Arsenal welcome Crystal Palace to the Emirates Stadium on Thursday night and the Gunners will be looking to make it five consecutive wins in all competitions.
It was a hugely disappointing first half to the campaign for Arsenal as they endured their worst start to a league season in over 60 years having lost 8 of their first 14 Premier League matches.
However, Mikel Arteta has managed to get them back on track as Arsenal eased into the fourth round of the FA Cup with a 2-0 win over Newcastle at the weekend which came off the back of three consecutive wins in the league.
Victories over Chelsea, Brighton and West Brom have eased the pressure on Arteta and Arsenal can now move to within just three points of fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur if they beat Palace on home soil tomorrow night.
The north Londoners should be in confident mood heading into the game, but Palace won’t be there just to make-up the numbers as they sit just one point behind Arsenal in the table so they’ll be looking to secure a positive result at the Emirates.
Team news
Arsenal are expected to welcome Thomas Partey back into the squad after he recovered from a thigh injury that’s kept him out for the past month while Gabriel is also back in contention after returning to full training last week.
Gabriel Martinelli will miss the visit of Palace after picking up an ankle injury during the warm-up ahead of Saturday’s win over Newcastle but the attacker isn’t expected to be on the sidelines for too long.
Arteta is set to make a number of changes to his starting eleven with the likes of Hector Bellerin, Granit Xhaka, Bukayo Saka and Alexandre Lacazette pushing for recalls after being rested for the FA Cup win.
Palace have plenty of injury concerns to contend with as they prepare to face Arsenal with Nathan Ferguson, Wayne Hennessey, Martin Kelly, Mamadou Sakho, Jeffrey Schlupp, Connor Wickham and Scott Dann all missing.
Betting odds
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Arsenal are currently priced as the 1/2 favourites to win the game on Thursday night with Palace available at odds of 11/2 while the draw is can be backed at 3/1 if you think the points will be shared at the Emirates.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was on target at the weekend and he’ll be looking to find the back of the net again tomorrow. The Gabon hitman is 16/5 to open the scoring against Palace while Bukayo Saka is an solid outside bet at 13/2.
Prediction
Arsenal 2-0 Palace: The Eagles can be a well drilled, organised side on their day but Arsenal have found some form in recent games and they should have too much quality for the visitors in the end.
If Palace can hold out until half-time they may fancy their chances of getting something from the game but we think Arsenal will ease to a 2-0 victory at the Emirates on Thursday night.
