Arsenal’s clash with Crystal Palace this evening has seen much of the focus in the build-up surrounding the fact that two of our club’s former captains will be going head-to-head.
Patrick Vieira was the captain of our famous Invincibles side of 2004, which under Arsene Wenger managed to remain unbeaten for the entire Premier League season, a feat no other club has come close to achieving.
Now he is looking to make a name for himself in a managerial sphere, and has impressed so far this season in making his Palace side extremely difficult to beat, with only Chelsea and Liverpool having managed to defeat them in the league thus far.
Vieira’s side have already beaten the likes of Tottenham this term, but delving into their form a little deeper you will notice that they are actually winless away from Selhurst Park, and I would expect that statistic to remain beyond the day.
After a rocky start to the season, the Gunners will no longer be taken lightly either. We did take three painful defeats from our opening three matches, but returned with three straight wins of our own, before a hard-fought stalemate with Brighton after that.
While neither manager will be confident of an easy victory this evening, you would have to believe that with home advantage there will be no excuses for Arsenal failing to win this one.
This will be our first opportunity to get a better look at former target Odsonne Edouard, who we have been strongly linked with in recent seasons, with him having secured a permanent move to Palace over the summer from Celtic. He already showed his ability when scoring a quickfire double to down our noisy neighbours Spurs, and we could well look to reignite our interest in him in the coming years.
I’m relying on him not causing our sturdy defence any issues this evening however, as I believe Aaron Ramsdale and his backline will be focused on keeping a clean sheet this evening, with today’s game likely to be won in defence as I do not expect too many goals.
I feel as though today’s match has a 1-0 win written all over it, with both sides likely to cancel each other out for large spells, with our star-power shining through when it matters.
What are your predictions for today’s clash?
Patrick