I know that a lot of Arsenal fans out there will be expecting the Gunners to sweep aside Crystal Palace at the Emirates and give us a nice comfortable new years day victory. That easy confidence is certainly not shared by Arsene Wenger though, as his pre match comments about our next opponents on the Arsenal website show.
He said, “It’s a talented squad, because they have potential going forward, they are quick on the break and they are very versatile. They can be good in the air with Benteke, who is also good technically, and they can be quick in transition with Townsend and Zaha.
“In the last game, they played with Flamini, Puncheon and Cabaye in midfield. They have experience, they have technical quality. It’s a team that can be dangerous for everybody.”
As well as talking up the quality that Crystal Palace have on the pitch, Wenger spoke about their new manager Sam Allardyce and the proven Premier League nous and experience that he has shown over the years. He will be expecting Big Sam to have Palace well drilled, fired up and ready for the trip to north London, so I wonder if the Frenchman is thinking about throwing Allardyce a tactical curveball.
If he is then I would like to see him alter the Arsenal formation a little and start both Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud as a strike partnership. Palace will certainly not expect it and we could take them by surprise to grab an early goal.
I do think the Frenchman and the Chilean could work well together up front and with the likes of Ozil, Xhaka, Ramsey, Coquelin, Elneny and Iwobi to choose from we could still dominate the ball and the full backs would still give us width.
Would you like to see Arsenal with this tactical tweak against Crystal Palace?
Bob.
As a rule of thumb, Arsenal tends to play the same way and with largely the same small group of players throughout the season. Unless we lose our next 3 games, I don’t see anything changing on the tactical side of things for Arsenal.
Out of the names listed for Central midfield, I would choose Ozil, Xhaka and Coquelin
The tweak I would make is to try Lucas. He has performed well the few times he has played. He scored in both Champ League and League cup. He has only played 3 pl matches. Which is very odd to me. Why get him if you won’t play him
I would like to see Sanchez plays behind Giroud, with Perez and Ox as the wingers, for this game only. If Sanchez doesn’t perform as a central attacking midfielder/ forward/ playmaker in this game, Ozil can come back in the next game. I think Sanchez would be a great playmaker, if he is given the chance to play in that position.
I know Wenger cannot bench Ozil and Giroud for whatever reasons, but I wish he has the guts to try this out for one game only and see the result. If Arsenal doesn’t change their way of playing, the team will be stagnant, a 3rd or 4th position champion.
Start Sanchez as false9, Perez n Iwobi flanking him then bring Giroud in 2nd half
Be nervous if Giroud starts and cry if Ramsey also starts.
I’m not sure about a four man midfield with Ozil as one of the four. Palace team does look ok, their midfield looks to have a few useful fighters if they get their act together. Then some of our fans want Perez in there too, I think we’d get bullied. We could go with three at the back but that’s not gonna happen, not unless all top teams begin playing that way.