I would not call this a must win game for Arsenal by any means, even though it looks like Leicester City are not about to win again and confirm what we already knew, that the Gunners would be going another year without lifting the Premier League trophy, while our place in the top four and subsequent qualification for the Champions League is unlikely to hinge on this one game.
But it would be a bit worrying if Arsenal do fail to beat Crystal Palace at home today, so Arsene Wenger has refrained from messing about with the recent starting line up, other than to bring back our experienced number one keeper Petr Cech in place of the Colombian international David Ospina.
Cech
Bellerin, Koscielny, Gabriel, Monreal
Coquelin, Elneny
Iwobi, Ozil, Sanchez
Welbeck
Subs: Ospina, Mertesacker, Chambers, Ramsey, Campbell, Walcott, Giroud
So once again the likes of Per Mertesacker, Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott have to settle for a place on the bench. Our forward line of Danny Welbeck, Alexis Sanchez and Alex Iwobi is full of pace and with Mesut Ozil pulling the creative strings behind them we should cause the Palace defence all sorts of problems.
No doubt Alan Pardew will have them set up for this and will hope to hit us on the break, but the central midfield pairing of Coquelin and Elneny should offer the Arsenal back line some good protection to stop this happening. Come on Arsenal, no messing about today lads!