Time to get back to winning ways

Morning all.

A very quick Crystal Palace preview because the game kicks off at 12.30. We’re back in the saddle after a couple of weeks off, with the hope that this warm weather training and the break will help us solve problems at both ends of the pitch. For all the focus on the lack of goals we’ve scored, we’ve also been leaky at the back too, a double-whammy and hopefully we can correct those things today.

Mikel Arteta gave away even less than usual when it comes to fitness and availability for today’s game, saying:

Individually I’m not going to tell you exactly how everybody is, but we are still missing a few. We are touch and go with a few, that’s what I would say.

There are some obvious ones, Gabriel Jesus, Thomas Partey, Fabio Vieira, but also Oleksandr Zinchenko who remains a doubt with a calf problem. If he is out, it likely means Jakub Kiwior at left back. Phil made the point on the preview podcast that his presence in the team might well see Jorginho keep his place in midfield, but the big question today is ‘what will the manager do to get his side going again?’.

I think we can all basically pick the team we think he’ll go with. That could be a show of faith, telling these players he trusts their quality and that this is a chance for them to show the last few weeks have been just a dip in form and nothing else. With that though, you run the risk of being too predictable, and you leave yourself open to fairly intense scrutiny if it doesn’t work. That old thing about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

So, it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a name on the teamsheet we don’t necessarily expect. If there isn’t, being more decisive with his substitutes is another way to change things up. If it’s not going the way we want with the players on the pitch, don’t wait until the dying minutes looking for someone to produce a Hail Mary moment.

Let’s say today’s team is: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior, Jorginho, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Jesus – it gives him Kai Havertz, Emile Smith Rowe, Leandro Trossard and Reiss Nelson as options from the bench. There are ways to do things differently with those players. But let’s see who he picks first and go from there.

As for Palace, they are not in good form. Just 1 win in their last 11 games in all competitions, and the mood among their fans is low, as Dan from HLTCO explained in the preview pod. They have some threat, but first and foremost I think they’ll look to sit off and stay organised, which has been the bane of our season so far. Finding a way through will be key, and hopefully we can do that early so that the game opens up a bit.

Arteta says of the Dubai trip:

We worked really hard on things that we wanted to do, and we recharged our batteries. The context and the change in environment in beautiful weather helped, and the togetherness and the moments that we shared together were great. We feel fully recharged.

The proof of that will be in today’s performance. With another 10 days before we play again, there are no excuses not to be fresh and to not leave everything out there today. Nothing less than three points will do, so let’s keep fingers crossed our forwards have found their shooting boots again, and the guys at the back do what we know they’re capable of doing.

Don’t forget, you can follow the game with us on the live blog, and afterwards we’ll have the report, player ratings and all the rest on Arseblog News.

Come on you reds!