After the disappointment of Thursday night’s Europa League exit, we have a quick opportunity to return to winning ways ahead of the international break when CRYSTAL PALACE VISIT EMIRATES STADIUM ON SUNDAY.

18 Mar 2023

“We have 11 finals to go and that’s it, that’s the main focus now,” Martin Odegaard told us after our penalty shoot-out defeat to Sporting CP. “It starts already now in the dressing room to recover well and change the focus, so that’s what we have to do.”

Our record in London derbies during 2022/23 has been nothing short of faultless. We head into the weekend’s fixture aiming to become the first team in the capital to win nine derbies in the same season. A victory would take 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 are a Crystal Palace side who announced the departure of Patrick Vieira on Friday morning. The former Gunner will be replaced temporarily by Paddy McCarthy, who led first-team training ahead of the match and will manage our visitors on Sunday.

Team News

Takehiro Tomiyasu and William Saliba were forced off with injury in the early stages of Thursday’s match against Sporting.

“Tomiyasu looks pretty serious, for his reaction straight awayandwhathesaidtome,”Mikelsaidinhispost-Sporting press conference.”

“Obviously, it’s very early and difficult to know. William, I don’t know. He had some discomfort and could not carry on, so we had to take him off.”

Gabriel Jesus was replaced at half-time on Thursday - a substitution Mikel says was planned.

Visitors Without A Win In 2023

A run of 12 matches without a win ultimately contributed to Vieira’s dismissal.

“It is with enormous regret that this difficult decision has been made,” chairman Steve Parish told CPFC.co.uk. “Ultimately, results in recent months have placed us in a precarious league position and we felt a change is necessary to give us the best chance of retaining Premier League status.”

Palace go into the matchweek 12th in the Premier League - though they find themselves just three points clear of the relegation zone. The Eagles haven’t scored in their last four league matches - but they have proved tough to break down. Palace have drawn with Manchester United, Newcastle and Liverpool at home in 2023 and frustrated Manchester City for long periods before eventually falling to a 1-0 defeat at Selhurst Park last weekend.

“We decided to do that because we had to manage the subs, especially after the two windows that we had to use in the first half, but that was the plan and he was coming from an injury as well. We knew the game could go to extra time and we have to manage that and he looked okay.”

“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 matches. Sambi Lokonga is ineligible to face us. Teenager goalkeeper, Joe Whitworth, made his debut at Brighton on Wednesday, with Vicente Guaita and Sam Johnstone both injured in midweek.

What The Managers Say

Mikel Arteta on Palace: “It’s 11 games to play for, 11 Premier League games, and a big final against Crystal Palace. The focus has to be there, the energy has to be there and learn from tonight.

“The best thing is now the reaction and to show the same commitment, more quality and play better against Palace to beat them.”

Paddy McCarthy on us: “We’ll try and implement an aggressive style out of possession in different ways. We’ll look to be aggressive when we don’t have the ball, and we’ll look to progress the ball up the pitch in possession.

“That obviously said, we’ve only got a short amount of time to implement a few ideas, so I don’t want to flood the 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 fast in the attacking third.”

Facts And Stats

We are looking to become the first side 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’ve done that in four successive league games since September 2004.

We go into the match with five straight league wins, one short of the longest streak in the division this season set by Newcastle from October to December.

Crystal Palace have only won two of their 22 league away fixtures against us: 2-1 at Highbury in October 1994 and 3-2 at Emirates Stadium in April 2019.

They are, however, unbeaten in each of their last four away matches against us.

Palace are winless in all 17 league games this season against the teams in the top half of the table heading into this weekend (D8, L9).

Match Officials

Sunday’s referee is Stuart Attwell, from Warwickshire. Attwell has officiated one of our matches this season - the 2-0 win at Wolves in November. He also took charge of two of our games in 2021/22 - a 2-0 win over Newcastle and 2-1 defeat to Manchester City, both at the Emirates.

This is Attwell’s first Palace fixture since last season’s FA Cup quarter-final against Everton. The Eagles won that match 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 hosted us on the first day of the Premier League season, with Gabriel Martinelli’s header and Marc Guehi’s late own goal setting up a 2-0 win.

Breakdown Live

Join Nick Bright and Adrian Clarke live from Emirates Stadium at 1pm (GMT) on Sunday for the best build-up to the game.

Nick and Adiran will look back on our Europa League exit and analyse what to expect in Sunday’s match, where they’ll be joined in the studio by celebrity chef, Tom Brown, and The Athletic’s Crystal Palace correspondent, Matt Woosnam.

Then from 2pm, join Dan Roebuck and Jeremie Aliadiere for live commentary from Emirates Stadium. Make sure you log onto Arsenal.com or the official app to stay up to date.

BUKAYO SAKA SCORED TWICE as we swept away Crystal Palace to move eight points clear at the top of the table.

Gabriel Martinelli opened the scoring for us as we looked to put Thursday night’s disappointing European exit behind us. Saka doubled the lead before half-time and Granit Xhaka increased the advantage, finishing another slick team move ten minutes after the restart. Palace threatened to get back into the game when Jeffrey Schlupp scored from a corner but Saka’s smartly taken second ensured a comfortable winning margin from an excellent performance.

FIRST-HALF CONTROL

We dominated possession and territory early on, with Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard looking lively, but it was Palace who had the first chance. Wilfried Zaha streaked away from the halfway line, cut inside onto his right foot, and his low shot hit the post then rebounded off Aaron Ramsdale’s legs behind for a corner. At the other end Odegaard forced a diving stop from the visitors’ teenage goalkeeper Joe Whitworth from just inside the area, but there were few real chances for either side until we opened the scoring. Ben White started the move, darting in to win the ball on the right flank before passing to Bukayo Saka on the edge of the box. His cross found its way to Martinelli who took a touch, kept his composure then rifled low into the net left-footed. It was the Brazilian’s sixth goal in his last six Premier League outings.

Saka Doubles Up

We went in search of the second. Odegaard dragged a shot wide from just inside the area after good build-up play from White and Saka on the right. When the second did arrive, it was that White/Saka partnership that created it. After a Martinelli cross from the left went straight across goal, White took up possession on the opposite flank, fed a pass inside the full-back to Saka, who finished expertly low into the corner. It was no more than we deserved from a confident first-half display. Rob Holding, making his first start in the Premier League since the final day of last season, slotted seamlessly back into the back line. He completed more passes than any other player on the pitch in the first half, and also won most duels (eight).

Goals Flow

The half-time break did nothing to halt our momentum. It was another well-worked goal that brought up our third. Alex Zinchenko fed the ball into Granit Xhaka outside the area. The Swiss midfielder swapped passes with Leandro Trossard, continued his run into the box and finished well under pressure. It was the midfielder’s second goal in a week, and Trossard’s sixth Premier League assist since joining from Brighton in January.

But Palace hit back. We failed to deal with a corner at the near post and Jeffrey Schlupp pounced from close range to pull one back. It gave the visitors confidence and Zaha slid a shot just wide after Schlupp won the ball in midfield. But any thoughts of a comeback were squashed when Saka notched his second of the afternoon. Substitute Kieran Tierney pulled the ball back to the winger from the left, and Saka drilled home a first-time shot to restore our three-goal lead. Indeed this is the first time since 2004 that we have won four Premier League games in row by scoring at least three goals in each of them. Mikel Arteta was able to bring players off in the closing minutes, after a physically demanding week. But at the end of it, we stand proudly on top of the league table heading into the international break, with 10 league games remaining.

Facts And Stats

We earned our 22nd Premier League win of the season, as many as we managed in the whole of last term, and our mostever wins in our first 28 matches of a league campaign. Crystal Palace remain one of only two sides yet to win a league match in England’s top four tiers in 2023 (P12 W0 D5 L7), along with League One’s Forest Green Rovers. The Eagles have lost four consecutive Premier League games for the first time since July 2020 (run of 7). We are the first side in English Football League history to win as many as nine London derbies in a single league season. Paddy McCarthy was the eighth manager from the Republic of Ireland to take charge in the Premier League, with seven of those now losing their first such game in the competition, the exception being Roy Keane with Sunderland in August 2007 (1-0 win v Spurs). Bukayo Saka (12 goals, 10 assists) became the first player to reach both 10+ goals and 10+ assists in the Premier League this season. He is the first Arsenal player to reach double figures for both in a Premier League campaign since Alexis Sanchez in 2016/17 (24 goals, 10 assists), and only the second Englishman to do so for us, after Theo Walcott in 2012/13 (14 goals, 10 assists). Bukayo also provided his 25th Premier League assist, aged 21 years and 195 days; only Cesc Fabregas (20y 134d), Wayne Rooney (21y 63d) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (21y 140d) reached 25 assists at a younger age in the competition. Leandro Trossard has assisted six goals in 10 Premier League games for us, at least twice as many as any other player in the competition since his club debut in January. It’s also more assists than the Belgian provided in 50 Premier League appearances for Brighton since the start of last season (5).

WHAT’S NEXT

Our international players now join up with their respective countries, and we’ll be back in action in two weeks’ time, at home to Leeds United on Saturday, April 1.