After the disappointment of Thursday night’s Europa League exit, the Gunners have a quick opportunity to return to winning ways ahead of the international break when Crystal Palace visit Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Arsenal’s record in London derbies during 2022/23 has been nothing short of faultless. They head into the weekend’s fixture aiming to become the first team in the capital to win nine derbies in the same season.
A victory would take them eight points clear at the top of the Premier League, with Manchester City hosting Burnley in the FA Cup quarter-final.
“It’s 11 games to play for, 11 Premier League games, and a big final against Crystal Palace. The focus has to be there, the energy has to be there and learn from tonight,” said Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta
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“The best thing is now the reaction and to show the same commitment, more quality and play better against Palace to beat them,” he said.
Standing in their way are a Crystal Palace side who announced the departure of Patrick Vieira on Friday morning.
The former Gunner will be replaced temporarily by Paddy McCarthy, who led first-team training ahead of the match and will manage our visitors on Sunday.
A run of 12 matches without a win ultimately contributed to Vieira’s dismissal.
“We’ll try and implement an aggressive style out of possession in different ways. We’ll look to be aggressive when we don’t have the ball, and we’ll look to progress the ball up the pitch in possession,” said McCarthy ahead of Sunday’s derby.
“That obviously said, we’ve only got a short amount of time to implement a few ideas, so I don’t want to flood the players with too much information. But ultimately, at this football club, part of our identity is that we’re aggressive out of possession, and certainly quick and fast in the attacking third,” he said.
Palace go into the match week 12th in the Premier League – though they find themselves just three points clear of the relegation zone.
The Eagles haven’t scored in their last four league matches – but they have proved tough to break down. Palace have drawn with Manchester United, Newcastle and Liverpool at home in 2023 and frustrated Manchester City for long periods before eventually falling to a 1-0 defeat at Selhurst Park last weekend.
Arsenal are looking to become the first side to win nine London derbies in the same league season. If they win and score at least three goals, it will be the first time that they will have done that in four successive league games since September 2004.
Arsenal go into the match with five straight league wins, one short of the longest streak in the division this season set by Newcastle from October to December.
Crystal Palace have only won two of their 22 league away fixtures against us: 2-1 at Highbury in October 1994 and 3-2 at Emirates Stadium in April 2019.
They are, however, unbeaten in each of their last four away matches against Arsenal.
