Crystal Palace can leapfrog Arsenal in the league standings if they beat the Gunners in their Round 18 clash at the Emirates Stadium. Mikel Arteta’s Gunners have managed to string together a decent run of results after a wretched December and have now won four on the bounce, but two of them were against struggling Brighton and West Brom, and one was in the FA Cup against Newcastle, meaning that this game is likely to provide a more accurate reflection of whether they’ve actually turned a corner or not.
Midway through December, there were serious worries about Arsenal getting entangled in a relegation battle, but those have been eased partially, with Arteta’s charges currently 11th in the table with 23 points to their name after 17 games. A decent win for the home side, potentially by three goals or more, could also see them enter the top half of the table.
Palace, on the other hand, have won only one of their last seven across all competitions, and were dumped out of the FA Cup by Wolves over the weekend. They’re a side who have beaten Leeds 4-1 at home and also held Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham in the last two months, but were also at the receiving end of a 7-0 thrashing at home from defending champions Liverpool.
The Gunners are winless in their last four games against all competitions against Palace, but the inconsistency shown by Roy Hodgson’s men is perhaps why the bookmakers at Cherry have Arsenal as firm favourites. Both the games last season ended in draws, and the corresponding 19/20 fixture actually saw Palace come from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at the Emirates. Arsenal scored twice in the first ten minutes, but a 32nd minute spot kick from Luka Milivojevic and Jordan Ayew’s goal seven minutes after the interval earned the Eagles a valuable point.
The referee for this game is Andre Marriner and Arsenal have had mixed luck with him at the helm this season. He was in charge when they beat Liverpool on penalties in the Charity Shield, but he was also the man in the middle when they lost 2-1 to Everton at Goodison Park a few weeks ago.
Marriner though is yet to ref a game involving Palace this season. He was in charge of three of their games in 19/20- one loss, one draw and a win for them.
Recent form and goal scorers- Arsenal- Lacazette in fine touch
Arsenal 2-0 Newcastle Cup (Smith-Rowe, Aubameyang)
West Brom 0-4 Arsenal (Tierney, Saka, Lacazette*2)
Brighton 0-1 Arsenal (Lacazette)
Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea (Lacazette penalty, Xhaka, Saka)
Arsenal 1-4 Man City (Lacazette)
Recent form & goal scorers- Palace
Wolves 1-0 Palace
Palace 2-0 Sheff United (Schlupp, Eze)
Palace 1-1 Leicester (Zaha)
Villa 3-0 Palace
Palace 0-7 Liverpool
Arsenal v Palace kicks off at 8pm
(Referee- Andre Marriner, AR’s Scott Ledger and Simon Long, Graham Scott in charge of VAR)