Palace v Arsenal: the team and the oddities

By Bulldog Drummond

• Crystal Palace v Arsenal: the home and away form shows AFC favourites
• Crystal Palace v Arsenal; doom and gloom, tackles, fouls and yellow cards
• Crystal Palace v Arsenal – a history of the matches in seven videos…
• Crystal Palace v Arsenal: the injuries and the curious case of draws
• Arsenal have only won once against Palace in the last seven. But…

Of course the BBC being the BBC have managed to find themselves a negative story concerning Arsenal in preparation for this game saying, “Arsenal’s only defeat in 16 league meetings at Palace came in a Monday night game in April 2017.”

On the other hand concerning Crystal Palace they note that the club have failed to win any of their five Premier League home games in 2022, while in the FA Cup the Eagles have triumphed in all three at Selhurst Park by an aggregate score of 8-1….

• “They have lost only one of their past 10 matches in all competitions, a 1-0 Premier League home defeat against Chelsea on 19 February.
• “Palace have won just one of their past 15 top-flight fixtures on a Monday, a 2-1 victory at Brighton & Hove Albion in February 2021.”

But they do go into some funny stuff, noting that Palace have played three Monday games this season and have drawn all three games.  However the big difference this time is that coming up Crystal Palace has a cup semi-final against Chelsea, who you might recall, have just been beaten 1-4 by Brentford.

So are any Palacial players going to risk an injury with a cup semi-final on the horizon against a team playing as badly as Chelsea did this past weekend?  I find it hard to believe they would.

There is one other thing the BBC have found that we missed with our inferior computing system.  Palace have apparently “won just one of their last 17 Premier League London derby matches, beating Tottenham 3-0 in September.”  But they have never, ever, not once, between Arsenal and the Tiny Totts in the same season.

Incidentally concerning the Arsenal away games – we are in the longest run of away wins since January to May 2002.   And in case, like me, you are old enough to remember… here it is one more time…

Date	Game	Res	Score
23 Jan 2002	Leicester City v Arsenal	W	1-3
30 Jan 2002	Blackburn Rovers v Arsenal	W	2-3
10 Feb 2002	Everton v Arsenal	W	0-1
2 Mar 2002	Newcastle United v Arsenal	W	0-2
17 Mar 2002	Aston Villa v Arsenal	W	1-2
1 Apr 2002	Charlton Athletic v Arsenal	W	0-3
29 Apr 2002	Bolton Wanderers v Arsenal	W	0-2
8 May 2002	Manchester United v Arsenal	W	0-1

We have incidentally won 149 away games in the Premier League.  Manchester United with 301 and Chelsea with 262 are the only two clubs ahead of us.  This season despite playing one away game fewer than Manchester United we have already won one game more away from home.

And shall we perhaps compare our team away from home with last season away from home just for the fun of it?

Pos	Time zone	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
7	This season	13	7	1	5	20	19	1	22
7	Last season	19	10	3	6	31	18	13	33

Six away games to go and four victories to outdo last season’s away record.

Anyway enough of silly statistics, here is the team

The Independent offers

Leno,

Cedric, White, Gabriel, Tierney,

Xhaka, Partey,

Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli,

Lacazette

And quite simply do does everyone else   Sports Mole is identical

Hard Tackle does try to be a bit different by calling Gabriel, “Magalhaes” which is a trifle pedantic, and I suppose I can outdo that by adding the accent.   His name is, if anyone is interested, Gabriel Magalhães.  With a squiggle over the ã.

Of course the boss can make fools of all of them, by playing Smith Rowe from the off, but no one wants to try that.  And there is a logic here as well, because bringing on Smith Rowe on 70 minutes will certainly make the Palacial defence wonder what on earth has happened.

I fancy 0-3 to the Arsenal, although just because I do, doesn’t mean it will happen.  The average Arsenal score from those eight away games cited above is two a game.  So maybe 0-2 will have to do.