After the disappointment of the Europa League exit on Thursday night, we have a quick chance to get back to winning ways before the international break when Crystal Palace visit the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
“We have 11 finals left and that’s it, that’s the main focus now,” Martin Odegaard told us after our penalty shootout loss to Sporting CP. “It starts now in the locker room to recover well and change the focus, so that’s what we have to do.”
Our record in the London derbies during 2022/23 has been flawless. We came to this weekend’s match with the aim of becoming the first team from the capital to win nine derbies in the same season.
A win would leave us eight points clear at the top of the Premier League, with Manchester City hosting Burnley in the FA Cup quarter-final.
Standing in our way is a Crystal Palace team who announced the departure of Patrick Vieira on Friday morning.
The former Gunner will be temporarily replaced by Paddy McCarthy, who led first team training before the game and will lead our visitors on Sunday.
Visitors without winning in 2023
A 12-game winless streak ultimately contributed to Vieira’s dismissal.
“We are extremely sorry that this difficult decision has been made,” chairman Steve Parish told CPFC.co.uk. “Ultimately, the results of the last few months have put us in a precarious position in the league and we feel a change is necessary to give ourselves the best chance of retaining Premier League status.”
Palace reaches matchday 12 in the Premier League, although it is only three points from the relegation zone.
The Eagles have not scored in their last four league games but have proven difficult to break. Palace drew Manchester United, Newcastle and Liverpool at home in 2023 and frustrated Manchester City for long stretches before finally falling to a 1-0 defeat at Selhurst Park last weekend.
What managers say
Mikel Arteta on Palace: “There are 11 games to play, 11 Premier League games and a great final against Crystal Palace. The focus has to be there, the energy has to be there and learning from tonight.
“The best thing now is the reaction and showing the same commitment, more quality and playing better against Palace to beat them.”
Paddy McCarthy about us: “We will try to implement an aggressive style out of possession in different ways. We will seek to be aggressive when we do not have the ball, and we will seek to advance the ball up court in possession.
“That being said obviously, we have a short time to implement some ideas, so I don’t want to inundate players with too much information. But ultimately, at this football club, part of our identity is that we’re aggressive out of possession and certainly quick and snappy in the attacking area.”
team news
Takehiro Tomiyasu and William Saliba were forced out through injury early in Thursday’s game against Sporting.
“Tomiyasu looks quite serious, from his immediate reaction and what he said to me,” Mikel said in his post-Sporting press conference. “Obviously, he is very early and hard to tell. William, I don’t know. He had some discomfort and could not continue, so we had to withdraw him ”.
Gabriel Jesus was substituted at halftime on Thursday, a substitution that Mikel says was planned.
“We decided to do that because we had to manage casualties, especially after the two windows we had to use in the first half, but that was the plan and he was also coming off injury. We knew the game could go to overtime and we had to manage that and it looked good.”
Mohamed Elneny remains out with a long-term knee injury, with Eddie Nketiah “still a few weeks away”.
Palace midfielders James McArthur and Will Hughes trained on Friday after missing the last two Premier League games. Sambi Lokonga is not eligible to face us. Teenage goalkeeper Joe Whitworth made his Brighton debut on Wednesday, with Vicente Guaita and Sam Johnstone both injured in midweek.
facts and statistics
We are looking to become the first team to win nine London derbies in the same league season.
If we win and score at least three goals, it will be the first time we have done so in four successive league games since September 2004.
We enter the match with five consecutive league wins, one short of the longest run in the division this season set by Newcastle from October to December.
Crystal Palace have only won two of their 22 away league games against us: 2-1 at Highbury in October 1994 and 3-2 at the Emirates Stadium in April 2019.
However, they are unbeaten in each of their last four away games against us.
Palace are winless in their 17 league games this season against the teams in the top half of the table going into this weekend (D8, L9).
match referees
The referee for Sunday is Stuart Attwell, from Warwickshire.
Attwell has officiated one of our games this season – the 2-0 win against Wolves in November.
He also took charge of two of our games in 2021/22 – a 2-0 win over Newcastle and a 2-1 loss to Manchester City, both at the Emirates.
This is Attwell Palace’s first game since last season’s FA Cup quarter-final against Everton. The Eagles won that game 4-0.
Referee: stuart attwell Assistants: Lee Betts James Mainwaring Fourth official: Andy Madley VAR: darren england assistant VAR: Sian Massey-Ellis
last time out
Palace welcomed us on the opening day of the Premier League season, with a Gabriel Martinelli header and a late own goal from Marc Guehi setting up a 2-0 win.
live breakdown
Join Nick Bright and Adrian Clarke live from Emirates Stadium at 1pm (GMT) on Sunday for the best game preparation.
Nick and Adiran will look back on our exit from the Europa League and discuss what to expect in Sunday’s match, where they will be joined in the studio by celebrity chef Tom Brown and The Athletic’s Crystal Palace correspondent Matt Woosnam.
Then, starting at 2pm, join Dan Roebuck and Jeremie Aliadiere for live commentary from Emirates Stadium. Be sure to log in to Arsenal.com or the official app to stay up to date.
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