Arsenal vs Crystal Palace. Prediction and Preview. Probable Lineups, Team News, Stats, and more

Arsenal FC will host Crystal Palace FC in the English Premier League 21st round match at the Emirates Stadium. The fixture will take place on Saturday, January 20, beginning at 18:00 IST.

Parimatch News will tell you everything you need to know ahead of the upcoming match.

Arsenal News & Current Form: 

Arsenal for the second year in a row spend the first half of the season in a great way, contending for the title, and then squander all their chances to compete for the long-awaited trophy. Last season the Londoners’ problems could be put down to a lack of experience, but now Mikel Arteta and the players have learnt what it looks like to fight for the top spot in the EPL, but are once again stepping on the same rake. 

The Gunners got off to a very good start but faltered in December, which explains why they are now only 4th in the Premier League table, 5 points behind leading Liverpool FC. On the positive side, the Spanish tactician’s men have dominated their UEFA Champions League group and will meet with FC Porto in the play-offs. 

The club approaches the upcoming encounter with a disappointing streak of three consecutive defeats. In the EPL during Boxing Day, Arteta’s team lost two derbies in a row, first with very good football getting 0:2 from West Ham United FC, and then having, according to the head coach, their worst game of the year and losing 1:2 to Fulham FC. Arsenal were the first to open the scoring through an effort from Bukayo Saka early in the game, but then made two defensive errors and had nothing to offer in return.
A week after that, the Gunners were also knocked out of the Emirates FA Cup, where, however, they got almost the worst possible draw – Liverpool in the opening round (0:2). The hosts missed numerous opportunities to take the Merseysiders’ goal, after which Jakub Kiwior made an auto-goal – and then Luis Diaz doubled the advantage of the

Bukayo Saka scored in the game against Fulham FC, but Arsenal eventually lost 1:2

It should be noted that before that, on the 23rd of December, Arsenal played with the very same Reds in the EPL (1:1), so the team has no wins in four consecutive matches – and only one in the last seven meetings. Also, the team is no longer participating in the Carabao Cup, losing in the 1/8 finals to West Ham (1:3).

Note that Arsenal have not been on the field since the 7th of January, when they were knocked out of the FA Cup. In general, half of the matches of the 21st round of the EPL already took place last week, and half will be held next weekend. 

As it turns out, the hosts actually got a mini-vacation for almost a fortnight. Whether this will benefit the team or, on the contrary, will take them out of the rhythm is a question. Interestingly, Arteta allowed the players to take their families to the training camp in Dubai. According to the media, the Spaniard hopes that such a decision will improve the atmosphere at the club, as well as help to find a way out of the crisis.

Often training camps help the coach to fine-tune the game mechanics and the players come back stronger, for example they have not suffered a single defeat in the opening 10 rounds of the season with only three draws.

The head coach said that Arsenal need to reset during the break. It is also worth noting that the club is active in the transfer market. Recently there was information that they can rent former Real Madrid CF striker Karim Benzema until the end of the season.

It should be noted that Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny left for the AFC Asian Cup and African Cup of Nations, but these are far from irreplaceable players, so it is unlikely that this fact will greatly affect the Gunners. 

As for injuries, the London team is still without Jurrien Timber, who suffered a serious injury at the beginning of the season. The Dutchman remains in the infirmary along with midfielders Thomas Partey and Fabio Vieira, the readiness of midfielder Alex Zinchenko remains in question.

Ukrainian player about the mindset for Saturday game:

“When things don’t work for you, sometimes you just need to work even harder.  This is the key and this is what I believe. Every single time we don’t have success or are losing, we need to show the right reaction. We need to show our best performance because this league is so tough.”

“It’s going to be a tough game because this team is strong defensively. We know we need to react well and right after recent games so I hope, with our crowd and the best performance of each player, we can have success.”

“We’re trying to help each other every single time and that’s what makes this team special because we feel like one family. Off the pitch and on the pitch we’re trying to improve ourselves.”

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Crystal Palace News & Current Form: 

Crystal Palace are going through some tough times this season and are currently 14th in the Premier League table, five points away from the relegation zone. Without a strong squad and a deep substitutes bench, the oldest coach in the EPL traditionally squeezes the most out of his team.

Most of the points that the wards of Roy Hodgson gained in meetings with the outsiders and unstable mid-table. Recently, though, they have picked up points against Manchester City (2:2) and Brighton & Hove Albion FC (1:1). In both cases, not without luck, the opponents were better in all statistical indicators and only by a miracle did not score more.

In these two matches the main hero was former Manchester United FC goalkeeper Dean Henderson, in total in the two games he made 12 saves. It is noteworthy that in the game with City, the underdog of the meeting got back from the score 0:2. They scored both goals in the end – in the 76th minute and in the penalty shootout.

Last round Roy Hodgson’s team won a home victory over Brentford FC with a score of 3:1. The double in this meeting was marked by Michael Olise, who has long been outstanding in the top clubs of the EPL, but can not make a step forward, another goal on the account of Eberechi Eze, another promising prospect of the club. This result was a relief as it ended their eight-match unbeaten streak in the domestic league (three draws and five defeats). 

Jordan Ayew currently takes part in African Nations Cup,so he will miss Crystal Palace’s games

Poor attacking performance was the cause of the Eagles’ problems in the FA Cup 1/32 final: the first match against Everton FC ended in a goalless draw at Selhurst Park, while the return leg last week was decided by a single goal from Andre Gomes in the 42nd minute. 

There are plenty of reasons for such awful performances from the club. Mostly everything can be attributed to the large number of injuries, particularly to key players in the team, they can very rarely afford to have both Olise and Eze on the pitch at the same time. And now the African Nations Cup, which took Jordan Ayew away from them, has also added to these problems.

However, the Eagles’ problems are complex. They lack sharpness up front and even when they get the ball into striking positions, there is no one to strike the final blow. At the same time, the visitors have not been able to keep their gates untouched for the last nine rounds. 

Crystal Palace coaching staff cannot count on the important winger Olise (5 goals in 9 matches), experienced Joel Ward (defender) and Cheick Doucoure (center-back), as well as Rob Holding (defender) and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi (midfielder) – all of them are injured. 

Interesting fact: the Ghanaian winger is one of the two players who have been fouled more than any other EPL player this season (Bruno Guimaraes of Newcastle United FC tops the list). Thus, Odsonne Edouard (6 goals) will appear at the cutting edge of the Red and Blues’ attack, while playmaker Eze (3 goals) will control the center of the pitch. 

Arsenal form guide: D-W-D-L-L-L

Crystal Palace form guide: D-D-L-W-D-L

Arsenal vs Crystal Palace Head-To-Head Record:

• August 5, 2022: Crystal Palace 0 – 2 Arsenal (Premier League);
• March 19, 2023: Arsenal 4 – 1 Crystal Palace (Premier League);
• August 21, 2023: Crystal Palace 0 – 1 Arsenal (Premier League).

Arsenal vs Crystal Palace Predicted XI:

Arsenal’s possible starting lineup (4-3-3): Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Odegaard, Rice, Havertz; Saka, Jesus, Martinelli.

Crystal Palace’s possible starting lineup (5-4-1): Henderson; Clyne, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; Eze, Richards, Lerma, Schlupp; Edouard, Mateta.

Statistical preview of the match Arsenal vs Crystal Palace:

• Arsenal’s First XI average age is 24.7 years, Palace’s First XI average age is 27.7 years.
• The total value of Arsenal’s squad is 1.12 bln euros, while the total of Crystal Palace comes up to 368 mln euros.
• Paul Tierney has been appointed as the center referee. The referee has already served 14 games this season, showing an average of 3.6 Yellow Cards and also whistles 21 fouls per game. 
• Arsenal serve an average of 6.25 corners per game, while Crystal Palace allow an average of 5.05 crosses from the corner flag near their own goal.
• Arsenal collect an average of 1.25 yellow cards per game, while Crystal Palace pick up 2.05. 
• Arsenal have won their last 3 matches against Crystal Palace in all competitions.
• Arsenal have scored at least 2 goals in 6 of their last 7 home games against Crystal Palace in all competitions.
• Arsenal have a 3-match winless streak in the EPL (1 draw and 2 defeats).
• Before the defeat against West Ham, Arsenal had not lost in 10 consecutive home matches in the championship (8 wins and 2 draws).
• Both teams have scored in five previous matches of Crystal Palace in the Premier League.
• The Eagles have a 4-match winless streak in the league (2 draws and 2 losses).
• In the last 4 away games of Crystal Palace in the EPL both teams scored. 

What has been said before the match:

Gaffer of the Gunners Mikel Arteta about training in Dubai and recent disappointing results:

“Dubai was great, it was a phenomenal camp in every sense. We worked really hard on things that we wanted to do, and we recharged our batteries. The context and the change in environment in beautiful weather helped, and the togetherness and the moments that we shared together were great. We feel fully recharged.”

“We need to continue with who we are. Defeats cannot make you lose who you are because if you do that, then you were never who you said you were. We have to continue to be ourselves but there are certain details and marginal gains that we have to improve and evolve, and the beautiful thing about my job is to constantly find the evolution of a team and what it needs to keep winning.”

“Massive respect and big admiration for the way Roy Hodgson conducted himself and especially the trajectory that he’s had. His teams are extremely well-organized and hard to beat. He’s really good at provoking things that he wants in the game and tomorrow is going to be a big battle for us, that’s for sure.”

Roy Hodgson, coach of the Eagles, about facing Arsenal in Premier League fixture:

“Arsenal provide a massive challenge. I mean, you’re not a title contender unless you’re an extremely good team with extremely good players.”

“I’ve never taken a team to Arsenal thinking… this is an easy one for us. It’s always been up against it really, the underdog, which we still are in this match as well.”

“But I thought there were a lot of aspects to our play on Wednesday night which were very satisfying. I thought we carried out our gameplan pretty well and on another occasion, I think we’d have even got a result from that game.”

“But that’s past. We will have to wave goodbye to the Cup run and really concentrate now on getting some points in the league – and that starts tomorrow.I do think we take a little bit of positivity from the Wednesday evening game into that game tomorrow with us.”

Arsenal vs Crystal Palace Prediction:

Arsenal had an extremely disappointing recent stretch of the season, however, a short break is bound to improve the situation. A rest, a chance to take the pressure off and some work on mistakes from Mikel Arteta’s coaching staff should get the team back in the right frame of mind, a reset will help improve results. The home team will start the match aggressively, going on the attack from the first minutes, trying to daze the inferior opponent. 

Crystal Palace, in turn, know how to set themselves up for the encounters against the league’s mastodons. Roy Hodgson finds it suitable to play as an underdogs, as there is no need to invent something in attack – just entrench your entire squad in your box and wait for the besieging team to make a mistake. This works best, oddly enough, against Manchester City. Yet Arsenal have lost just four times in ten matches. At the same time, the last three matches ended in a victory for the Red-Whites. In addition, coming up to the 21st round of the EPL in the Glassers have an order of magnitude less resources, missing key players. All indicators are much worse on the distance than the Gunners. That is ultimately reflected in the results: in 11 previous matches, Crystal Palace have secured only one victory.

Speaking about statistical trends, it is worth paying attention to the following highlights: in recent matches Arsenal are having big problems with the conversion of chances – they managed to score only four goals in seven meetings with a total xG of 11.59. This is an underperformance, and we expect the total number of actual scored goals to increase, there has been plenty of time to readjust the attacking mechanism. That said, the Gunners’ defensive line is fine and solid: the second best defense in the English Premier League (conceding 1 goal per 90 minutes on average). And Arsenal’s xGA equals to 17.62, which is the best in the league at the moment. In fact, Crystal Palace conceded an average of 1.5 goals per game on the road, while Arsenal have scored an average of 2.2 goals per game on their home field in the EPL, which sketches out a rough scenario for this Saturday. 

The hosts are still in the championship race, the fan support at the Emirates will help them play their trademark football. The Red-Whites will be able to at least not lose, and the game itself will give us plenty of attacking action, especially from Arsenal.

Parimatch News staff prediction:

We say: Arsenal will not lose and the match total will be over 1.5 – Yes.

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