Crystal Palace vs Arsenal. Prediction and Preview. Probable Lineups, Team News, Stats and more
Crystal Palace will host Arsenal in the English Premier League opening match at the Selhurst Park. The fixture will take place on August 6, beginning at 00:30 IST.
The London derby will mark the start of a new EPL season, the wait is over! Mid-table Crystal Palace will welcome Arsenal, a club that has been dreaming of a place in the top-four and a trip to the Champions League for six seasons in a row, but has yet to achieve it. Last сampaign, Mikel Arteta’s side frustratingly missed out on a UCL tickets finishing just 1 point behind arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur and will now be hoping to rectify that. On Friday night, the Reds will start afresh.
Parimatchnews will tell you everything you need to know ahead of the upcoming match.
Crystal Palace News & Current Form:
Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira took charge of Crystal Palace a year ago, replacing Roy Hodgson. Given his short and unremarkable coaching career, initially many experts had no faith in the Frenchman’s coaching expertise, but he has put the sceptics to shame. The Eagles have not just accomplished the main task of avoiding the fight for survival, but have also seriously contested getting to the upper half of the table. Sure, it’s just a nominal milestone, but for a team of this calibre it looks very positive and reassuring. The example of table neighbours – Leeds United and Everton – come to mind as they had massive problems last season to get out of the bottom. Not allowing those scenarios is something of a good job already.
However, Crystal Palace are unlikely to have any major ambitions for next season. The team probably understand that they have no resources to fight for places in the European competitions. It turns out that the main task is simply to avoid relegation. As they have done before. The Eagles have repeatedly coped with it successfully, and it cannot be said that it will be easier or, conversely, more difficult for them in the new season. That said, the French coach has set himself the target of playing more consistent and beautiful football, fine-tuning a certain style.
Admittedly, the Eagles did manage to make some noise in the Premier League last season. The games against Arsenal (2-2, 3-0) come to mind, while the Londoners can also boast the games against Man City that they first won (0-2) and then drew (0-0).
Speaking of the transfer campaign: the club cannot boast any high-profile deals, but they remain on course to rejuvenate their squad. The London side signed England goalkeeper Sam Johnston in the summer and 18-year-old midfielder Malcolm Ebiowei, which was also up for grabs by MU.
As for Crystal Palace’s pre-season, they looked pretty good in friendlies, but exclusively against smaller opponents: 5 wins and 2 draws. It is still difficult to resist against the big clubs, the Eagles suffered two defeats against MU (1-3) and Liverpool (0-2). Not losing to a seriously strengthened Arsenal at the start of the season will also be difficult.
If Palace continue to play at their usual level, avoiding serious and protracted slumps, they’ll do well. If not, and their rivals don’t fail as badly as Norwich and Watford did last season, then Patrick Vieira could have plenty of reasons to remember his native language and the phrase “c’est la vie” at the end of the season.
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Arsenal News & Current Form:
Mikel Arteta continues his attempts to storm the heights that he failed to conquer in the previous three seasons. There have been many reasons for the not entirely satisfactory results, including the growing competitiveness of the Elite Division. But anyone, even a neutral spectator, will confirm that the team’s play is very pleasing to watch and real improvements can be seen. Eduardo Gaspar, former Arsenal technical director, has a big part in this. The former Reds player recently admitted that on his arrival he established a five-year plan for the rebuilding and out-of-crisis process, with the coming 22/23 season being the key one.
Here is some of the recent interview in which the Brazilian reveals what is going on inside the club from his day one:
“With all due respect, the plan started really when we decided to change Unai Emery (in November 2019). The idea behind it was to have a coach with a very clear idea. A very clear plan: very clear structure, how he wants to play – from that we’re going to build something together.”
“When I met Mikel, I went to his house and we had a great relationship straight away: conversation, ideas, etc. Then I see: this guy has a plan – the style, players, characteristics…He has a very clear idea how he wants to play football, which again helps us to make decisions.”
“I gave the club a five-year plan. I said to Mikel and to the board: ‘Guys, 2022/23 will be the season we’re going to be much better’. We have to be patient. We need good decisions, we need to be brave. We’re going to (face) some difficult moments with players, agents etc. But that’s the plan’.”
We have to give credit to the Kroenke family (Arsenal owner) they have unquestioning faith in the Edu-Mikel bromance and their vision of the team’s development. Such an approach will sooner or later bear fruit, and the indicators that the trend is rising are obvious.
The management do not just remain patient in believing in the Spanish specialist, they also allocate a lot of funds for new top-quality transfers. No one has spent more than Arsenal in recent 2 years. The transfer window is still a long way from closing, but Arsenal have already shelled out more than €130m for new recruits. However, the list is already quite impressive.
Here the promising Fabio Vieira was bought in midfield, and the already experienced Oleksandr Zinchenko, who can both cover the left flank of defence, and play in midfield. In addition, we should not forget Gabriel Jesus, who has been excellent during pre-season, with his hat-trick at the Emirates in the last game before the EPL being the cherry on the cake. All these addings could make Arteta’s picture shine much brighter than before in the upcoming campaign.
That said, Arsenal continue to rely on youngsters (the average age of players is 24.7), but these are no longer just promising youngsters, but experienced future stars. Many of them have managed to make a name for themselves, but so far they haven’t said the final word. They are ready to give results here and now. In the best-case scenario, Mikel Arteta could see a prospective and powerful team emerge in the coming season which is ready to show the most competitive performance in the latest Arsenal era.
Realistically, they Gunners enjoyed a perfect off-season, winning six of their seven games, with their only defeat coming at the hands of Brentford. However, in that meeting, Arteta rested all the core players without exception. Now, the Londoners approach the new season with the maximum confidence.
Crystal Palace pre-season form guide: W-L-W-D-W-W
Arsenal pre-season form guide: W-W-W-W-L-W
Crystal Palace vs Arsenal Head-To-Head Record:
| Crystal Palace | Draw | Arsenal |
| 16 | 6 | 29 |
Crystal Palace vs Arsenal Predicted XI:
Crystal Palace possible starting lineup (4-3-3): Guaita; Clyne, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; Schlupp, Doucoure, Eze; Ayew, Edouard, Zaha.
Arsenal possible starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Ramsdale; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Xhaka, Partey; Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli; Jesus.
Statistical preview os the match:
- Arsenal have not left Seelhurst Park without conceding a goal in eight consecutive games.
- Arsenal have only managed to beat Crystal Palace once in their last eight meetings, with the Eagles bossing twice in that period and five games ending in draws.
- Crystal Palace have scored in 10 of their last 11 home meetings in the Premier League.
- Arsenal have conceded in 10 consecutive Premier League games on the road.
- Arsenal have scored fewer than 2.5 goals in 6 of their last 7 away games in the Premier League.
- Crystal Palace have scored less than 1.5 goals in 7 of their last 8 home games in the Premier League.
- Eight of the last ten Arsenal matches saw the match total over 2.5.
What has been said before the match:
Patrick Viera, the Palace gaffer:
“It will be a completely different game. I think with the new players they have in the squad of course they are a better team. They had really good games during the pre-season. I think they’re in a better place than last year. The new players they’ve brought in, they are much stronger. They have the squad to challenge and be closer to the title.”
“We know that it is going to be challenging but I believe that we have the tools to make it difficult for them, to make it challenging for them. Last year at home with the support we had we had some really good matches, and it will be important to keep it that way.”
“I don’t think the pressure will be more on their side than our side. We’re at home, want to do well and want to compete. It’s the first game of the season so both teams will compete to win the game. We will play with a lot of determination, desire, compete as best we can and of course try to win the game.”
“A good season would be to improve ourselves on last year. Players, individually and collectively, we want to be in a better place, play better football, be more competitive. That has to be the challenge for us. We have to raise the bar and be more demanding on ourselves to be more competitive”
Arteta and Viera clash in one of the Premier League matches back in the days
Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal gaffer:
“They showed last season how tough they are and how difficult they are to beat and how consistent they were at home as well, especially against the big teams they got some great results. They had that result against us and hopefully, we learnt a lot of lessons that day, especially the 30 minutes we had where we were nowhere near the standards that we needed and we paid the price for it.”
“But now it is different. Obviously, everything that happened before that game was pretty strange and unique. The preparation, the pre-season that we had, it was a different context. We are really excited, we are really looking forward to the new season, we will try to start it in the best possible way and this is how we have focussed our preparation.”
“It’s great that people are excited. But there is a big excitement across the Premier League because a lot of clubs have done a lot of business, getting stronger and stronger. The competition is really big, we focus on what we can do, what we want to do and we want to be at the top of the table.”
Crystal Palace vs Arsenal Prediction:
The Gunners now look solid with their newcomers and under Mikel Arteta, in whom the management puts their faith. The Reds approach the season very motivated and confident.
Arsenal are very good offensively. Understandably, the results of unofficial matches may be a flop, but one thing is certain: the Londoners’ lacy combinations will work in all conditions to bring them goals. With a killer centre-back Jesus, who has a very high percentage of conversions, the Londoners will rarely leave the pitch without a couple of goals. From what we saw in the summer, espesially considering the closing off-season match against Sevilla, stopping this club now is quite a challenge. The defence with William Saliba returned from his loan spell looks good, but there’s also experimentation going on here for now.
The Eagles are a dangerous opponent at home as we remember from last season. Viera’s men will clearly find an opportunity to score. So there will be no easy walk for the Gunners, but Crystal Palace are unlikely to have the resources to take all three points.
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Parimatch News staff prediction:
We say: Arsenal will not lose and both teams to score – Yes.