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Crystal Palace vs Arsenal: Betting preview with team news and line-ups
Arsenal will be desperate to close the gap on the top four with a win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon.
Mikel Arteta has enjoyed a solid start to life in the Emirates hot-seat and he secured his first win as manager with an impressive 2-0 victory over Manchester United on New Year’s Day last week.
He followed that up with a tough 1-0 win over Leeds United in the FA Cup on Monday night so the Spanish coach is looking to secure three consecutive victories for the first time this season.
The win over United kept alive our slim hopes of qualifying for the Champions League through the league but we still sit 10th in the table and nine points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea so we have to win tomorrow in order to close the gap.
Team news
Arsenal defender Calum Chambers has been ruled out for up to nine months with a cruciate knee ligament injury while Kieran Tierney is also still unavailable as he recovers from a should problem.
Hector Bellerin returned to training this week after overcoming a hamstring injury that’s kept him out for a month but he’s not expected to be in contention to start against Palace tomorrow.
Arteta will recall Bernd Leno, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Lucas Torreira and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after they were rested against Leeds.
Palace have a lengthy injury list to contend with as the likes of Jeffrey Schlupp, Joel Ward, Andros Townsend, Scott Dann and Patrick van Aanholt are all out while Luka Milivojevic is suspended.
However, Cenk Tosun should be in the squad after completing his loan move from Everton while Wilfried Zaha has been passed fit after recovering from a knock.
Line-ups
Palace – Guaita; Kelly, Tomkins, Cahill, Riedeweld; McCarthy, Kouyate, McArthur; Ayew, Benteke, Zaha
Arsenal – Leno; Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Luiz, Kolasinac; Torreira, Xhaka; Pepe, Ozil, Aubameyang; Lacazette
Betting odds
Arsenal are the 17/20 favourites to win the game with the bookmakers while Crystal Palace can be backed at 16/5 and the draw is available at 14/5. Those who do have a punt, make sure you use any free bets you have available as this is a tricky game to predict. Arsenal haven’t beaten Palace in the last three meetings but Arteta should be quietly confident of coming away with all three points.
The Spaniard has got Arsenal back playing decent football again and Palace have a crippling injury list so as long as we can contain Zaha, I think we’ll have too much quality for the hosts in the end. A 2-1 Arsenal win can be backed with the bookmakers at 7/1 and I think that’s a solid bet.
Crystal Palace 1-2 Arsenal