ironic and pitiable on multiple levels.
I had mistaken the first name of CP’s McCarthy– as James. When it is actually Alex.
Mea culpa!
And normally I’d offer an apology to Everton’s James McCarthy.
Though I’m betting that James McCarthy would rather have received the pantsing that Alex did from Nacho Monreal yesterday– in exchange for not experiencing what occurred during his match vs West Brom.
Appears that James M. suffered a horrid double-leg break (I’m still squeamish about the Shawcross affair!) in a collision with WBA striker Salomon Rondon. Blameless, Rondon nonetheless was tearful throughout the time that McCarthy was being attended to.
Say a prayer for James.
jw1
Always a sad thing to see a footballer suffer from injury, especially one involving a leg break. Can only wish him the quickest recovery.