At the start of the 21/22 season, Arsenal looked like they will miss out on Champions League football once again but Mikel Arteta has worked wonders with this side in the past few months.
The Gunners have pulled up their socks during the second half of the season and right now, they are the favourites to grab that final Champions League spot. Currently, they are fourth on the Premier League table, three points ahead of Spurs and they also have a game in hand.
Next up, they take on Crystal Palace away from home and while on paper this might look like a straightforward game but Palace recently held Manchester City to a draw at Selhurst Park so Arteta’s boys will have their work cut out. Palace actually have been in a great run of form, having won three and drawn two out of their previous five outings. In these five games, they have scored nine goals and conceded only two.
Arsenal will obviously go into Monday’s match as the favourites but we expect this to be a tightly fought contest since Palace have wind under their sails and they will be playing at home. To make the situation even tenser, Arsenal do not have the best of records against Palace as they have managed to win just once in their last five meetings.
Arsenal team news and injury updates vs Crystal Palace:
The Gunners have a few injury concerns going into this match, the biggest one being Aaron Ramsdale.
The keeper has been one of the top performers for Arsenal this season but currently, he is trying to recover from an abdominal injury. As per reports, he will go through a late fitness test so he will touch and go.
Arteta said in his press conference: “He wanted to play against Aston Villa but it was a significant injury and he had to take his time. The physios are doing everything they can to make him available but we will see in the next few days when he starts to do more real training.”
Our captain, Alex Lacazette leads the way for most assists (8) in all competitions so far this season… #afc pic.twitter.com/SsrS4kbY54
— now.arsenal (@now_arsenaI) March 27, 2022
Tomiyasu is another player who could be forced to watch from the sidelines since he’s taking more time than expected to return to full fitness.
The manager added: “I think it will be close. He’s been training more and more. He has the boys back now, so he will be joining some sessions this week, and let’s see how it is.
“He had a recurring injury, but in the other calf, which was a strange and difficult to predict.”
With Tomiyasu likely to miss out, Cedric Soares will hold onto his place in the defensive line meaning the back-four will remain the same from the Aston Villa game.
Bukayo Saka didn’t train with the England squad because of illness but this club manager has confirmed that the youngster will be taking part in training over the next few days.
Arteta said: “Bukayo is feeling good, he’s training today hopefully, if he is still feeling as he was yesterday and Aaron is a doubt. He’s still feeling not great. He hasn’t trained yet so we don’t know what he will be able to do on Monday.”
Mikel Arteta is working with a very small squad so unless it’s an injury absentee we don’t expect to see any major changes to the regular starting line-up.
If Ramsdale is not ready then Leno will hold onto his place and if Saka is absent then Nicolas Pepe will get a rare start down the right flank.
Arsenal predicted line up vs Crystal Palace:
Predicted Starting XI(4-2-3-1): Ramsdale/Leno; Soares, Ben White, Gabriel, Tierney; Thomas Partey, Xhaka; Bukayo Saka/Pepe, Odegaard, Martinelli; Lacazette.
