Arsenal return to Premier League action with a home game against Crystal Palace on Sunday, a few days after their trip to Naples and before their away clash with Wolves.
Whilst the Eredivisie are moving an entire round of fixtures to help Ajax with their Champions League clash with Spurs, all Arsenal have been given for their continued progression in Europe is fixture congestion. The Gunners have their toughest remaining PL away match on Wednesday, but first, they have to face Palace on Sunday.
That’s not likely to be an easy game either, especially with Arsenal needing to rotate and deal with suspensions and injuries. However, every point is vital right now, so we don’t expect Unai Emery to make more changes than he has to.
Let’s have a look at our predicted lineup for the clash.
Goalkeeper and Centre-Backs
Bernd Leno will play in goal, after missing out for Petr Cech in the Europa League in midweek. In front of him, we expect Unai Emery to stick with a back-three, rather than switching to the back-four that returned mixed results against Watford.
Assuming that’s the case, Sokratis Papastathopoulos is unavailable with suspension, and Rob Holding is still injured, leaving limited options for the centre-back trio. Shkodran Mustafi should come in after missing out in midweek, then Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal and Konstantinos Mavropanos are all available.
Much as Emery would probably rather go strong and pick Koscielny and Monreal, he’s got to keep the Wolves game and the respective injury records of the two players in mind. As a result, we expect him to give Monreal his first rest since late February.
Arsenal vs Crystal Palace Betting Tips
Arsenal have won six out of the last seven home matches against Crystal Palace. Bet on Arsenal to win with MustardBet at 1.542.
Both teams have scored in each of the last three clashes between the two sides. Bet on both teams to score with MustardBet at 1.679.
There have been at least three goals in each of the last four matches between Arsenal and Crystal Palace. Bet on over 2.75 goals with MustardBet at 1.705.
Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 Crystal Palace (7.817 with MustardBet).
All odds correct at time of writing.