By Bulldog Drummond
Ahead of this match the Large One who manages Palace said, “When the bell starts ringing you know the time is running out” and who are we to argue with such finery?
Now the factoids
- Crystal Palace have just two wins in league matches against Arsenal. Of the rest they drew nine and lost 22 which was a bit careless really.
- Across the last 12 games against Arsenal the Palatial team has scored six goals.
- Mr Wenger’s run against Palace is rather fine: won 8, drawn 3, lost not a single one.
- And the larger than life one has lost nine of his last 10 Premier League games against Arsene Wenger when not trying to get money out of journalists dressed up as something else and pretending to be running a conference at which the large one will be the keynote speaker with added chips.
Moving on…
- Crystal Palace have an all time record of two consecutive home wins in the Premier League. A win for them today would make that three.
- But a defeat would then grant them the record of becoming the very first team ever to suffer defeat in seven consecutive top-flight home London derbies. Which by and large is about as obscure as you can get.
- Christian Benteke has only scored two of his 11 Premier League goals at home – which leads me to the top scorers.
Three Palace players have scored more than three goals this season in the league:
1: Christian Benteke – 11 in the league, two elsewhere.
2: Wilfried Zaha – 6 in the league
3: James McArthur – 5 in the league.
Meanwhile in our goalscoring camp we have…
Olivier Giroud who has scored five goals as a substitute in the top flight this season, more than any other player. He has also scored in his last three Premier League games at Selhurst Park.
Our top scorers (three goals plus) are
1: Alexis Sanchez – 18 in the league, four elsewhere
2: Theo Walcott – 10 in the league, nine elsewhere
3: Olivier Giroud – 9 in the league – four elsewhere.
4: Mesut Ozil – 6 in the league, four elsewhere.
And so ultimately the teams. In this regard I am assuming that Pérez remains injured…
Welbeck
Alexis Ozil Walcott
Xhaka Elney
Moreal Mustafi Gabriel Bellerin
Maaaaaaaaaaaartinez
and perchance at the seaside beach for which the Crystal Palace region of south London is so well known,
Macey, Gibbs, Ramsey, Coquelin, Iwobi, Giroud, Oxlade-Chamberlain,
COYG!
I can see a really tough game here. Palace are in more need of the points and have to play most of the top teams before the season’s end. They have great support (ie they make lots of noise & sing good songs), one of the league’s in form attackers and Sam Allardyce.
It will be a good opportunity for Martinez to show he’s worth considering as one of our two goalkeepers of choice next season. I can’t remember him having a poor game for us, and he must be Argentina’s number two keeper for a reason.
I’d prefer a comfortable win, but think it will be a hard game.
Decent referee though.
Iwobi played this afternoon for the U23s, won’t be at Palace Im afraid. I would suggest Per as defensive cover instead.
Arsenal arrived late – I could have told them, the traffic down in the far south is appalling at this time of the century.
Martinez,
Bellerin, Mustafi, Gabriel, Monreal,
Xhaka, Elneny,
Walcott, Ozil, Welbeck,
Sanchez.
Subs: Gibbs, Mertesacker, Ramsey, Giroud, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Coquelin, Macey.
Not a bad shot by Bulldog.
According to LiveScore
Sanchez
Welbeck Ozil Walcott
Elneny Xhaka
Monreal Gabriel Mustfi Bellerin
Martinez
Beach: Gibbs, Mertesacker, Ramsey, Giroud, Ox, Coquelin, Macey
COYG!
It’s Bulldog’s starting eleven
?
Is Bulldog Mr Wenger in disguise!!!….
Welbeck
Sanchez Ozil Walcott
1-0 to the Bulldog
I think Fat Sam has put on a bit of weight
So no foul on Theo….
Lucky Mustafi!!!
Why is the ref talking to the players? Are both teams being equally violent, or is it a case of CP doing the fouling and Arsenal are guilty of being fouled?
COYG!
Lucky, lucky boy. That was red-worthy from Mustafi
Elneny… Ooooooo
@Tony…
Big Sams become Big Fat Sam now…..
England job and more eating must’ve done it for him….
Not sure about it being “red worthy”, but was lucky to get away with a lecture from Oliver.
Oh Scuba you are watching a different game. The bigger they are the harder they appear to fall – it’s Sams diving school.
The fouling of CPs forwards are being given the benefit of PGMOLs school of selective vision.
Come on ARSENAL
Come on ARSENAL
Come on ARSENAL
Come on ARSENAL
Two foooted with studs up and split his leg, if an Arsenal player had done that Menace, you’d have a melt down
*Palace player
If a defender (Arsenal that is) climbs on the back of a CR attacker its a potential red card. But nothing the other way round.
That was a foul on build up….
Bentekes jump over Xhaka.
More clownshoes defending. Need to be much, much better from here on out.
Come on ARSENAL
Come on ARSENAL
Come on ARSENAL
Come on ARSENAL
Come on ARSENAL
Sakho playing second keeper!!
Ooooooo Welbeck…
Need to be better in the second half
Cabaye kicks the back of Xhakas legs – no foul. Xhaka has to scream & dive to get anything. The Benteke climb on a midfielders shoulders is not called. The Sakho dive and hand ball save is not seen. It is a clear pen & red card. The TV very quickly glossed over the incident.
Bentekes jump on Gabriel…
Finally got a good look at that handball shout, probably should have had a penalty there. They got away with one against CHelsea, too.
Keeper being fouled every corner but no PGMOL reaction. Laws for football & Laws for Arsenal.
Is that a corner!!
Zaha fouling Monreal several times a second but no cards.
Ccooommmee ooooooonnnnn…
Come on ARSENAL
Come on ARSENAL
Come on ARSENAL
Come on Giroud, lets get a hat trick today!
Nice work Danny.
COYG!
One penalty not seen & the second give when it was a dive!!
Sako no penalty
But emi penalty….Wow…Why don’t we ever get such penalties
almost thought that he’s a good ref
Twenty minutes Gunners, and we need at least 4 goals. Let’s get a move on.
COYG!
Yeah, Giroud being smothered & Townsend was going down before Martinez touched him (if he did indeed touch him). Game over I suppose
martines didnt touch this diving shit
Away fans really aren’t helping, today.
Heck, I would even take just 3 goals to tie things up guys.
COYG!
Disgraceful PGMOL display again. Foul after foul but nothing given Zaha fouled more than the whole Arsenal team put together & nothing given.
It’s difficult to be heard at palace , but they really have had little to cheer about. Second best in every department.
Listen to Carragher Smith pundits everyone. Any Arsenal fan that cannot see the flaws is totally deluded.
Cant blame our fans, they’ve had to witness some gutless displays recently.
Seems to be a lack of confidence thing running throughout the team.
seems like it is…
when a bunch of fucks hate everything about the team… but call themselves – fans
anybody loose confidence
For those who want to read it the match report is on line
Who says a team can beat a cheating referee? This is an example of a properly managed game by a FIFA trained official. The players cannot compete against a pitch that is so sloped that even the ball rolls away.
Jesus, Menace. We sucked today. It wasn’t some grand conspiracy by the referees. We got played off the pitch by a Big Sam side.
Scuba
yeah. right
and we can have a clearest pen on giroud and that’s a 2-1
but instead we have a diviest pen and here’s your 3-0
Menace
What people and the team seem to forget is;
If you play well the “slope” in the pitch does not affect you as much as it does when you don’t play at all.
AW has never led Arsenal, the teams we had, led themselves, but this is so missing from the current and (recent) team(s), and AW can’t lead them, hence the problems.