Arsenal vs Palace preview | Confirmed team news | Expected Line-ups | Prediction

Arsenal get back to Premier League action when they take on Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium on Monday night.

The Gunners endured a nightmare start to the new season after losing their opening three matches but Mikel Arteta steadied the ship with victories over Norwich City, Burnley and Tottenham to get things back on track.

The winning run came to an end with a hard fought 0-0 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion before the international break so Arteta will be looking to get back to winning ways on home soil tomorrow night.

Arsenal head into the match sitting 13th in the Premier League table but they can climb up to  with a win over Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium ahead of Friday night’s clash with Aston Villa.

The game will see Patrick Vieira make an emotional return to his former club and he’s sure to get a warm welcome but the Frenchman won’t be in any mood to do Arsenal any favours. The Eagles arrive in north London sitting just one place below Arsenal in the table so Vieira will be desperate to get a positive result on Monday night.

Team news

Arsenal will continue to be without the services of Granit Xhaka as the Swiss international is recovering from a serious knee ligament injury that he sustained during the North London Derby win over Tottenham last month.

However, Gabriel Martinelli could be in contention after taking part in training on Saturday. Arteta had flagged the Brazilian attacker as a doubt at his pre-match press conference on Thursday after he picked up a knock in training but Martinelli appears to have made a swift recovery.

Arteta has no other injury concerns to worry about and the likes of Nicolas Pepe and Alexandre Lacazette are pushing for recalls if the Arsenal boss wants to freshen things up.

As for Palace, they’ll still be without Eberechi Eze as he’s still overcoming a calf injury while Nathan Ferguson is also missing for the game.

Expected line-ups

Palace: Guaita; Ward, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; McArthur, Milivojevic, Gallagher; Ayew, Edouard, Zaha

Predicted score

Arsenal 2-0 Crystal Palace: The Gunners have looked far more solid in recent games now that Arteta has found a settled side so they’ll be confident of collecting all three points on home soil tomorrow night.

Palace are capable of causing Arsenal some problems, especially if Wilfried Zaha is in the mood, but Arteta’s men should still have too much quality in the end.

Vieira will be desperate to impress against the club that made him a house-hold name during his playing days, however, we think Arsenal will inflict a 2-0 defeat on the former midfielder.