Happy matchday, everyone! I hope things is well with you. Are you excited for The Arsenal’s return today at last? I swear to God that I am! It seems like ages have passed! As I noted recently here, for some strange reason, it’s almost as if it’s been worse than an international break. That being said, the return of The Arsenal presents a chance for us to resume our winning ways, and to be completely honest, only a victory over Roy Hodgson’s Palace will do today.
After three straight losses, Arsenal has had more than a week off, which has allowed the players’ batteries to recharge. The players should be eager to take the pitch this lunchtime, and we need to see how they respond. We take on Palace, who have only won once in their previous eleven games, were just eliminated from the FA Cup, played in the middle of the week while we were away, and will be without key players like Doucourre, Ward, Olise, and Ayew because they are at the AFCON.
But The Arsenal, we all know that, right? We played Fulham over the Christmas break, and they had only won once in their last five Premier League games, scoring a total of two goals—obviously against us, to record their sole victory since early December. It feels like SO teams are always up against us!
I want to see an Arsenal team that is full of fire because we need to put an end to that right now. What I want to see is goals, well-managed and commanding defence, and an Arsenal team that takes the game to Palace, who ought to be moping after their defeat. Blood is what I crave.
We should acknowledge that we will be fighting for a spot in the top four this season if we don’t win all three points today. That is all there is to it. Therefore, these Arsenal players must be prepared for a Palace team that, in my opinion, will sit deep in a low block and try to frustrate us from the first minute. They must also be ready to fight for everything. They will play today as they have done in the past when playing for Hodgson. Eze will be their danger guy on counter, and we should anticipate a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1. They will hand the ball over to us and ask these Arsenal players, “Can you ACTUALLY break us down?”
And that’s the response that we HAVE to provide. We will occasionally face eight or nine defenders, and their main weapon will be a back player like Anderson, whose long ball distribution is, I seem to remember, rather decent. Then, they’ll depend on Edouard or Mateta to pose the biggest aerial threat, with Eze serving as the creator in the background and trying to wreak havoc.
The objective of today’s game is to make no stupid mistakes since this will be football, which we should be prepared for after seeing it a lot this season. If there was ever a game where we might have fallen subject to the tired cliche of “one shot, one goal,” it was today. We feel like we have fallen victim to it every time we have lost this season. Imagine the home game vs West Ham. Yes, if we don’t seize the opportunity we have now, that very well might be in the cards.
It is my hope that Arteta has been attempting to address this. Is it because we put extra pressure on players in wide areas to prevent Palace from overloading our wide forwards? Saka has been stood up by defenders who just double down on him far too often this season, and it will undoubtedly occur today. Or does our team need to engage in more box-crashing? It implies that individuals such as Havertz may have a significant impact. Whatever the issue, a solution is required. Palace is seventh from the top in terms of goals conceded and sixth in the league for xG against because to their low block strategy.In other words, even though they don’t score many goals, they also don’t give up many either. This is being depicted as an offensive against defence match, so we aren’t going to witness the Arsenal from right before the warm-weather training break.
In comparison to the other teams in the league, Palace tends to launch the ball and allows a lot of crosses from wide areas. They also don’t progressively carry or pass the ball. What is all of this telling me? As previously stated, this will be a low block, compact, “defend inside your own box” play with the goal of exploiting set pieces, corners, or balls that are fired out of the back.
The attacking players for Arsenal must step up. It’s time for the guys to take care of business in the last third; we all know what our issues have been. Give up making excuses. Place the ball within the net. Time and time again.
Regarding the lineup of the team I anticipate it to be.
Raya
Blanche, Saliba, Gabriel, and Zinchenko
Rice
Havertz – Odegaard
Jesus, Saka, and Martinelli
Thus, Mikel’s ideal starting lineup for today. And that group must be present. I don’t want to see the ball touched four, five, or six times; we need to move it rapidly. I don’t want to be reminded of the terrible old days when David Luiz would take several touches while walking with the ball at his feet in the defensive third before accomplishing nothing. Movement, craftsmanship, a desire to extend a deeply entrenched Palace side, and the building of spaces for one another that allow for chance creativity are what I want to see. want to see fast exchanges between players in confined areas, and I want us to make Palace feel the weariness. It’s difficult to defend without the ball for ninety minutes, so we should take advantage of the fact that they played in the middle of the week and we didn’t.
To do it, we have the players. Today, all they have to do is prove it.
Let’s hope that we return to our winning ways and that tomorrow’s blog post brings you joy and happiness rather than anger and aggravation.
Hurry up, Gunners.
