Crystal Palace defender Chris Richards has suffered an injury just a week before the Premier League final day, and he faces a race against time to be ready for Arsenal on Sunday.
Oliver Glasner insisted ahead of Crystal Palace’s last match against Brentford that he was going to take their final two Premier League fixtures very seriously, opting not to rest players for their Europa Conference League final on May 27th.
But the Palace manager saw the potential negative consequences of that approach at the weekend, as defender Chris Richards was forced off early in the Brentford game with an injury.
“He twisted his ankle,” Glasner said. “It is quite swollen, so we will have to assess it further. But hopefully he can return midweek.”
Palace don’t have a midweek fixture, so Glasner presumably means that he’s hoping to get Richards back in training in midweek to make him available for their match at the weekend against Arsenal.
The Eagles then have the Europa Conference League final the following Wednesday, which may push Glasner to err on the side of caution this Sunday. But the manager himself continues to insist he’ll be going strong against the Gunners.
“We will play the strongest team against Arsenal,” Glasner insisted. “We do it for us, we don’t do it for City and we don’t do it for Arsenal. We do it for Crystal Palace and we do it for our fans.
“It’s the last game at Selhurst, they deserve to see a top performance. This is what we want to show against Arsenal. Of course, we will manage the minutes a little bit, because we have to. But that doesn’t change anything.”
Palace midfielder Adam Wharton was a little less emphatic in his own response to questions about the Arsenal game, saying: “We’re not deciding the title next week. There have been 37 games this season. We have another game a few days after [the Conference League final].
“We’re not looking at trying to beat them so that they don’t win. That is none of our concern.
“We are focusing on ourselves and making sure we’re in the right position for the following Wednesday.”
We’ll only know how seriously Palace really plan to take the Arsenal game when it happens.
- Arteta expects new Arsenal contract to ‘get done’Mikel Arteta has told the media there’s nothing to worry about with his Arsenal contract, and it will be resolved at the right time.
- Max Dowman among Arsenal England youth call-ups for September breakA number of Arsenal players have been called up by the various England youth teams for the September-October break, including midweek League Cup star Max Dowman.
- 4 Arsenal u21s held back for first-team & miss Birmingham drawThe Arsenal u21s played out a goalless draw with Birmingham City on Friday morning, with players once again held back for first-team duties.
- England boss casts doubt on Arteta’s injury updateEngland manager Thomas Tuchel has cast doubt on Mikel Arteta’s injury update on Ben White, with the national manager suggesting the right-back is still injured.
- Arsenal 25yo gets international call-up shortly after injury comebackJurrien Timber has been included in the Netherlands’ squad for the upcoming international break, despite only recently returning from injury.