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

Crystal Palace FC will host Arsenal FC in the English Premier League 2nd round match at the Selhurst Park Stadium in London. The fixture will take place on Saturday, August 22, beginning at 00:30 IST.

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

Crystal Palace News & Current Form: 

The team has been in the top division of England for quite a long time. And to a large extent, this stability was ensured by the long-term work of Roy Hodgson. 

In 2021, however, the club’s management decided to rejuvenate not only the squad, but also the coaching staff, but the bet on Patrick Vieira did not last even 2 full years. When the Eagles stalled after the successes of 2021/2022 last winter, they had to take a bow to Old Roy. 

Thankfully, the latter agreed to return, and instantly started picking up points with his new-old charges, habitually managing to lift them into the middle of the final standings. As a result, last season finished in 11th position, with the Glaziers having only two defeats in 10 games in the league since April.

However, Wilfried Zaha left the British capital in the summer. He was not sold for years to the football giants, despite the demand, and finally the player left the team as a free agent in the off-season. 

They have done well without him so far, starting the season with a 1:0 away win, the victorious goal coming from Odsonne Edouard.  However, the visitors were on the field of the newcomer, Sheffield United FC. The Eagles were in full possession of the initiative, the opponents had only one shot on goal.

Ahead of the wards of Roy Hodgson’s London derby. It is worth noting that Palace on their field recently unsuccessfully played against fellow countrymen from the city – only one victory in six previous derbies. This victory happened in the game against West Ham United FC.

Eberechi Eze – the most effective player of Crystal Palace FC

In the summer, the Eagles did not really strengthen the squad, because there were many more players who left. Nevertheless, the club managed to keep most of the leaders, and the fight for a place in the middle of the standings will continue. 

Goalkeeper Jack Butland and midfielder Luka Milivojevic also left, while center-back Albert Lokonga did not stay with the team after the end of his loan period. Young Brazilian attacking midfielder França is the hosts’ top transfer this summer, while Jefferson Lerma is expected to play an important role in attack alongside former RC Lens player Cheick Doucouré. 

Midfielder Will Hughes and summer signing Matheus Franca have been hit by injuries. French striker Michael Olise, who was close to signing for Chelsea FC, is unavailable due to a thigh problem.

The team will have a couple of trump cards of their own to surprise the Gunners. One of them could be Eberechi Eze, who had the most shots on goal (8) and created more chances (7) than any other player last weekend.

Arsenal News & Current Form: 

Last season Arsenal fought to the last for the Premier League title, which they had not managed to win since the team of 2004. For a long time the Gunners were leading in the standings, but the sluggish end of the national championship shattered their hopes. As a result, the Londoners had to settle for 2nd place and 5 points behind Manchester City. 

Nevertheless, Arteta has created a capable squad ready to storm to the top. In the first round, the players coped with Nottingham Forest FC (2:1). Gabriel Martinelli put the team ahead, and then Bukayo Saka hit the top corner to force Matt Turner to clear the ball out of his own net.

The match against the Trees was marred by an anterior cruciate ligament injury to the right knee of new defender Jurrien Timber. The Dutch defender could become an important element of Arteta’s system in his first season, as he is capable of playing in any position in defense. 

Newly signed player of the Gunners –  Jurrien Timber

And in this case, the departure of one player cannot be called uncritical. Today also will be unable to help the team striker Gabriel Jesus, who due to injury will not perform tentatively for a month.

Arsenal started the new season well, in the The FA Community Shield in a penalty shootout defeated Manchester City, taking a kind of revenge for the lost title in the championship. Mikel Arteta won his third trophy in his head coaching career.

And yet the Londoners’ game is far from ideal. This mainly concerns the quality of defense. In the last 12 league games, only Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and Newcastle United FC have not scored. The victory over the Magpies in May was the only away win in five games.

The Gunners are still missing key Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus and center-back Mohamed Elneny through injury. Granit Xhaka left England and moved to Bayer Leverkusen 04. On the other hand, goalkeeper David Raya, midfielder Declan Rice and German winger Kai Havertz signed contracts with the Londoners.

Crystal Palace form guide: W

Arsenal form guide: W

Crystal Palace vs Arsenal Head-To-Head Record:

• January 14, 2021: Arsenal 0 – 0 Crystal Palace (Premier League);
• May 19, 2021: Crystal Palace 1 – 3 Arsenal (Premier League);
• October 18, 2021: Arsenal 2 – 2 Crystal Palace (Premier League);
• April 4, 2022: Crystal Palace 3 – 0 Arsenal (Premier League);
• August 5, 2022: Crystal Palace 0 – 2 Arsenal (Premier League);
• March 19, 2023: Arsenal 4 – 1 Crystal Palace (Premier League).

Crystal Palace vs Arsenal Predicted XI:

Crystal Palace’s possible starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Johnstone; Ward, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; Doucoure, Lerma; Ayew, Eze, Schlupp; Edouard.

Arsenal’s possible starting lineup (4-3-3): Ramsdale; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Odegaard, Rice, Partey; Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli.

Statistical preview of the match Crystal Palace vs Arsenal:

• Palace’s First XI average age is 27.7 yrs, while the total value of the squad is $308 mln.
• Arsenal’ First XI average age is 24.9 yrs, while the total value of the squad is $1.21 bln.
• In the five previous head-to-head encounters, the rivals have differentiated themselves with a goal in each of the halves.
• The average total of corner kicks in Crystal Palace matches is 9.9 and in games involving Arsenal is 9.8.
• Arsenal have beaten Crystal Palace by two goals in two of their last five head-to-head encounters.
• Crystal Palace have lost only one of their last 10 EPL home matches (3 wins, 6 draws).
• Arsenal have won only one of their last 5 EPL away matches (2 draws, 2 defeats).
• Londoners have not lost in the championship in 4 consecutive matches with 2 wins and 2 draws.
• With last season’s data, Crystal Palace are collecting an average of 1.95 yellow cards per game, while Arsenal are averaging 1.3.
• At least 3 goals have been scored in 7 of the last 9 head-to-head meetings at Crystal Palace in EPL.
• David Coote is the match official. The referee completed 21 games at the EPL level last season. During this time, he showed 77 yellow cards (an average of 3.67 yellow cards per game) and three red cards. In addition, the referee recorded an average of 23.48 fouls per game.
• Arsenal have now conceded five matches in a row.

What has been said before the match:

Roy Hodgson, gaffer of Crystal Palace, ahead of the 2nd round game with Arsenal:

“We don’t know each other very well, of course. I have great admiration for the job he’s done at Arsenal. That’s a big club and he’s come in and done a really big job. I thought last season they were outstanding in every respect.”

“I have a lot of sympathy, to get that close and do so well and be overtaken by the machine really that to some extent is Manchester City, who are also a wonderful football team. It must have been a gut-wrenching occasion, but they’ve come back strongly from that and started this season strongly.”

“I think it will be another very good season for them. We’re expecting an exceptionally tough game. It’s always hard to play Arsenal – they always seem to do well against us even if we play well. They seem to find a way of getting a winning goal.”

“We realize we’re playing against a very good team, a well organized team, and a team that everyone expects will be fighting for honors at the end of the season.”

“I expect them to be extremely good on the ball. Their passing and movement is exceptional. They’ve got some unbelievably gifted players who are hard to quieten down in the game.”

“It means we will have to bring our best game to Selhurst Park and hope our fans can weave that magic that they do in getting extra ounces of energy and play from the team that maybe I, as a manager, can’t expect them to do.”

Coach of the Gunners Mikel Arteta after the successful game with Nottingham Forest and injury of Timber:

“The dominance of the game, the amount of times that we played in the territory that we want to play in, the amount of chances that we created and the few things that we conceded. We conceded [a chance] in the first half that was directly after a second ball they hooked and they were through.”

“Then they countered after a set play, with both coming from a goal kick and the one coming from a corner, but after that nothing else. When you dominate the game as much as we did the other day and the situations that you have, the final pass is still not neat enough or good enough to finish the actions better. That’s what we have to improve.”

“Injury of Timber is a huge blow, especially for him having just joined the club to have the injury that he has is a huge disappointment for him. Obviously for the team it’s a big blow because we recruited him with clear intentions and what he was bringing to the team was evident and he’s not going to be in this season for us. We have to adapt, these things happen unfortunately, and we have to move on.”

Crystal Palace vs Arsenal Prediction:

Crystal Palace were a grassroots squad in the previous Premier League campaign, with their games often seeing no more than 2 goals scored. However, the home games against Arsenal in recent seasons have been enjoyable with high productivity in attack. In the last ten matches between Crystal Palace and Arsenal at Selhurst Park Arena, the average goal total per game has been 3+. We believe that this trend may continue at the end of the upcoming game. 

In terms of class, Arsenal are stronger, Arteta’s team will not allow a slip-up. The silver medallist of the last championship of England away from home against an average modest team. In this match, perhaps, there is no intrigue on the outcome, but the favorites will definitely face problems. Roy Hodgson’s team knows how to impose a struggle on the favored ones, and on their field, they expect at least a draw. The defense of Arsenal is far from good, Arteta’s men concede regularly (5 matches in a row), so we do not expect a clean sheet at Selhurst Park. There should be plenty of goals. 

Parimatch News staff prediction:

We say: both teams will score and the match total will be over 2.5 goals – Yes.

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