Confirmed Arsenal team to face Crystal Palace – Leno stays!

There are many if’s and but’s regarding the Arsenal team that will face Palace today. Will it be Cech or Leno? Will Montreal or Kolasinac pass a fitness test? Will Ramsey be dropped to the bench after his outburst? Which players will be tired after two games in 4 days?

Any way, after my analysis of which Arsenal players were rested, this is the team I predicted….

Cech
Bellerin Sokratis Mustafi Monreal
Guendouzi Torreira Ramsey
Iwobi, Lacazette, Ozil

So now we have the Official team chosen by Emery, so let’s compare….

173 Comments

    1. Was a mistake taking ozil off at 2 – 1 3 strikers was overkill.and gave them the upper hand … bad call from.the manager imo and aubyeyang shouldnt have come off either

      1. It was no coincidence that we lost our control the second Ozil was replaced.He was not as effective as he was against Leicester on Monday but as soon as he went off Palace began to dominate in midfield.This clearly showed how worriedv they were of Ozil and could not believe their luck when he was taken off.
        Emery got this totally wrong today.Ozil had the legs to last the game as he didn’t play on Thursday.The Manager has made good use of his substitutions so far this season but got this wrong

  1. I know.
    I was hoping for a long time to see both Torreira and Guendouzi AND both Lacazette and Aubameyang play in one line up

    Those are my 4 favourite players this season
    Very excited
    COYG

    1. And Ozil
      He has no excuses now.
      Very good players behind him and in front of him
      Hopefully he Will have an awesome match too

    1. He did well when last he played there, against sporting and against Leicester, he did the defensive aspect of that position well, even if he plays nonsense attack wise, I think we should be contented with that as its not his natural position

  2. I wanted to see Guendouzi given more playing time with Torriera, I know he is so risky and gets caught on the ball sometimes. But he is more mobile and gives me that buzzing attitude. He needs to keep playing to gain the experience in this transitional EMERY period. Then we can have a better look and assessment of him..

  3. Mama Mia, XHAKA at Left-back.. I might have a few cardiac arrests throughout the game. Please Zaha and Palace, go easy on our Xhaka..

    🙁

  4. If there is no genuine left back this has to be our best 11 … looking forward though bellerin and xhaka make me nervous as zaha and Townsend have pace

    1. It’s not 4-4-2 you’re seeing, but I hope you’re right with the goals aspect as long as we’re the one scoring them

  5. Playing xhaka against zaha is pure suicide. I know he did well against liecester in the last 15-20mins of the game when all their players are tired.
    But against speedy wingers like zaha ?
    Even if zaha starts as a left winger, it will not be too late when Roy shifts him to the right to exploit the awefully slow xhaka.

    I think emery has made his first mistake after the city game…which is to get carried away with his team selection by including xhaka as a left back and also auba is on the left who is not a great track back player. I think iwobi offers more help to xhaka at left back.

    I hope i am proved wrong..but some things are not a techinical to improve with hard work..i.e. Speed and acceleration of the player in his mid 20s is impossible to be improved. Hope xhaka is not bombarded by wingers.

  6. Jesus … not a penalty … but with the defense we have anything can happen … none of them would be in defense of other top 6 team

  7. Luck eventually wears out. We can’t just keep starting poorly and expect to win. It doesn’t work like that. But Mustafi is such a bad defender jeesus Christ…

    1. Not regular one because except 1st week till today we haven’t been down at the half time and when we were, we lost the game

  8. Our luck had to come to an end… Why do we so poorly in the first half? We looked like a team that was conserving energy, one might have thought we were winning by 3-0 by the casualness..
    Pick it up in the second half..
    smh

  9. mustafi is very prone in doing mistakes, he will cost us many points to come if we continue in having him here at arsenal

    we are playing poor, almost as if all are sleeping

    iwobi needs to be subed off for welbs and let him have a shoot

    1. To think he’s in his 5th season with us. Unless injured I would go with Socratis and Holding until we find better.

  10. Playing badly today.
    Need to have a much better second half.
    Mustafi is a terrible defender and Xhaka is NOT a left back…
    We must be active in January to buy a new defender…

  11. Mustafi always at fault for the goal.. was lucky not to give a penalty early then a reckless challenge which there was no need for that you can see kouyate was turning and he was not aiming for a shot at a goal and had mustafi shown a little bit of patience penalty and goal would have been avoided.. i was surprised to see sokratis on bench and mustafi playing.. sokratis is a beast of defender..

  12. these first halfs are becoming a real problem. Xhaka offers nothing going forward which make it hard to Aubameyang to get in the game, Ozil needs to be more clever with his movement b/c he can’t compete physically. And Lacazette should’ve scored. Mustafi is Mustafi and I’m surprised Sokratis hasn’t taken his spot permanently by now. Still a chance we can bounce back, we’ll have to be miles better though.

    1. even with roberto carlos as a left back, abouama cant play on the wings, he cant play with the ball, only without it

  13. No creativity in the midfield, Xhaka actually playing better than most of the others. Ozil needs to step up or step off.

    Credit to Palace for the pressure on the ball and making us pass backwards. Really need more from Ozil and front 3 to be honest, they have contributed nothing in attack or defending.

    Tactical change and subs needed; time to bring on Dat guy? Desperately need a fighter in the front 3

  14. well well here we go again messy first half terrible defense at the end
    of the first half allowed CP a dubious penalty we have to get better ….
    or we will not hold the 4 place at the table…..

  15. Am not so sure we are watching the same match,ozil needs to pick up in the second half,auba and laca are of working,regardless to what sue might think and it goes without saying that we’ve had 2 chances in the First half and both came through iwobi

  16. using Aubu on the wing against a tough team like crystal palace is suicidal……..
    Aubu is not good on the ball with his feet
    he can only chase a ball and finish it…..

    Crystal palace clearly dominated the first half……..
    I can’t see us dominate Top6 sides with this lineup….
    We need skillful and tenacious midfield players in that middle of the field and on the wings……
    Imagine adding Zaha and Isco to this Team……

    Xhaka is totally useless
    Is immobile and so poor technically

  17. Mustafi and bellerin are utterly hapless basis for a defense but we still don’t press in the way you have to in this league or move the ball with forwAard momentum …. zero attacking threat which is shocking given these players … maybe we come good here but pool are a different kettle of fish

  18. at any point our team (as it stands) will be prone to showing substandard performers and overall naivety. Without question we will need to attract finer players and to do this the transfer is a must.
    Put simply we’re very much a work that’s still in progress (imo)

  19. eff you commentator. That guy had hold of Lacazette’s shirt which is why he raised his arms.

  20. I actually love it when I criticize a player then he scores LOL
    Thanks Xhaka (he still scares me though LOL)
    And Aubameyang

  21. Love the fans singing, Torreira, Torreira, he comes from Uraguay, he’s only five foot high, Torreira……..

    1. difficult to kill the game when you lack the necessary midfield general to dominate
      the ball and pick the right pass when the counterattack is available.

      i know he just came on but Ramsey had 2 opportunities to do just this and predictably
      bottled both.

  22. Another weak penalty call … but xhaka and mustafi are both jokers … still no way we deserve to be in lead in this game

  23. Surprise surprise Palace score when we come to town. Our ‘luck’ has finally run out…. I’m really not looking forward to the Liverpool game

    1. We will get hammered with that useless defence.
      Emery has got it half right with Arsenal.
      Time to sort out the defence…

      1. If he still has to sort out defense, then he’s done nothing yet. Arsenal midfield and attack was always excellent under Wenger. Where we were lacking was in our defensive play, so if he’s yet to sort it out what then did he fix?

        1. oh okay. So Wenger would’ve won 11 in a row then, because we were so great last season and our only problem was defense. Not making sense. You do realize Emery has had one transfer window and it’s only been a few months. Did Pep solve all of City’s problems in that time period? Klopp has taken years to get Liverpool to this level, Chelsea have way more cash than us and Sarri has been given far more to work with than Emery. Most major manager changes end up being disasters. We are still in top 4 and have every chance to make UCL next season. Enough with the negativity just because Emery drew one game.

  24. This is exactly what happens when you don’t invest in good defenders.
    Xhaka is NOT a left back.
    Mustafi is NOT a good defender.
    Two penalties given away.
    Absolutely CRAP defending. Garbage. Rubbish.
    Great going forward and rubbish at defending.
    We are just half a good team…

      1. They try to convince people its a “self sufficiency model” and yet still talk about challenging Man City for the PL.
        What a joke.
        Have no ambition – that is fine but don’t try and hide it by talking rubbish about self sufficiency.
        What they spout is no ambition.
        And thats all it is…

        1. Pool spent 3/4 of the near £100 million they got for Coutinho or did that pass you by? That’s called self sufficiency!

    1. Zaha is overrated player who has good phisicall ability but playing like a headless chicken and his passing is the same… he kiks the ball never watching where it goes just hopes it will find someone…

      1. nonesense is as nonesense thinks …not difficult … NM is better than xhaka … kos is way better than mustafi .. ramsey is just excess … so bring in a right back and a central defender … qed

        1. We have several competitions to compete in. You need squad depth. We are very lucky you aren’t the manager. And now we’re pretending Xhaka hasn’t put in any good performances this season in midfield just because he stunk at LB today? Short memory. Reactionary comments. Why are we right back to being negative just because of one draw? I somebody told you Arsenal would win 11/12 of their next games and draw one, you’d be over the moon. Instead we are criticizing.

          1. He’s put some in a couple of less bad performances but the truth is that Xhaka is amongst the worst of our midfielders I recall in the last decade .. which includes some pretty hopeless ones … sure play him in the carabo cup and Thursday nighters but if he and mustafi continue to start we will struggle to finish in top 4 … that’s half the spine and teams with weak spines don’t progress …

    1. Sadly there wont be any serious($$$) takers and there isn’t a snow balls
      chance in hell that our billionaire owner would sanction a spending spree to
      upgrade there respected positions.

      $100M MINIMUM is needed to make Arsenal serious EPL contenders

  25. Well a 11 game winning streak has turned into a 12 match non-losing streak LOL

    We need to get some quality defenders in January as a matter of urgency. January is for emergencies isn’t it?

    Even while winning our defense looked bad

    1. Palace was better than us for the majority of the game. Sucks to give up a pen in the last 10 minutes, but with our atrocious defending that was bound to happen.

  26. It ends, credit to Palace, gutted. Hard luck lads, some tired looking legs but that’s not why we didn’t win, we came close. Need to learn how to waste some time when we’re under the cosh, and also tactical fouling.

  27. Funny, I dint like Mustafi and Xhaka on that lineup, they both geve up pens. If dumb me can predict that why not a coach?

    1. Lichtstiner was hardly better at LB and that was our only option left. Everybody else is injured. I agree Sokratis should’ve started. Let’s not start bashing Emery at the first sign of trouble (it was a draw folks). He’s gotten a lot right about the squad and we are still 12 games unbeaten. For a side that has zero top class defenders that is quite a feat. He’s had limited funds and just one transfer window. It’s ridiculous to criticize him.

  28. Arsenal are a still a work in progress I don’t know why people forgetting this we don’t have a quality CB, we don’t a left back (monreal is old) we don’t have winger except iwobi but our mentality is improving new manager is dynamic we fans must happy we are still unbeaten in 12

  29. Crystal Palace didn’t earn that draw.
    Arsenal gifted them the point – through god awful defending.
    Arsenal are a real contradiction – world class going forward but pub team defending.
    So frustrating – you know their goals can bring them success but you know their amateur defenders can make the most awful mistakes.
    Mustafi is a joke….

    1. Arsenal fans back to their usual selves after one bad result. I know the defending was bad. But this does not warrant the kind of comments I have been seeing.

      1. You’d think we lost. We got what we wanted and got the managerial change. Now fans need to stick behind the team. we are 12 unbeaten and bashing the manager and team. Maybe too many fans thought we’d magically win the title?

          1. I said the muppets on here should reign it in a bit about forecasting a 5 nil win before we kicked off but some of the comments on here are ridiculous.

            1. Declan, my first comment on the game and yours is the first one I agree with.
              We didn’t lose the match, but already the know it alls are telling anyone who will listen just what they would have done.
              Bring in Big Sam I say, as it’s all doom and gloom from now on in and we are about to blame you know who for this catastrophic draw!!!
              Babasola blames Ozil, AW gets mentioned for Emery playing Iwobi out of position, Xhaka gets pilloried for filling in at left back and Mustafi gets collared for being….. Mustafi.
              Wow!!!

  30. Iwobi only good from the Left
    Happened under Wenger
    He was playing well till Wenger decided to put Sanchez on the left and started moving Iwobi around Right and Cental
    The guy thrives on confidence and that deflates when he’s moved from the position he’s accustomed to

  31. All the Ozil lovers
    Where was he today
    Whenever the going gets tough he’ll go hiding
    Even Ramsey for the few minutes he was on knew that this game needed someone to drop deeper and be an Outlet since our usual outdoor in Iwobi was not doing fine

    1. Don’t blame Ozil for this, what about everyone else?! Torreira put a shift in… but what about everyone else?? What’s up with Laca… really gone off the boil… wasn’t comfortable viewing…

    2. Babasola you are really out of it and in danger to be called lot s of ugly names… 🙂
      …Ozil was not right to behave like that but decision to replace him was wrong.
      Headless ramsey was not in the game at all… like always…. again he was in the place of our strikers and of course missing a “whole” header (afraid of his haircut)… last game he was two times infornt of the run of Wellbecks and Auba. Jerk!

  32. Mustafi is hopeless he should have committed a professional foul.wtf I was thinking he is on a yellow card that’s why he didn’t give away that foul. It feels like a defeat to me..I know xhaka gave away that pen but laccazzet should have been off. He has been utterly wasteful in the last 2 games. I feel emery made wrong changes. He should have moved xhaka in the middle as soon as we went 2 1 up remove matteo and put sokratis. Go 3 at the back and shore the midfield see out that game. All in all we need defenders how can our 2 left back be injured at the same time.

    1. Honestly i went to check if he had yellow after d game. Mustafi shud have committed foul there, Papa collected yellow twice in similar situation. Lacazette caused the goal again… another 83” wrong pass to Torreira. Xhaka really tried, the foul was like a reflex action. We should blame Monreal n Kolasinac for getting injured at the same time… same thing they did beginning of the season.

  33. Unai should’ve just returned Iwobi to the right after that first half
    Our play didn’t flow, in short there was no play at all
    It’s not the manager’s fault though that a particular player totally goes to zero when his position is changed
    He wanted to accommodate Auba for more goals
    But we were not even playing at-all
    We never controlled the game for 1 second
    Should’ve just reverted to the familiar way of Iwobi thriving on his confidence and familiarity/comfortability from the left where Auba was

  34. 11 match winning streak is still an awesome start by Emery regardless of today’s match. Getting a team of mostly average players to do that is really good.

    But I stress Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Xhaka, and even Ozil are very average most of the time

    We need to sort out our Defense and box2box and CAM next summer

    This January we need to loan or buy a better CB at least

    1. Innit, You seem to be one of the minority who agree with me on Bellerin , who has NEVER been able to defend at any time in his Arsenal career. Virtually all Gooners agree with you on the dreadful Mustafi though. I am not one of those who thinks Xhaka is better now that Torreira plays. He is still hopeless; a hard shot and free kick and nothing else of value. I don’t agree that Oxil is average most of the time. He is either a passenger , most games or occasionally sublime. Nothing in between. As for CB’s, we have badly needed two or three of quality ever since Sol Campbell left us. That is evident to anyone with working eyes and no bias.

  35. It is not that bad. But I think Auba or Iwobi should not have started. They give us extra threat when the opposition is tiring off. There is no one to come in today and give us that.

    1. I was thinking that too.
      I’ve changed my mind about them playing together
      Either one of them could have been more lethal in the second half coming off the bench

      I don’t think Lacca and Auba together will work well. Why tire them both out?

  36. I think Zaha dived but after we scored the 2nd we couldn’t put 2 passes together. To many passengers today.

    1. Lack of passing may have something to do with substituting Welbeck for Ozil. Ramsey, Mikhi or even Smith-Rowe I could see but to go with a top three of Lacazette, Aubayemang and Welbeck when we needed to control the game and slow the pace down seemed odd. But hey, 13 games undefeated, Emery knows what he’s doing.

  37. I guess Arsenals was very unfortunate today. That’s football’s way.
    In retrospect, those were actually wrong calls from the referee. The first was supposed to be in favor of Mustafi whose leg was blocked from reaching the ball – dangerous block that can easily lead to leg break. And the second was a blatant diving. All the same, let’s make due with 1 point than nothing.

  38. Sometimes you have to credit our opponents. We were not at the races, clearly, and that goes for the majority of them, not just for Ozil. Palace looked livelier, quicker, plenty of stamina throughout their performance. If we had of had a home game straight after the European one, I think it would’ve been more beneficial/appreciated. Ozil put one on the plate for Bellerin in the first half, a little height on the ball and it was a goal. He might have created one from a counter late on, we’ll never know, but Emery wanted grafters on the field. It almost paid off but Zaha totally bought a penno, by running into Xhaka’s leg and by falling when staying on his feat would have been easier. It all came from a lapse pass by Lacazette, but thanks to Lacazette’s hand and Xhaka’s goal, is partly why we were in that position in the first place. Also as someone mentioned, one foul could have put a stop to it all, the lead up for the penno.

    I can’t fault their effort after the strong run we just had. In hindsight, maybe leaving a few of them at home on Thursday, instead, might have paid dividends for today’s encounter. I’m not gonna fault Emery, he wanted it as badly as we did and that’s good to see, many yearned to see that happening out on the touchline. No doubt, the Che’s, Liv’s, Spuds, are delighted with how we finally became a bit unstuck. Let’s not play into their hopes, we showed fight, we have a togetherness, we are still on a marvelous run. It was a difficult away game, one that we were not at our fittest, nor sharpest, nowhere near our best. We’re only still at the start of the Emery revolution, let’s not give up hope so easily. The fans have been brilliant this season, class, let us not be like that only when we’re winning. Yes we’re gutted, but we believe in Emery, and we can’t wait til the board go and properly back the man & his master plan. One Love!!!

    1. Exactly Break-on-through. It was a difficult week, and we still gathered all the points but 2.
      We are the Arsenal, LET’S RELOAD!
      COYG

  39. Those 12 boys that were trapped in that thai cave have been invited to watch United today .. poor little sods haven’t they been through enough???

  40. Who would have thought that we would concede two goals via penalties in one match if not for our sloppy defenders.

  41. Not one player, Leno apart, played to his standard today. Hugely disappointing all round. I thought we were lucky to get a draw, despite Zaha’s cheat for penalty, as Laca clearly handled before Auba scored , which makes that ref mistake even. A reality check, esp for Samuel who was sure we would win 5-0. Great call Samuel. NOT!!!

  42. This negativity is getting more annoying, it actually felt like a loss to me considering the fact that we had won 11 in a row, but hey, it was going to end at some point, and we didn’t lose, we’re still there, close to the top, what more can you ask for, win the league? We should fight for that but considering previous seasons and comparing our squad to that of our opponents I think we’re still doing fine

    On today’s match, I believe things would have been better if a true lb was around, if xhaka had been in the middle he would have had a lot of touches which means we would have been in possession more and probably the game would have ended differently.

    For both goals I blame mustafi, giving away the penalty when the opponent was back to goal and not knowing how to commit a professional foul, even guendouzi got a yellow late on for it, but mustafi?? He commits the stupid errors and leave out the justifiable ones. I think xhaka is being heavily criticised for that penalty, there’s no guarantee any of our other lbs would have dispossessed zaha there cleanly

    Like someone said, we’re on a point on a learning curve

  43. And apart from mustafi’s foul and his reluctance to foul, I don’t think anything else deserves more attention than xhaka’s free kick goal, he’s really getting better at them, that’s the 2nd this season

  44. the different today was clearly fitness
    we played Monday,Thursday and Sunday and we have to travel to sporting when I saw those fixtures I always felt we could from point either in sporting or palace
    It was a very tough game under wenger this would surely be a loss considering the no. of defenders we are missing

    1. Nonny, am I missing something here?
      Are you saying that because we had so many defenders missing, AW would have lost the game as well?
      If so, that is totally irrelevant as he is no longer at Arsenal!
      Your previous points regarding three games in five days AND the travelling factor to Portugal makes complete sense.
      Surprisingly that has not been acknowledged by anyone else to date and that is TOTALLY relevant in my opinion.

      1. I meant under this current situation considering how well palace played today we would have lost this game in previous seasons we were totally not in the same same physical state as palace they were/looked fitter sharper I can’t even believe we scored twice in this game

        few player show today they needed little rest am beginning to think Liverpool will have 8/7 days to rest and prepare while we still going to play blackpool midweek we really need to rest few players as Liverpool match would be very demanding physically

  45. Oh why are we waiting, why are we waiting….
    LOL

    A draw is not the end of the world but we should have won this match. I honestly thought that Liverpool would break our streak, not Crystal Palace.

    Anyway, Blackpool at home next

  46. We can not cope with 15th place teams when we dnt play 100% or have our best 11 fully fit. Thats sad and that shows that nobody can make miracles with some players we have.
    Emery have to push the Board or go to hell if they dnt buy him replaces for Xhaka, Mustafi, Wellbeck and some others. (For ramsey we dnt need a replacement cos he has no position in this team or his out of it most of the time)…
    …also I really like how Emery is giving time to Iwobi and Guendouzi, but today he made another mistake not change at least one of them for the more experienced player. First was taking Ozil out.

  47. We should give Palace the credit they deserve today.
    Urgency palace showed up we didn’t
    Intensity palace had it we didn’t

    Our attackers offered nothing for 80 minutes; I credit Palace for not giving Laca, Auba, and Ozil the space to be dangerous.

    Our midfielders had no creativity or ideas in possession today, and we drew because of two penalties. Zaha had more directness and creativity than Laca, Auba, Iwobi, Ozil, Torreria, and Guendouzi combined.

    Zaha did great job while none of our attackers earned their wages today. 12 games without losing is better than any 12 games from Arsenal in last several years.

    We’re not City, Pool, or Chelsea, so let’s not act like we’re on that level.

    Palace did what they had too, intensity, urgency, and with purpose. We were sleepwalking entire first half and didn’t match their intensity or desire.

    Credit Palace for the job, and we were fortunate not to drop 3 points due to our discombobulated sluggishness and sloppiness. Learn from it and prepare for Liverpool.

  48. what do u mean by coping with 15th placed team @ maks city barely excapped wolves with 1 point even with all they got…. football is not simply an arithmetic where you say because we beat leicester city 3:1 you will automatically beat huddlesfield 8:0 people can be irritating we beat Watford,Everton,Leicester and all are above palace in the table even a formidable side like city ..the fans wouldn’t react this negative to a draw at Club lower in table they excapped a loss to palace last season place show some respect this is football

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